Sensors and Actuators A: Physical

Volume 284, 1 December 2018, Pages 276-285

Design optimization of a solenoid-based electromagnetic

soft actuator with permanent magnet core
Nafiseh Ebrahimi a , Paul Schimpf b , Amir Jafari a

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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sna.2018.10.026
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Abstract

This paper discusses design optimization of an electromagnetic soft actuator composed of two antagonistic solenoids
that share a permanent magnet core. First, calculation of the magnetic field and applied force of a solenoid with a
permanent magnet plunger is presented as the principal component of this electromagnetic actuator. Design
optimization of the coil is discussed considering the geometrical parameters of the coil, including its length, inner and
average diameters, number of turns and packing density while the power consumption is bounded. The impact of the
actuator size on the resultant force is presented and scaling limitations are discussed. Then, due to the soft nature of
the actuator's component, the impact of the cross-section, i.e. lateral deformation of the actuator on the magnetic field
at the center of section is investigated as well. The deformation might happen to the actuator due to the load in the
transverse direction, especially when the actuator is made of flexible materials.

Introduction

Electromagnetic actuators are gaining interests among researchers due to many advantages including short response
time, simple controllability, and an uncomplicated structure in comparison to the other types of the actuator [1], [2].

The design, optimization, and application of the solenoid as a vastly used electromagnetic actuator have been
considered by many researchers in recent years. A solenoid is composed of a coil that is an electrically conductive wire
warped around a magnetically permeable cylindrical core, i.e. plunger. When an electric current passes through the
coil, it generates a magnetic field that can act upon the plunger and create electromagnetic force. These type of linear
actuators have been serving numerous applications ranging from measurement systems to manufacturing. Banick and
Haller [3] designed a solenoid actuator equipped with a magnetic flux sensor capable to indicate the position of the
solenoid core. Lim et al. [4] proposed a method for proportional control of a solenoid actuator to convert its switching
mode into a proportional actuator. Mitsutake et al. [5] applied finite element method to predict the dynamic response
characteristics of a linear solenoid actuator. Kamal and Daehn [6] presented an analysis for the coil to design an
electromagnetic actuator for flat sheet forming purposes. Petit et al. [2] proposed a four-discrete-position
electromagnetic actuator, then presented its modeling and also experiments. Shin et al. [7] developed a biomimetic
actuator using four segmented solenoids mimicking earthworm movements. Fries et al. [8] fabricated an
electromagnetically driven elastic actuator proper for use as muscle-like structures, capable to generate stress and
strain when embedded in a solenoid coil. Song and Lee [1] developed a solenoid actuator having a ferromagnetic
plunger and applied the solenoid actuator in a multi-segmented miniaturized robot to generate both rectilinear and
turning movements. Said et al. [9] designed and fabricated a compact electromagnetically driven micro actuator using
polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and embedded magnetic particles. Rawlik et al. [10] presented a method to design a coil
generating an arbitrarily shaped magnetic field. Guo et al. [11] demonstrated the fabrication of a soft electromagnetic
actuator using liquid metal coil of Ga-In alloy for soft robotic applications. Nevertheless, there is still a deficiency in coil
design optimization in order to generate the optimum possible field and force out of the solenoid actuator.

Previously, we discussed the design, development, and control of an electromagnetic soft actuator for rehabilitation
application that comprises of two solenoid coils and a common magnetic core. This actuator is entirely made of soft
materials and is highly scalable [12]. The actuator body is made of silicone polymer PDMS with embedded helical
micro-channels. Eutectic Gallium-Indium (EGaIn) that is a conductive liquid in room temperature was injected into
micro-channels creating conductive coils. Magnetic particles were mixed with PDMS and placed into a strong magnetic
field during the curing process to force magnetic particles to stay aligned together once the external magnetic field was
removed. The result is a soft permeant magnet which was placed into the solenoids as the core. In this paper, we
propose an electromagnetic actuator presented in Fig. 1, consisting of two coils and a permanent magnet plunger in the
middle interacting with the coils to generate linear motion and force. The magnetic plunger was applied in order to
generate higher actuation forces compared to the ferromagnetic core [1]. Moreover, this magnetic plunger is shared
between two coils to benefit the entire volume of the magnet to raise the generated force compared to the generic
solenoid actuators.

We intended to find a proper configuration for the components as well as solenoid design characteristics in order to
exert maximum output force out of the actuator. To achieve this goal, we implemented our theoretical analysis using
the Biot–Savart law [13] to calculate the magnetic field of the solenoid on the axis. Then, the applied force of the
solenoid upon the permanent magnet plunger and the total applied force of the electromagnetic actuator were derived
utilizing charge model [14], [15]. Then, the geometrical design of the solenoid and plunger was considered in next steps
applying the analytical results for the magnetic field and force. The influence of cylindrical cross-section deformation
on the magnetic field at the center of the solenoid was investigated as well.

Section snippets

Solenoid magnetic field and force calculation

Our proposed actuator is composed of two electromagnetically inductive solenoids combined with permanent magnet
plungers. The force generated by the solenoid depends on several factors including number of turns, coil's length and
diameter, applied current, permanent magnet's length, diameter, and material.

To design the electromagnetic actuator, a theoretical analysis was conducted on the electromagnetic force produced by
two solenoids encompassing a common permanent magnetic core. For this…

Solenoid geometry design optimization

In this section, determination of optimal values for coil geometry is discussed in order to obtain maximum magnetic
field strength at the center of coil bounding the consumed electrical power. We restrict the solenoid's wire length (lw)
affecting the resistance also flowing current (0.33 A) through the conductor to ensure a certain amount of power
consumption. The geometrical properties of a coil include the solenoid length, l, the inner and outer diameter (di, do
respectively) and the number of …

Manufacturing aspects and limitations

In this section, the restrictions of scaling down the size of the actuator are discussed. In the previous section, we just
selected a constant wire length and diameter to bound the power consumption and optimize the geometry of the coil
to generate higher forces. Regarding such constraints, we found some relatively small dimensions for the solenoid
which optimize the generated force. It was argued that enlarging those dimensions causes less force to cross-section or
force to volume ratios.…

The influence of solenoid section deformation on the magnetic field and force

The actuator might undergo some squeezing and loses its round shape under the transverse loads. In this section, we
are going to study the compressive effect on the resultant magnetic field. Under radial load, circular cross-section turns
into the ellipse and then by increasing the load eccentricity of the elliptical cross-section will increase. In the following
we consider the resulting magnetic field of a planar elliptical current carrying conductor at the center of the geometry
and then…

Discussion and conclusion

This article discusses design optimization of a cylindrical solenoid with a permanent magnet core as the main
component of the electromagnetic actuator. The magnetic field and resultant force of the solenoid are formulized using
Biot–Savart law and the charge model respectively. Eqs. (5) and (14) denote the geometrical and physical parameters
contributing in the magnetic field and force respectively. The impact of cylindrical coil inner diameter (di) on the
magnetic field and force is examined…

Acknowledgment
This work is supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1850898.…

Nafiseh Ebrahimi is a Ph.D. graduate student of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Texas
at San Antonio. She received her bachelor in Mechanical Engineering-Solid Mechanics from Isfahan University of
Technology and her Master of Science in Mechatronics from Iran University of Science and Technology both in Iran. She
spent four years in SBR, an international engineering consultants company in Iran and then moved to the US for her
Ph.D. study. She is a graduate…

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Nafiseh Ebrahimi is a Ph.D. graduate student of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Texas at San
Antonio. She received her bachelor in Mechanical Engineering-Solid Mechanics from Isfahan University of Technology and her
Master of Science in Mechatronics from Iran University of Science and Technology both in Iran. She spent four years in SBR, an
international engineering consultants company in Iran and then moved to the US for her Ph.D. study. She is a graduate researcher
in ARM lab in UTSA and her area of research is mechatronics and soft robotics.

Dr. Paul H. Schimpf received the B.S.E.E. (summa cum laude), M.S.E.E., and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Washington in
1982, 1987, and 1995, and began his academic career in 1998. He is currently a Professor of Computer Engineering at Eastern
Washington University, where he teaches Scientific Programming, Embedded Real-Time Controls, Computer Architecture, and
Programming for Android and JavaFX. His primary research is in biomedical applications of numerical methods for forward and
inverse solutions to partial differential equations. He was previously employed for 15 years as a Senior Principal Engineer in the
electronics industry, developing parallel embedded signal and image processing systems.

Dr. Amir Jafari is an assistant professor of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Texas at San Antonio. He
received Bachelor and Master degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Isfahan University of Technology in Iran, and the Ph.D.
degree in Robotics from Italian Institute of Technology (IIT). He spent two years as a post-doctoral researcher at IIT and ETH in
Zurich. He then moved to Singapore as a scientist for Agency of Science, Research and Technology A*STAR. His research interests
are in the area of design and developing compliant/variable compliance mechanisms/actuators and soft robotics.

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