Alternative PM Motor Configurations Comparison for UAV Applications

The interest of industry domain and research community for the performance estimation of 3D-printed electrical machines grows rapidly, focusing on challenges that are related to the design and construction of high-speed motors with high efficiency and power density. Since there are plenty high-frequency applications, such as the unmanned aerial vehicles, that impose high-performance requirements and strict mass constraints, the additive manufacturing technique could provide customizable, scalable and cost-efficient motor design solutions. By avoiding off-the-shelf solutions, the suitability of a particular 3D-printed magnetic iron material (which is commercially available) is investigated here for the design and manufacturing of the stator core of a low-power and high-speed permanent magnet synchronous motor. The motor could be used to drive the UAV's auxiliary systems. A prototype is constructed and the motor's electromagnetic behavior is estimated through finite element analysis and experiments. The obtained results validate both the machine's performance and the effectiveness of the proposed material's modeling procedure.