| Abstract |
The manufacturing of advanced electronic products and components requires precise
two-dimensional (2D) planar motion for surface positioning, parts assembly and component insertion.
To achieve precise 2D planar motion, most of these high-performance manufacturing machines use
cascaded X-Y tables with rotary motors and rotary-to-linear mechanical couplings. Though this is
the most widely-used method, it has disadvantages of complex mechanical structure, frequent
mechanical adjustments, high manufacturing/maintenance cost, and low reliability. This paper
proposes a novel 2D Variable Reluctance (VR) planar actuator to replace conventional X-Y tables.
Unlike existing planar motors based on permanent magnet synchronous drive, inductive drive, and
open loop stepper drive, this paper proposes a 2D actuator based on variable reluctance driving
method. The proposed actuator has a very simple and robust structure. It has very few mechanical
parts, and it can be manufactured easily. A prototype actuator was fabricated. Preliminary
characteristics measurements confirmed that the proposed structure is very suitable for
high-performance planar drive in industrial automation. |
