A hollow-shaft, direct-drive motor for robot joints that need torque, transparency, and control without the gearbox.
SuperMotor will be the SuperDroid take on a transverse flux motor. It will be made from domestically sourced materials and built right here at SuperDroid Robots.
We have been working on custom motor development for more than four years and have pushed the limits of what we believe will be possible with in-house manufacturing of high-precision motors for robotics. SuperMotor will be the next step in that process, and it is still early in the development stage.
Please give our motor simulator a try - it can show estimated motor pricing. Be sure to try the auto-configurator - it will size a SuperMotor for your input torque, speed, and other requirements.
A transverse flux motor will give us a different magnetic path than a typical BLDC motor. That should let us increase pole count and produce more torque at low speed without stretching the motor into a long, heavy package.
SuperMotor should also be naturally hollow-shaft. The active motor can live in a very thin annular region between the inner and outer diameter, leaving the center open for joint shafts, wiring, bearings, encoders, slip rings, cooling paths, or other integration details.
For robotics, the comparison will not just be motor to motor. The real comparison will usually be a BLDC motor plus a gearbox. SuperMotor should replace that full actuator stack with a lighter direct-drive motor that should be easier to control and easier to integrate into compact joints.
The goal: high torque in a compact package
SuperMotor should replace the combined mass and complexity of a typical motor and integrated gearbox while leaving a usable center bore.
Robot joints that feel the world
Without gearbox reduction, a joint should become more transparent, more compliant, and easier to backdrive, while the hollow center should simplify joint routing.
Direct drive will be especially powerful for robot arms, quadruped legs, humanoid joints, and any mechanism where the joint needs to feel the world instead of fighting through a gearbox.
The hollow-shaft nature should make that easier to package: the motor can wrap around the joint axis instead of occupying the center, so designers can route structure, cables, sensors, or bearings through the middle of the actuator.
Without a gearbox, the actuator should provide the highest level of force feedback available without adding a dedicated torque sensor. The joint should become more compliant, more transparent, and easier to backdrive, which will make the robot safer and more responsive around people, terrain, and unexpected contact.
SuperMotor will be complex, but its strength will be that the unique rotor and stator should be made from raw materials that will be readily available and sourced domestically. That will give us a manufacturing path that will not depend on fragile international supply chains.
At high volumes, the rotor and stator process should be fully automated: raw materials in, motor parts out. This will not replace bearing manufacturing, PCB manufacturing, or controller electronics, but it will focus the hardest motor-specific work inside our own process.
Focused on the rotor and stator
The unique motor manufacturing process should be domestic, repeatable, and automation-ready at volume.
Choose the supply-chain tradeoff
The simulator will show how magnet material changes weight, sourcing complexity, and performance.
The SuperMotor simulator will include different magnetic materials so you can see the tradeoff between domestic simplicity and peak motor weight. The baseline anisotropic Sr-ferrite option will be the easiest to make in-house, while stronger options should significantly reduce motor weight compared with a conventional BLDC motor and gearbox.
Most simulator examples will use two phases because it should keep the motor simpler and more compact. Three-phase versions will be possible and should improve control, but they will increase motor size and complexity.
Try the SuperMotor simulatorSuperMotor will be developed in our U.S. facility alongside the robots we design and build. After more than four years of custom motor work, we are pushing toward a transverse flux architecture that should deliver high torque, direct drive, and a domestic manufacturing path for the rotor and stator.
Most robotic joints still rely on a BLDC motor and a gearbox to get enough torque in a usable package. That stack adds weight, friction, backlash, and supply-chain complexity.
SuperMotor is being developed to change that equation: more torque in a compact direct-drive actuator, with better joint transparency and a path to domestically built rotor and stator components.
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