Development of Quasi-Direct Drive Motor for Walking Robots in Extraterrestrial Environments

This paper presents the development of a quasi-direct drive motor for space applications, which offers opportunities for dynamic applications, such as in walking robots. The use of such a motor in a space environment presents new challenges that make it necessary to go beyond the conventional design for terrestrial applications. To achieve this, the DFKI-X2D joint was developed as part of the MODKOM project. As an approach, an in-runner and an out-runner motor are developed as prototypes and subjected to several functional tests, including tests on a motor test bench, in a climate chamber, and via vibration tests. During these tests, the in-runner approach showed advantages, especially in thermal terms, and based on the findings, a final iteration was designed as the space version, which will undergo additional environmental testing in the future to move towards TRL 5.