Design of electro-mechanical actuator for medium sized helicopter and a test platform for its testing and verification

Abstract

This paper presents the design of an electro-mechanical actuator that is used for actuation of a medium sized helicopter. The designed actuator consists of a commercially available electro-mechanical cylinder EMC40 from Rexroth Bosch and a brushless DC motor EC45 from maxon motor. Cylinder and the motor are connected by a custom-made gearbox, which allows for their parallel axial mount. In addition to the actuator, the paper describes a test platform that can be used to emulate the forces generated by an actual helicopter. Designed test platform consists of a torsional spring and an AC motor with excentre. Frequency regulator is used to achieve the desired frequency of the force. Experimental results obtained by testing the designed actuator on the test platform are also given in the paper.