A Novel Three-Dimensional Electromagnetic Digital Actuator With 12 Discrete Positions

This paper presents a three-dimensional (3-D) digital electromagnetic actuator able to reach 12 discrete positions distributed in a 3-D space. The mobile part of this actuator includes a cuboid permanent magnet fixed in a hexagonal casing. The mobile part is able to reach six discrete positions in xy-plane at level z
₁
and the remaining six discrete positions at level z
₂
. The switching of the mobile part in xy-plane is achieved by injecting currents in the fixed planar wires situated beneath it. The actuator design integrates a coil to switch the mobile part between two predefined levels in z-axis. To maintain the mobile part at a discrete position without energy consumption, six fixed cylindrical permanent magnets are placed around the mobile part. To design the actuator, a model has been developed and is presented in this paper. Rapid prototyping approach (laser cutting) is used to fabricate the actuator prototype. The maximum and the minimum strokes in xy-plane are between 0.5 to 1.0 mm while along z-axis the actuator is able to perform a stroke of 1.0 mm. Experiments have been conducted on the prototype to validate the proposed design and the 3-D actuation. The performance characterization has been conduced and the experimental and the simulated results have been compared.