Flexible Three Phase Brushless DC Motor Driver for medium radiation level

Abstract

Robotic systems can provide an excellent on-site or remote support for astronauts during routine tasks and perform even autonomous tasks during exploration missions. New systems like the robotic arm CAESAR, the fourfingered robotic hand Spacehand, small exploration systems like MASCOT or several Pan-Tilt-Units on rovers emphasize the need for a highly integrated, high performance motor controller with a small foot print. This paper presents a three Phase brushless DC Motor Driver for medium radiation levels which was developed at the Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics of the German Aerospace Center (DLR). This module is able to withstand 120W of continuous motor power, offers interfaces for analogue and digital motor position measurements as well as a standard high level communication interface on a single board with an extremely small footprint. Due to its small footprint, multiple boards could be used within a robotic system to drive multiple motors synchronously. Simulations have been performed to show the increase in performance that can be achieved through the simultaneous motion of multiple actuators. A potential application is MASCOT-2 (Mobile Asteroid Surface sCOuT), which is analyzed as a case study to present the benefits of a multi-actuator system for relocation and attitude control in low-gravity environments.