Development of a sensor dedicated to the control of a two-degree-of-freedom permanent magnet actuator

For several years now, robots are more and more used for industrial applications and manufacturers are therefore always looking for faster, lighter and more accurate robots. In this context of improvement, L. Body and M. Van Essche worked 2 years ago on the realization of a two-degree-of-freedom permanent magnet actuator. Even if they came up with an impressive prototype, to be able to control such an actuator, an adapted position sensor is needed. The goal of this master’s thesis will therefore be the development of a sensor dedicated to the control of this actuator and more generally to the control of two-degree-of-freedom actuators capable of both radial and axial displacements. This paper will therefore describe the development of a capacitive sensor prototype from its initial concept to its experimental testing. The behaviour of this sensor will be studied through the use of an analytical model and validated using a finite element method approach.