SBIR-STTR Award

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to improve the market by developing a software solution to intrinsic electric motors’ hardware problems. Inexpensive Brushless Direct Current (BLDC) motors have electromagnetic flaws that limit their adoption in industrial and service robotic applications. These industries require precise positioning, advanced trajectory control, and smooth operation which require high-end motors that minimize electromagnetic flaws using high-quality materials and complex hardware designs. Unfortunately, this increases production costs, making them prohibitively expensive for many applications. The proposed solution will make electric motors extremely precise, efficient, and easily controllable while keeping manufacturing costs low. The combination of low-cost hardware and performance-enhancing calibration software will bring high-end motor performance to a wide range of industries, which may be able to improve the performance of their devices while saving up to 90% on motor costs. The first target will be the Robotic Market, expected to reach $158 billion by 2025, in particular the drone and industrial segments, where many manufacturers must balance cost and performance. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project seeks to prove the technical feasibility of a new calibration approach to solving electromagnetic and hardware flaws in brushless direct current (BLDC) motors. The technology is based on 1) embedded position sensors in the motor to collect the position-dependent parameters necessary to generate maps of motors’ electromagnetic flaws; 2) proprietary algorithms that map cogging and mutual torque to vary the input voltage/current, eliminating the negative impact of the respective torque ripple; 3) encoder error correction to eliminate the discrepancies between the true and the measured angular positions of the motor magnets, improving motor calibration and position control. The research activities in this project may result in the generation and validation of a minimum viable calibration process that integrates all the described components. The ability of the calibration software to minimize the impact of the inherent electromagnetic flaws in low-end BLDC motors and enhance performance will be assessed together with the feasibility of generating an innovative hardware motor configuration specifically designed to reduce manufacturing costs. The successful outcome of this project will demonstrate the commercial feasibility of the calibration software. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

The broader/commercial impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will improve the electric motor market and provide the competitive advantage to the US in mobile robotic applications. Electromagnetic flaws in brushless direct current (DC) motors and sensorless controllers have severely limited the performance of mobile robots and stymied the potential growth of the industry. High performance servo motors and motor controllers do exist, but they are too heavy, large, and expensive to be incorporated into many robotic applications, particularly mobile robots. By combining a unique hardware design with a software solution to eliminate intrinsic hardware problems, this project will result in an ultra-compact, high performance, and low-cost electric servomotor. The drone industry is expected to be the first to benefit from the proposed solution, as many commercial and defense drone companies are in need of industrial-grade propulsion components. A superior propulsion solution will accelerate the mass adoption of drones and other mobile robots.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project seeks to create the next generation of drone propulsion technology: an innovative drone motor and controller. Currently, drone companies are forced to use hobby-grade, sensorless motors and controllers, which suffer from poor performance and reliability issues. The Phase II project is rooted in the results obtained during Phase I activities, which led to the development of a calibration suite and a novel motor design. Phase I laid the foundation for creating an ultra-compact, high-performance motor and controller solution that is ideal for drone propulsion. The novel hardware design minimizes mass and production costs and, when combined with the calibration suite and angle compensation algorithm, the solution offers a substantial enhancement in propulsion efficiency, controllability, and reliability. The team will test its product with industrial drone manufacturers to verify its ability to increase vehicle flight time, enhance maneuverability, and minimize critical vehicle failures.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.