An electromagnetic brake of space robot joint and its experimental study

In view of to the potential problems of electrical loss and control loss of space robots, a novel spring electromagnetic brake with double friction surface was designed. The brake has both advantages of the European robotic arm (ERA) brake and the vehicle disc brake, thus it can provide double torque with the same brake force compared with normal spring brakes. The brake's performance was verified through analyzing the static and dynamic characteristics of its electromagnetic field by using the finite element method. The curve of braking torque versus braking times was gained by several vacuum experiments at different temperature. The reasons of brake torque changing were obtained by analyzing the friction surface status before and after experiment comparatively. The methods of surface treating of brake plate with TC4 and running-in adequately before assembling were presented to improve the stable work of brake.