NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter has successfully completed its pioneering flight on Mars. This is the first time in the history of powered, unmanned spaceflight that a device has flown in a controlled manner on another planet. A short flight for “Ingenuity” but a big success for unmanned space flight. NASA’s Mars helicopter flew over the surface […]
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Electric motors from maxon help Emirates Team New Zealand win 36th America’s Cup
Emirates Team New Zealand has won the historical 36th America’s Cup that endured extra challenges — including COVID-19, race cancellations, and delays that caused interruptions and last-minute tactical changes. The Kiwis have retained the oldest trophy in international sporting history. Creating a boat from simulation and the use of AI technology were big risks for Emirates […]
Miniature gearing and planetary gearing in haptic feedback
Planetary gearsets offer applications advantages over other gearsets, including multiple kinematic combinations, power density, big reductions from compact setups, and pure torsional reactions. Planetary gearboxes also boost overall design efficiency. Losses never exceed 3% per stage, so the sets transmit most energy for productive motion output. In applications driven by servo systems, gearboxes also reduce […]
Trends in gears and gearmotors for eMobility • washdown • customization
The fundamental mode of operation for gearing and its transmission of mechanical power remains unchanged — as has that for the electric motors with which they pair. But innovative variations have become increasingly common and include more custom gearing, compact designs, and better gearboxes and servogear sets (including helical gearing) for efficiency. Gearing and gearmotors […]
Trends 2020: Feature-rich controllers tackle new applications
Controllers are central to motion control systems. They’re often referred to as the brains of the system, evaluating feedback from the environment and responding in accordance with a control program to complete an assigned task. Today’s controllers have more built-in functions, are more powerful, and are being used in diverse applications. We asked some of […]
Robotics Summit in June: Attend for technology insights (and hero Tyler Shultz)
In a few short weeks, the 2019 Robotics Summit (focused on the design, development, manufacture, and delivery of commercial robotics) will take place in Boston. It will be co-located with the DeviceTalks event at the Seaport World Trade Center. Side note — and yes, we at Design World are quite excited about this one: DeviceTalks […]
New 60-mm OD frameless brushless servo motor kits from Maxon
The new EC 60 Flat Frameless Brushless Servo Motor Kit from Maxon consists of only a rotor and stator – with no bearings or motor shaft. With an outer diameter of only 60 mm, these pancake servo motor kits are extremely compact. Available in size ranges from 70 W to 100 W, these EC (electronically […]
What are integrated motor-drive combinations?
Updated November 2019 ⚙️ Assembling a traditional servo system necessitates the wiring together of a separate motor, encoder, amplifier, and controller. In contrast, integrated motors are sometimes classified as plug-and-play motion components — as they can usually be setup out of the box with less engineering effort. The basic idea is easy to understand: Integrated […]
