Carts and robots handle heavy loads with ASPINA In-Wheel motor solution

A lot of aspiring engineers are now focusing on product development of motorized carts, drivetrain platforms, and autonomous robots that can move heavy loads or assist people to navigate. When their total weight including the carrying items is heavy, a major development challenge is how to avoid sudden changes of motion for safety operation.

For example, when a cart, platform or robot autonomously moves an object weighing more than 200 pounds (approximately 90 kg), you have to design precise control over large inertia that occurs when starting, stopping, turning and avoiding objects, otherwise it may move quickly and destroy or damage the carrying items and/or the vehicle itself. In addition, there is a high risk of injury from collision with a nearby individual at the workplace or from the sudden and unexpected pushing or pulling force applied to the operator.

Motorized carts, drivetrain platforms, and autonomous robots need to be small enough to work without colliding with walls, pillars, shelves or objects on the floor. However, those vehicles tend to become large and bulky when they mount motors, gears, a drive circuit and a battery in the platform.

An In-Wheel motor, which houses some or all part of the motor and gears inside the wheel, is one of the solutions to make the platform small and reduce the size of the cart or robot you design.

However, some In-Wheel motors have its motor and gears protrude outside the wheel and are larger in size. You may face difficulty when trying to get an In-Wheel motor that fits your product in size. In addition, you also need to think of housing a drive circuit board and a battery in the platform, as well as the wiring to connect them. The transition to In-Wheel motors is not as simple as “replace the caster" approach.

You need to prepare drivers and software for speed control, position control and torque control even if you use In-Wheel motors. It may take many man-hours to understand the characteristics of the In-Wheel motor and to design and create optimal control for its intended use.

We recommend our compact In-Wheel motors for motorized carts, drivetrain platforms or autonomous robots you design. For example, our 200-watt In-Wheel motor, with a wheel outside diameter of 7.9 inches (200 mm) and a width of 5 inches (128 mm), integrates a high-efficiency motor, high-precision reduction gears and an electromagnetic brake. As a motor manufacturer having expertise in designing motors, reducers and electromagnetic brakes for integration, we have designed for the motors and gears to fit into the wheel.

In addition, we perform the mechanical design of the In-Wheel motor and the drive module to house them, a battery and other necessary components in the platform.

Our solution of integrated In-Wheel motors, drive and control circuits, and software can reduce the resources of your team to develop motorized carts, drivetrain platforms and autonomous robots.

Motorized carts, drivetrain platforms and autonomous robots which employ ASPINA's In-Wheel motors, drive circuits and control software bring the benefit of significantly reducing the workforce to warehouse operators, construction companies and equipment manufacturers.