A Novel Electromagnetic Active Contact Flange Design for Robotic Polishing

Abstract

This study proposes a new electromagnetically driven active contact flange design in which a magnetic field is used as the source of the contact force and the characteristics of the mechanical structure are leveraged to overcome the problem of insufficient rotating motor flexibility. The proposed flange was verified experimentally, and the results revealed that it exhibited a faster transient response time, more stable contact force control, and less noise disturbance when compared with the conventional design. Furthermore, an optimization method was developed to compensate for the nonlinearity of the magnetic field under varying flange positions. The proposed active contact flange is suitable for delicate polishing tasks.