• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.310-316
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• 2016

We propose a novel contact-free transportation system in which an axial electrodynamic wheel is applied as an actuator. When the electrodynamic wheel is partially overlapped by a fixed conductive plate and rotates over it, three-axis magnetic forces are generated on the wheel. Among these forces, those in the gravitational direction and the lateral direction are inherently stable. Therefore, only the force in the longitudinal direction needs to be controlled to guarantee spatial stability of the wheel. The electrodynamic wheel consists of permanent magnets that are repeated and polarized periodically along the circumferential direction. The basic geometric configuration and the pole number of the wheel influence the stability margin of a transportation system, which would include several wheels. The overlap region between the wheel and the conductive plate is a dominant factor affecting the stiffness in the lateral direction. Therefore, sensitivity analysis for the major parameters of the wheel mechanism was performed using a finite element tool. The system was manufactured based on the obtained design values, and the passive stability of a moving object with the wheels was verified experimentally.