Brushless motors are growing in popularity for Robotics applications. In particular, due to their high power density, these motors can be used with smaller gear ratios to deliver the torque and speed requirements. For example, the key to MIT mini cheetah's success was BLDC adaptation within the Proprioceptive Actuator concept [1]. You haven't seen its performance, check it here.

Interesting part of using BLDC actuators is the versatility of its electronics, since it requires a logic unit (usually a microcontroller) for its control. It requires 3 phases to be coordinated in a specific manner to supply needed power. This concept is not new, one of the most popular mainstream approaches is FOC control for BLDC. Underlying system design is quite important, which in this case consists of the custom PCB controller and the motor itself. At the end of the internship, one will gain knowledge and understanding of the power PCB design and improve current design to better handle more extreme working conditions: high power loads, high speeds, etc.

Having in mind the challenge, the person should be familiar with the PCB design. Willing to do the signal hacking, debugging, working with the oscilloscope, understand logic of different components, etc. Brushless motors are commonly used in the hobby project, thus experiance can provide great foundation for "build your own things" mindset. At least we do expect the hands-on and genuine curiosity in the engineering & design aspects from the students joining us.

What you will gain:

• Hands-on experience and in-depth understanding of Brushless Motors, and their control
• Best practices for PCB Design and Project Collaboration
• Experience building, prototyping
• Hacking electronic signals (via oscilloscope, etc.)
• Insights in our System Development and access to our community

Requirements from candidates:

• Knowledge of Electronics/Power electronics
• Experience with PCB design and soldering
• Knowledge of one of the popular PCB Design software
• Basic Matlab skills
• Plus are:
  • Understanding how Motors work
  • Familiarity with GIT
  • Embedded system programming, knowledge of C language
  • Working skills in Ubuntu operating system

To apply, you can send your CV, and short motivation to:

Supervisor

M.Sc. Vasilije Rakcevic

vasilije.rakcevic@tum.de

[1] P. M. Wensing, A. Wang, S. Seok, D. Otten, J. Lang and S. Kim, "Proprioceptive Actuator Design in the MIT Cheetah: Impact Mitigation and High-Bandwidth Physical Interaction for Dynamic Legged Robots," in IEEE Transactions on Robotics, vol. 33, no. 3, pp. 509-522, June 2017, doi: 10.1109/TRO.2016.2640183.