Towards the electrical motor 4.0

A technological revolution is currently underway in the field of micromotors. This is driven by the substitution of the traditional winding made of copper wire by a winding printed on a flexible PCB. This technology unleashes its full potential in slotless motors, that is to say in which the windings are directly placed in the physical air gap of the machine, and not in slots made in the magnetic circuit of the stator. In the case of BLDC motors, it has been shown experimentally that, thanks to the new possibilities that it offers in terms of winding shapes and topologies, this technology makes it possible to increase the power density of the motors in which it is used, up to 70%. This allows for more compact motors, in applications such as robotics, surgical tools or drones. In this context, the objective of this work is to study the possibility of integrating, on the same support as the coils, electronic components intended to ensure (i) the measurement of quantities such as the temperature of the coils or the amplitude and frequency of vibration; and (ii) wireless transmission of this information to electronics located near the engine. The work will be done in collaboration with Mirmex Motor SA (www.mirmexmotor.com) a spin-off of UCLouvain.