OPTIMAL-DESIGN OF ELECTROMECHANICAL ACTUATORS FOR ACTIVE LOADS

The proliferation of electromechanical actuation promises reduced main tenance requirements and cost, improved efficiency and reliability, an d more environmentally friendly operation. Within this paper, the issu e of optimal component selection for actuator design is addressed, Opt imality is defined as an engineering trade-off concerning power transf er to the load, efficiency, and torque demand. An equivalent circuit f or the actuator/active load system is developed and represented in the phasor domain. Sinusoidal steady-state techniques are employed for sy stem analysis and definition of the conditions for optimality in appli cations where load force and velocity profiles are known, The actuator application of thrust vector control on the Space Shuttle Main Engine is specifically addressed.