IEEE ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION LETTERS, VOL. 7, NO.

2, APRIL 2022 3357

Mechanical Variable Magnetic Gear Transmission:

Concept and Preliminary Research
Edgar Lee, Hangyeol Song , Jinwook Jeong, and Seokhwan Jeong , Member, IEEE

Abstract—This letter presents a novel concept of a non-contact has been applied to robotic systems [5], [6] to take advantage
variable transmission mechanism using a coaxial magnetic gear. of their inherent compliance and back-drivability. Although the
Conventional variable transmissions have provided a function of electric motors are a promising solution so far, their inherent
a robust transmission shifting; However, their inherent contact- narrow operation range (i.e., speed and torque limits) is one of
transmission manners such as traditional dog clutch, pulley, and the critical drawbacks that is majorly arisen from a thermal limit
load sensitive component-based mechanisms have increased their
complexity, size, and weight, which restricts miniaturization and
of windings and a maximum permissible speed.
continuous operations of the system. The proposed coaxial mag- To expand the operational range of the actuator, instead of
netic gear-based variable transmission provides a non-contact using a higher spec one, one of the alternative methods is us-
transmission ratio shifting mechanism by mechanically changing ing an input-output transmission ratio shifting mechanism (i.e.,
magnetic harmonics between coaxial components of the magnetic called multi-speed transmission in general). The conventional
gear. Therefore, it may provide various features derived from the multi-step transmission provides a much wider operational area
non-contact power transmission such as uninterrupted and seam- overcoming the limit of the actuator by changing the transmis-
less transmission ratio shifting, backdrivable and transparent dy- sion ratio between an input and an output, which has made
namics, series elastic actuation-like properties, and inherent over- automobile engines and electric motors feasible in a wide speed-
load protection with an expanded operable output range. A design, torque range, keeping the original size of the actuators. Various
mathematical model, and simulation using a finite element method
magnetics of the proposed mechanism are presented. Lastly, the
types of multi-step transmission have been developed, such as
transmission ratio shifting is demonstrated with a prototype to a traditional dog clutch-based manual/automatic transmission
verify the feasibility of the proposed mechanism. and continuously variable transmission. While those transmis-
sion mechanisms have significantly contributed to advance in
Index Terms—Actuation and joint mechanisms, compliant joints automobile technology, they require bulky and complicated mul-
and mechanisms, mechanism design. tiple mechanical components, which make its miniaturization
very challenging. Therefore, its application has been limited to
I. INTRODUCTION large-sized mechanical systems so far.
To implement a compact-sized variable ratio transmission,
N ROBOTIC systems, actuators are essential parts to imple-
I ment real physical movements and interact with an external
environment by tracking reference commands. Depending on
various mechanisms have been proposed as passive manners
(e.g., variable radius pulley [7], [8], load sensitive gearing [9],
adaptive roller [10], and dual-mode twisted string actuation
the target systems and the control performance requirements, (TSA) [11]) and active manners (e.g., 2-speed TSA [12], [13]
different types of actuators are required to satisfy the con- and infinitely variable transmission with V-belt [14]). While
trol criteria. While hydraulic and pneumatic actuators have a the passive mechanism can provide a wide speed-torque output
relatively high-power density, and shape memory alloy-based with a compact size, it restricts the control degrees-of-freedoms
actuators provide a quite compact form factor [1]; electric motors (DoFs) of the system. Although the active mechanism can
such as DC motors, brushless DC (BLDC) motors, and stepper actively respond to various payload and speed requirements,
motors still have shown the best compromise solution for small- it necessarily has to have a bulky and complex structure or
to-medium-sized robot systems due to their compactness and shows a non-continuous operating behavior during the trans-
easy controllability. Recently, direct-drive motors have gained mission ratio change procedure [12], [13]. We believe that
attention as an actuator in legged robot and exoskeleton stud- these issues are originated from the conventional mechanical
ies [2]–[4], and an electric motor with a serial elastic component contact-transmission manner of the active mechanism; For ex-
ample, pulleys and dog clutches, which are inevitable mechan-
Manuscript received September 9, 2021; accepted January 5, 2022. Date of ical contact-components to implement the transmission ratio
publication January 27, 2022; date of current version February 8, 2022. This shifting. Therefore, a transmission mechanism providing both
letter was recommended for publication by Associate Editor M. R. Kermani the active and simple mechanism may implement an ideal oper-
and Editor C. Gosselin upon evaluation of the reviewers’ comments. This work ation of robotic actuation.
was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) Grant
funded by the Korea Government (MSIT) under Grant 2021R1F1A1046838.
In this letter, we propose a magnetically driven variable
(Corresponding author: Seokhwan Jeong.) transmission mechanism providing a non-contact transmission
The authors are with the Department of Mechanical Engineering, manner. The non-contact transmission manner allows a unin-
Sogang University, Seoul 04107, South Korea (e-mail: [email protected]. terrupted transmission shifting procedure without any interrup-
kr; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]). tions and noncontinuous steps such as mechanical clutching,
This letter has supplementary downloadable material available at
https://doi.org/10.1109/LRA.2022.3146506, provided by the authors. transparent power transmission, inherent overload protection,
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/LRA.2022.3146506 back-drivability, and compact footprint with relatively simple

2377-3766 © 2022 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See https://www.ieee.org/publications/rights/index.html for more information.

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 3358 IEEE ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION LETTERS, VOL. 7, NO. 2, APRIL 2022

ferromagnetic metal pieces. This arrangement makes a specific

number of harmonics in the inner and outer air gap resulting in
a magnetic coupling between each rotor and ring with a corre-
sponding gear ratio. Note that this feature remarkably resembles
that of a planetary gear train. The number of pole pairs for the
inner/outer magnets (pi : # of inner pole-pairs, po : # of outer
pole-pairs) and the pole-pieces, Q, to implement this coupling
and the corresponding transmission ratio, G, is determined as
follows [18]:

Q = pi + p o (1)
⎧
⎨wo /wN = Q/po Case1 : inner rotor fixed
G wi /wN = Q/pi Case2 : outer rotor fixed
⎩
wi /wo = −po /pi Case3 : pole − piece ring fixed
(2)
Fig. 1. Geometry of coaxial magnetic gear (a) conventional design and where wi , wN , and wo are the rotational velocity of the inner
(b) proposed design.
rotor, the pole-piece ring, and the outer rotor, respectively.
Equation (2) shows the transmission ratio when one of the rotary
components is fixed while the others are worked as an input and
and fewer mechanical components than that of conventional an output.
manners. We believe that the proposed mechanism extends the While the coaxial magnetic gear essentially provides a fixed
speed-torque operational range of actuator with the features input-output transmission ratio, researchers have found that
above, and it would be advantageous for small-to-medium-sized there is a possibility of implementing a compact variable trans-
robotic systems such as legged robots, manipulators, and ex- mission mechanism using its non-contact feature. By using
oskeletons requiring continuous actuation and movement. the planetary gear train-like structure, a magnetic continuously
This letter is organized as follows. Section II describes the variable transmission [21]–[23] has been proposed by externally
basic working principle and mechanism of the proposed mag- rotating the fixed frame (i.e., the rotor or the ring). On the other
netic gear transmission. Section III provides a mathematical hand, (2) implies that the transmission ratio can be varied by
model of the proposed mechanism and simulation results using chaining Q, pi , or po while it satisfies (1). Several studies have
finite element method magnetics (FEMM) [15] for the proposed implemented this idea by replacing the permanent magnets with
design. Several feasibility experiments will be carried out in Sec- electrified solenoids alternating the magnetic pole direction [24]
tion IV. Discussion and conclusion for the proposed mechanism or using and magnetizing winding to magnetize/demagnetize
are provided in Sections V and VI. permanent magnet (PM) dynamically [25]. Although the pre-
vious researches implemented the variable transmission in the
II. MECHANISM AND DESIGN actuator point of view, they continuously need to consume extra
A concept of the magnetically driven transmission, so-called energy to rotate the fixed frame or keep the magnetization of the
magnetic gear, has been proposed in 1980s-1990s [16], [17] solenoid in the entire system point of view. We believe that these
as an alternative of the contact-transmission mechanism such cannot be defined as a purely variable transmission mechanism.
as gears. The magnetic gear transmits torque in a non-contact A study proposed a transmission method by rotating the outer
way so it can avoid the inherent drawbacks of the contact- magnets and changing the number of ferromagnetic pieces by
transmission such as noise, vibration, heat, and abrasion caused linearly moving the pole-piece ring; it requires a large volume
by the friction. Since Atallah [18] has proposed a coaxial mag- to implement the mechanism [26]
netic gear design to enhance the torque density of the magnetic To implement the pure input-output variable transmission
gear in the early 2000 s, this mechanism has been getting more without the continuous-extra energy consumption in a compact
attention, and several research groups have studied mathematical space, in this letter, we propose a mechanically variable magnetic
models, optimal designs, and torque ripple/density properties transmission as shown in Fig. 1(b). The overall frame of the
of the coaxial magnetic gear; and it has been reported that a proposed mechanism was designed based on the existing coaxial
transmitted torque density of approximately 100kNm/m3 can be magnetic gear, but it employs multiple diametrically magnetised
obtained [19], [20], which is comparable with that of mechanical circular magnets instead of the conventional arc-shaped magnets
gear. [see Fig. 1(a)]. The proposed transmission can mechanically
This section introduce a basic working principle of the coaxial rotate each magnet through gear trains. Depending on the rota-
magnetic gear and presents a concept of the proposed mechan- tional angle of each magnet, each rotor can make Dn -1 number
ically variable magnetic transmission mechanism based on the of pole-pair configurations (see Fig. 2) where Dn (n = i: inner,
coaxial magnetic gear. o: outer) is the number of the divisor of the number of the
inner magnet, Ni , and the outer magnets, No . If the pole-pair
configuration of each rotor (i.e., pi and po ) satisfy (1), it has the
A. Working Principle transmission ratio determined by (2).
As shown in Fig. 1(a), the coaxial magnetic gear consists of Since the proposed transmission mechanism allows uninter-
an outer rotor, a middle ring (i.e., pole-piece ring), and an inner rupted and instantaneous (<∼0.8 sec) transmission shifting by
rotor. Each rotor and ring has a specific number of magnets and simply rotating several magnets in non-contact manner without

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 LEE et al.: MECHANICAL VARIABLE MAGNETIC GEAR TRANSMISSION: CONCEPT AND PRELIMINARY RESEARCH 3359

TABLE I
TRANSMISSION RATIOS DEPENDING ON POLE-PAIR ARRANGEMENTS

Fig. 2. The Number of pole pairs can be configured with Ni .

Fig. 4. Arrangement of pole pairs composed by rotation of magnets.

(a) pi :po = 2:6. (b) pi :po = 5:3.

TABLE II
KEY PARAMETERS OF MAGNETIC GEAR

Fig. 3. Schematics of the mechanical variable magnetic gear transmission.

(a) Transmission module. (b) Structure of mechanical engagement. (c) Cross-
section view. (c) Exploded view.

extra energy consumption for the operation, it can avoid inter-

rupting motion arisen from mechanical clutching and simplify
the structure. Detailed mechanism design is presented in Sec-
tion II-B.

B. Mechanism and Design

This section presents the detailed design and mechanism of the inner and No.min for the outer) is determined as two times
the proposed mechanical variable gear transmission module. of each number of pole-pair. Since the proposed mechanism
Fig. 3 represents schematics of the developed transmission need to provide two transmission ratios, each Ni and No has
module. As the working principle described in Section II-A, to be the least common multiple of Ni.min and No.min in each
it consists of outer and inner rotors and a pole-piece ring. The transmission ratio cases (i.e., C.n in Table I, n = 1,2,.,n)
multiple circular diameter magnetization magnets (Neodymium, Considering design constraints, we placed 20 and 24 number
∅0.25”×0.25”, Grade: N40) are embedded in each rotor, but of magnets in the inner and outer rotors, respectively (i.e., Ni
some of the magnets have a geared cap engaged with an internal = 20 and No = 24 when Q = 8, see Fig. 4), which makes
spur gear ring (for outer rotor magnets) or a normal spur gear (for two sets of pole-pair (i.e., (pi , po )=(5,3), (2,6)) producing two
inner rotor magnets), respectively [see Fig. 3(b)]. Two clutch transmission ratios, 1.6 and 4. It should be noted that the pro-
motors engage with each spur gear so that each clutch motor posed arrangement was designed to only satisfy the minimum
can control the angle of the magnets, resulting in two possible requirements; therefore, various sets of magnet arrangement
sets of magnetic pair for each rotor. Table I shows possible and design can be considered. Key parameters of the proposed
transmission ratios (G, Case2 in (2)) that can be determined design is summarized in Table II. The modeling, simulation,
from the different pole-pair configurations when Q is fixed. prototyping, and experiments of the proposed mechanism are
Then, the minimum number of the required magnets (Ni.min for presented in the rest of the sections.

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 3360 IEEE ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION LETTERS, VOL. 7, NO. 2, APRIL 2022

Fig. 5. Approximation of circular-shaped magnet to equivalent arc-shaped

magnet. (a) Circular-shaped magnet. (b) Equivalent arc-shaped magnet.

III. ANALYSIS AND SIMULATION

To verify the effect of the transmission shifting mechanism,
the electromagnetic interpretation of the proposed design need
to be represented with an analytical model. In the previous Fig. 6. Flux density distribution of proposed magnetic gear using FEMM.
studies [27], the distribution of the magnetic field and the electro- circular shape magnet (a) pi :po = 2:6, (b) pi :po = 5:3 and equivalent arc-shape
magnet (c) pi :po = 2:6, and (d) pi :po = 5:3.
magnetic torque were mathematically interpreted for the coaxial
magnetic gear having arc-shaped magnets. In comparison, the
proposed transmission mechanism in this letter uses circular
diameter magnetization magnets, so the same analytic approach density distributions for two pole pair-sets were simulated based
cannot be applied to our case. Therefore, this chapter presents on the circular-shaped magnet and their equivalent arc-shaped
a modified electromagnetic model for the proposed design, and magnet. Although the field distributions do not precisely match,
the corresponding results are verified with a FEMM simulations. it is observed that they have dominant harmonics in same places.

A. Magnetic Field Density Distribution B. Flux Density Distribution

To utilize the well-established existing electromagnetic equa- The transmittable torque of the coaxial magnetic gear is de-
tion of the coaxial magnetic gear having the arc-shaped mag- termined by the magnetic field density in the inner and outer air
nets [27], we needed to find an equivalent arc-shaped magnet gap, and the detailed analytic model of the magnetic field density
model having the same effect compared to the corresponding was derived in the previous study [27]. As shown in Fig. 1(b),
circular-shaped magnet. the sections of the coaxial magnetic gear are divided into five
The magnetic field distribution model of circular magnets regions (i.e., the inner magnet, inner air gap, slot between pole-
has been studied in previous studies [28], and the magnetic pieces, outer air gap, and outer magnet); and the five regions are
field of a circular magnet is expressed as a function of the again classified into magnetized regions or magnet-less regions,
distance, r , from the center of the magnet and the azimuthal with different governing equations. Poisson’s (5) describes the
angle α. Fig. 5(b) is the equivalent model corresponding to change in magnetic field potential in the magnetized regions,
the circular-shaped magnet model. To this end, Br , a new while Laplace’s (6) represents the change in magnetic field
magnetic field component, is calculated by considering the two potential in the magnet-free regions. When the magnetic field
magnetic field components of the circular magnet, Br  and Bα potential in the arbitrary space is denoted as Φ, the two governing
[see Fig. 5(a)]. In Fig. 5(a), the magnetic field defined in the equations are expressed as follows:
r − α frame can be represented in the r − β frame to obtain Br  , ∂ 2 Φ 1 ∂Φ 1 ∂2Φ μ0 ∂Mr
and their relationship can be expressed with vector projection 2
+ + 2 2
= (5)
∂r r ∂r r ∂θ r ∂θ
and trigonometric function:
∂ 2 Φ 1 ∂Φ 1 ∂2Φ
r cos(α) = rcos(β) 2
+ + 2 2 =0 (6)
∂r r ∂r r ∂θ
R1 + r sin(α) = rsin(β) (3) where μ0 is the permeability of the vacuum, and Mr (i.e., Mr =
π  B̄r /μo ) is the radial magnetization of the magnets
Br = Br  cos(β − α) + Bα cos − (β − α) To solve the governing equations, we need to know what
2
(4) conditions the magnetic field has between each region (i.e.,
boundary conditions). 1) The magnetic field does not change in
where the range of r and β of the inner and outer PM can contact with air. 2) Assuming that iron’s magnetic permeability
be obtained by the geometry in Table II and (3). Finally, we is infinite, the magnetic field gradient of the iron is zero. The
can obtain the equivalent magnetic field density, B̄r , whose boundary conditions in each region can be obtained using the
magnitude is equal to the average value of Br by using (4), above two properties. The first property makes the gradient of
which provides the equivalent arc-shaped magnet model. The the magnetic field at the interface in contact with the air constant
average field densities are 0.7051 T and 0.8603 T for the inner value (7). The second property describes the internal magnetic
and outer PM, respectively. To validate the equivalent model, field at the interface in contact with the iron, making the gradient
we conducted simulations using FEMM (see Fig. 6). The flux of the internal magnetic potential zero (8). By using the boundary

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 LEE et al.: MECHANICAL VARIABLE MAGNETIC GEAR TRANSMISSION: CONCEPT AND PRELIMINARY RESEARCH 3361

Fig. 7. Radial magnetic flux density distribution in the center of air-gap Fig. 8. Radial magnetic flux density distribution in the center of air-gap
(pi :po = 2:6). (a) Inner air-gap. (b) Outer air-gap. (pi :po = 5:3). (a) Inner air-gap. (b) Outer air-gap.

conditions, the two governing (5) and (6) provide the expressions
for the magnetic field distribution in each region.
∂Φ1 ∂Φ2
Φ1 = Φ2 and = (7)
∂r ∂r
∂Φ ∂Φ
= 0 or =0 (8)
∂r ∂θ
The function of the magnetic harmonic between each rotor and
the ring can be obtained as a solution by substituting boundary
conditions into Laplace equations, (6), and Poisson equations, Fig. 9. Harmonic spectra of radial flux densities (pi :po = 2:6). (a) Inner
(5). The Harmonic functions consist of the sum of infinite air-gap. (b) Outer air-gap.
harmonics and can be represented in a power series. Referring to
the prior study [27], we calculated the magnetic field potential
in five regions; and the magnetic field density in the inner air
gap for radial direction, Br (r, θ), can be obtained as follows:
N  r n R n
R2 ( R3 ) + ( r3 )
Br (r, θ) = − An
n=1
r (R 2 n R3 n
R3 ) − ( R2 )
r n R n
R3 ( R2 ) + ( r2 )
+ Bn sin(nθ)
r (R 3 n R2 n
R ) − (R )
2 3

N 
 r n
R 2 ( R3 ) + ( Rr3 )n
+ Cn
n=1
r (R 2 n
R3 ) − (R 3 n
R2 )
Fig. 10. Harmonic spectra of radial flux densities (pi :po = 5:3). (a) Inner
air-gap. (b) Outer air-gap.
r n R n
R3 ( R2 ) + ( r2 )
+ Dn cos(nθ) (9)
r (R 3 n R2 n
R ) − (R )
2 3
some range, especially at the peak values due to the geometric
where N is the number of the harmonic and N → ∞; and An , assumption in Section III-A, the overall change in magnetic
Bn , Cn , and Dn are arbitrary coefficients. Also, the magnetic field density shows a very similar form. From the result, we
field density in the inner air gap for tangential direction, Bθ (r, θ) believe that the modified magnetic model is enough to describe
can be obtained in a similar way. the dynamics of the proposed circular-shaped coaxial magnetic
Using the results of previous studies [27], It is possible to gear.
numerically calculate the magnetic field density in the air gap. The magnetic field formed in the air gap of the coaxial mag-
Considering the computational time, we approximated the given netic gear produces the electromagnetic torque. The principle is
harmonic function with finite N harmonics in infinite harmon- as follows: The inner and outer PMs generate specific harmonics
ics. The analytical solution was numerically obtained using 50 in each air gap. Then, the harmonics are modulated by the
harmonics (N = 50), and as shown in Fig. 6, the magnetic field pole-pieces to have dominant orders in each air gap. When the
density was simulated in the air gap using FEMM to validate dominant harmonic order of the magnetic field density in each
the results. In the simulation, NdFeB magnet N40 from the air gap matches with pi or po , the input and output are kinetically
FEMM [15] library was used, and the two major assumptions engaged and can transmit the torque, which is essential role in
were implemented as the analytical solution. The results of the producing the torque with a specific transmission ratio. This
radial magnetic field density for the inner and outer air-gap in can be confirmed with the harmonic spectra of the previously
each transmission ratio (i.e., pi : po = 2:6 and 5:3) are plotted obtained magnetic field density (i.e., (9)). Figs. 9 and 10 show
in Figs. 7 and 8. While the results are not precisely matched in the harmonic spectra of the radial flux density in the center of

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 3362 IEEE ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION LETTERS, VOL. 7, NO. 2, APRIL 2022

inner and outer air-gap for pi : po = (2:6) and (5:3), respectively,

and they were calculated from the modified magnetic model and
the FEMM results. The spectra graphs show that each harmonic
has a peak in the same harmonic order corresponding to pi :po
in each case.

C. Torque
The torque of the coaxial magnetic gear is generated by
electromagnetic interaction in the air gap. In case of the inner
air gap, the torque, Te , is derived as follows [27]:

LRe2 2π
Te = Br (Re , θ) · Bθ (Re , θ) · dθ (10)
μ0 0 Fig. 11. Exerted electromagnetic torque on the inner rotor and pole-pieces
according to relative angle between input (inner rotor) and output (pole-piece).
N
πLRe2  (a) pi :po = 2:6. (b) pi :po = 5:3.
Te ≈ (Wn Xn + Tn Zn ) (11)
μ0 n=1
R n R n R n R n
R2 ( R3e ) + ( R3e ) R3 ( R2e ) + ( R2e )
Wn = −An − B n
Re ( R 2 n
R ) − (R )
R3 n Re ( R 3 n
R ) − (R )
R2 n
3 2 2 3

R n
R2 ( R3e ) − (R 3 n
Re )
R n
R3 ( R2e ) − (R 2 n
Re )
Xn = −Cn − Dn
Re ( R 2 n
R3 ) − (R 3 n
R2 )
Re ( R 3 n
R2 ) − (R 2 n
R3 )
R n R n R n R n
R2 ( R3e ) + ( R3e ) R3 ( R2e ) + ( R2e )
Y n = Cn + D n
Re ( R 2 n
R ) − (R )
R3 n Re ( R 3 n
R ) − (R )
R2 n
3 2 2 3

R n
R2 ( R3e ) − (R 3 n
Re )
R n
R3 ( R2e ) − (R 2 n
Re )
Zn = −An − Bn
Re ( R 2 n
R3 ) − (R 3 n
R2 )
Re ( R 3 n
R2 ) − (R 2 n
R3 )
(12)
where R2 ≤ Re ≤ R3 for the inner air gap torque, and L is the
thickness of the magnet. Fig. 12. Changes of dominant harmonic order of radial flux densities and
The torque of the outer air gap can be obtained in a similar maximum transmission torque due to rotation of geared-cap magnet using
manner. In conclusion, in (11), the torque applied to the inner FEMM. (a) Inner air-gap dominant harmonic order distribution. (b) Outer air-gap
dominant harmonic order distribution. (c) Maximum transmission torque.
rotor can be calculated by substituting R2 in Re . Torque applied
to the outer, and the pole-piece ring can be calculated in a similar
way.
In this work, a static torque was used to check the torque sharp ripple. Details of torque ripples will be described in more
transmission performance of the proposed mechanical variable detail later in the discussion.
magnetic gear transmission. The static torque occurs when only
the input is rotated when the others (i.e., the rotors and the
ring) are fixed. For the proposed design (see Fig. 3), the outer D. Transmission Ratio Shifting
rotor and pole-piece are fixed, and only the inner rotor rotates The main function of the magnetic gear developed in this
as the input. In addition, the FEMM simulations with actual study is the transmission ratio shifting (i.e, between Mode1 and
material’s permeability (e.g., pole-piece: SS400, inner rotor and Mode2) by rotating the geared-cap magnets [see Fig. 3(b)].
outer rotor: ABS plastic) were additionally performed. Fig. 12(a) and 12(b) show harmonic spectra up to 8 orders
Fig. 11(a) and 11(b) shows the static torques applied to the and represent the simulated flux density of the harmonics order
inner rotor (input) and the pole-piece ring (output) according to formed in each air gap according to the rotational angle of the
the angle of the inner rotor when pi :po are (2:6, Mode1) and geared-cap magnets ϕ; And it composes of mode1, transient
(5:3, Mode2), respectively. Note that the static torque refers to section, and mode2. In the mode1 and mode2, the dominant
the maximum transmittable torque at the given relative rotational harmonic orders in each air gap exactly match with the number
angle between the input and output; it is a counterpart concept of the pole pair of each rotor, which makes the magnetic cou-
of strength of the gear-teeth in the gear transmission system; pling. This implies that the transmission ratio shifting is feasible
therefore, it does not need to be proportionally amplified with between the mode1 and mode2.
the transmission ratio change. While the analytical result based On the other hand, it is necessary to calculate the maximum
on the modified electromagnetic model well matches with the transmittable torque according to ϕ because they may not pro-
FEMM result in mode1 and mode2, mode1 shows a slightly vide a full magnetic engagement due to the disagreement of the
difference between the results. This is because the torque ripple harmonic orders during the the transient section. To do this, the
at pi :po = (2:6) is greater than that of (5:3), and the geometrical maximum static toque, Tmax , (i.e., maximum value in Fig. 11))
approximation (see Fig. 5) cannot fully reflect the effect of the for the entire range of ϕ were obtained and plotted in Fig. 12(c).

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 LEE et al.: MECHANICAL VARIABLE MAGNETIC GEAR TRANSMISSION: CONCEPT AND PRELIMINARY RESEARCH 3363

TABLE III
COMPARISON OF TRANSMISSION RATIO AND TRANSMITTABLE TORQUE

can implement the function of the transmission ratio shifting.

Fig. 13. Experimental Setup. In addition, it can be seen that the transient time between two
modes is less than 0.8 s, and the shift ratio changes linearly.
Second, the static torque was measured in mode1 and mode2,
respectively. The inner rotor was forced to rotate by the BLDC
motor while the outer rotor and the pole-piece were fixed, and
the torque acting on the pole-piece ring was measured with the
dynamic torque sensor. The experimental and FEMM results
for the maximum static torque in each mode are summarized in
Table III; and it was observed that the difference in amplitude
was relatively large. This issue is further addressed in discussion
section.
Fig. 14. Transmission ratio change according to control of rotational angle of
For the transmission shifting (i.e., transient section), the re-
the geared-cap magnets, ϕ. quired power and torque of the clutch motor were measured
about 2.1 W and 0.25 Nm; however, no additional power and
torque were required after the mode shifting due to the non-
backdrivability given by the high gear ratio of the clutch motor.
It was observed that Tmax decreases to 63.0% and 84.6% of
the final values for the inner rotor and the pole-piece ring, V. DISCUSSION
respectively, but it seamlessly provides the minimum transmit-
table torque without cut-off. Recall that because the Tmax is the We presented a non-contact transmission ratio shifting mech-
maximum transmittable torque, the minimum value in Fig. 12(c) anism based on a coaxial magnetic gear, called variable magnetic
should be used as a performance criterion to design the proposed gear transmission. Due to the remotely transmitted magnetic
mechanism. force, the power transmission path does not need to be cut-off
Although a linear variance or constant of Tmax during the and interrupted, and it seamlessly provides a minimum trans-
transmission shifting is considered as an ideal transmission mittable torque during the transient section between each gear
shifting behavior, we believe that this preliminary result is very ratio. Compared to the traditional clutch-based gear shifting,
encouraging as a first step for the study. the proposed one has simpler structure and provides continuous
operation. In addition, the non-contact feature allows actuators
to have backdrivable and transparent dynamics, series elastic
IV. EXPERIMENTS actuation-like properties, and inherent over-load protection with
Fig. 13 shows a prototype of the proposed mechanical variable an expanded operable output range, which may be promising
magnetic gear module and its experimental setup. All parts of the in actuation mechanisms in the robotic society. Exoskeletons,
module were 3D-printed using ABS plastic (style NEO-A22 C, legged robots, and manipulator can be potential application. The
CUBICON), and a disc-type BLDC motor (∅92.3 mm×38 mm, experimental result, especially for the static torque, showed a
200 W) was used as the input source and connected to the relatively large difference compared to the FEMM. Since the
inner rotor. An encoder (E6A2-CS3E, YUMO) and a dynamic FEMM is programmed to reflect real-physics, the difference is
torque sensor (DYN-200, CALT) were connected to measure nonsense. There are two potential reasons for this error. First
the rotational velocity and the torque of the pole-piece ring of all, the static torque obtained in this study is a 2D base for
(i.e., output) while the outer rotor was fixed on the ground both the analytical model and FEMM, which is different from
(i.e., Case2 in (2)). The two clutch motors (380:1 geared DC the experimental results in 3D. In general, the 2D modeling
motor, DFRobot) were employed to rotate the inner and outer overestimates the performance with an error ranging between
geared-cap magnets, respectively. Since the inner clutch motor 20% and 40% because it does not reflect the magnetic field
is embedded in the axis of the rotating BLDC motor, the power leakage represented by the end-effect [29]. Another potential
and signal lines were externally connected through a slip ring reason is originated from the 3D printer’s mechanical tolerances,
(see the supplementary video for the demonstrations). misalignments, and vibrations between the magnetic compo-
In the first experiment, the rotational velocity (RPM) of the nents (i.e., rotors and pole-piece ring). The mechanical errors
pole-piece ring (output) was measured for the transmission ratio would weaken the magnetic linkage and increase the friction
shifting between mode1 and mode2. Fig. 14 shows the moving between components.
average filtered transmission ratio with a moving window of In the hardware, two additional clutch motors and the rel-
0.6 s. And its root mean square (RMS) values of each mode atively large volume of the designed magnetic gear structure
are presented. Table III summarizes the experimental results. compared to conventional gear may increase the volume and
An experimental transmission ratio, Gexp , was obtained by complexity of the actuation system. Therefore, the currently
averaging the RMS value of the measured transmission ratio proposed design has limited scalability to practical robotic appli-
in each mode. The result confirms that the proposed mechanism cations and needs to be improved in the next design iteration. The

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 3364 IEEE ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION LETTERS, VOL. 7, NO. 2, APRIL 2022

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