Compact Wireless Motor Drive Using Orthogonal Bipolar Coils for Coordinated Operation of Robotic Arms

This paper proposes and implements a compact wireless motor drive using orthogonal bipolar coils for the coordinated operation of robotic arms. The key is to orthogonally integrate two bipolar coils to form a compact magnetic coupler (CMC), while each CMC serves as the transmitting coil and receiving coil, respectively. Instead of adopting the one-to-many coil structure and operating at multiple frequencies, in this paper, two bipolar coils in the CMC are mutually decoupled and separately energized to drive two permanent magnet DC (PMDC) motors. As such, the wireless and selective motor drives can be achieved via the shared power-transfer channel at a single resonant frequency. All controls and switches are concentrated at the transmitter so that the receiver is entirely sealable. Accordingly, the coordinated operation of robotic arms can be realized with the high integration and no electrocution. Theoretical calculations and experimental results are given to validate the flexibility and feasibility of the proposed system.