Optimal design of an electro-mechanical actuator for aerospace application

In this paper, the optimization process of a rotational Electro-Mechanical Actuator (EMA) for an Aerospace application is presented. Specifically, the EMA is designed for the extension and retraction of a landing gear. The main aim of the optimization process is the minimization of the overall weight of the system whilst maintaining the system dependability. Since the EMA is composed of different, interacting subcomponents, it is necessary to adopt a system level, design approach. The work reported here will show how the motor weight is influenced by the gear ratio and the DC-Link voltage in such an EMA. The result of this analysis is the optimum configuration of the drive-train gear ratio, which minimizes the EMA's weight. This paper pays particular attention to the motor design approach.