Description: Bear Engineering proposes to advance the development of an innovative high torque, low speed, direct drive motor in order to meet NASA's requirements for such devices. Fundamentally, all electric motors basically work on the same electromagnetic principle: a tangential electromagnetic force attracts the rotor to the stator. Just when the rotor field is closest to the stator field and the electromagnetic attraction is greatest, the power is interrupted and another set of magnetic poles repeats the cycle. Furthermore, the two magnetically attracted elements never make contact, which would otherwise offer the highest force of attraction. The proposed novel motor design, successfully demonstrated at TRL 4 in Phase 1, operates and behaves entirely differently from all other known electric motor designs and is capable of producing incredibly high, direct drive torques at low rotational speeds. Its operational performance is similar to that of a stepper motor with a 1000:1 gearhead attached, but the similarity ends there. The motor is configured such that its length to diameter aspect ratio is opposite that of traditional motors as it has a relatively large diameter and short axial length; this offers all new packaging opportunities. The design also allows for a single, large diameter bearing pair to be used for the motor's output shaft which renders it stiff enough to directly mount the driven elements. The need for additional bearing supports and bearing mounting structure is thus eliminated. By the end of Phase 2, the system will be designed, developed and tested at TRL 6 with Mars environmental conditions.

Benefits: The proposed motor will have a number of commercial applications in areas where slow speed and high output torques or forces are needed. For example, the motor could be used in applications where pneumatic or hydraulic actuators are required for high output forces. More specifically, commercial applications for the motor are anticipated in: winches, lifts, positioning equipment, structural deployment, presses and door openers/ lifts.

For NASA, the proposed innovation is an enabling technology for planetary exploratory missions and a number of possible applications are envisioned for the motor, some examples are: Robotic arm joints, Rover wheel steering and drive actuators, Core drill sample Break-off actuators, Antenna Mast and Solar array deployment and Launch locks.