An Optimal Design of a Two-layered Magnetic Brake

Magnetic brakes are the popular means to provide efficient damping to seize the motion of manipulators to avoid any damages. Commercially available magnetic brakes being used in an on-off fashion consume most of their power to overcome the restoring force of plate springs during engaging the brake. Thus, the range of the available braking force is very limited. This paper proposes a new design of a two-layered magnetic brake (TLMB) system that can provide large range of available braking force. The mathematical model of the TLMB has been derived. The design of TLMB is then optimized for maximizing the braking forces at the expense of minimum input power dissipation while limiting the core volume to certain bounds.