Biomechatronics

Learning Outcomes

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Perform design calculations for drive and power converter applications, and understand the approximations used.
• Solve problems of analysis of performance and explain the shape of characteristics of actual machines.
• Analyse and solve simple mechanical system problems

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Understand the wide range of issues that impact on the use of drive system in the biomedical context, including safety, efficiency, and costs (procurement, running and disposal).
• Transfer understanding and theories from one discipline to another, from the mechanical design to the electrical power domain.

Subject Specific Practical Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Undertake measurements to estimate dynamic parameters of mechanical beams
• Investigate the characteristics and performance of a power converter or electric drives

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• Understand the operation of electrical motors and their characterisation.
• Understand the basic topology of converters, and power supplies.
• Understand the causes and effects of vibration within various mechanical systems
• Understand the methods of analysis, measurement, and control of vibration.

Mechanical Systems:

• One, Two and Multi Degree of Freedom Systems Modelling
• Continuous systems vibration of strings, rods, beams and derivation of equations of motion.
• Application of Rayleigh’s method to approximate natural frequencies. Vibration and Instrumentation, Transmissibility.

Introduction to rotating machines

• Underlying concepts and features of transformers and rotating machines, fundamental torque equation, rotating field principle, air-gap mmf and permeance, 3-phase windings, winding factors.

DC and AC Machines:

• Review of construction, basic equations and steady-state characteristics, windings, field form and armature reaction, commutation and use of interpoles, starting and speed control.
• Outline of shaded-pole, universal, permanent magnet, and reluctance machines with applications

Devices:

• Drive requirements
• Thermal management, protection.

Low power rectifiers, converters and inverters:

• Two-pulse bridge converters
• Derivation of operating equations
• Overlap and its effect on output waveforms
• AC-DC and DC-DC converters
• Inverters
• Thyristor circuits.
• Circuits for biomedical systems.

Specification of Drive Systems:

• Mechanical transmission elements, gears, leadscrews, belts, etc.
• Sizing algorithms.

Position and Velocity Transducers:

• Specifications, analogue versus digital, review of available linear and rotary systems.

Servo Drive Systems:

• Consideration of specific drives and their operating characteristics including brushed DC series motor drives, brushless DC motor drives, & vector-controlled AC motor drives.

Controllers:

• Integration into the drive package, networking.

Power Supplies:

• Linear and switched mode power supplies
• Practical characteristics and analysis of step-up and step-down switched mode power supplies.

Biomechanical Applications:

• Mechanical sensing systems for physiological monitoring
• Mechanical energy harvesting system for wearable and implantable medical devices

Teaching and learning methods

This course will be taught via lectures, specialist labs and a coursework to demonstrate the application.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.