METHODS OF STRUCTURAL AND PARAMETRIC SYNTHESIS OF COMBINED GENERATOR OF RECIPROCATING POWER PLANTS FOR ROBOTIC SYSTEMS ON THE BASIS OF A FREE PISTON ENGINE

Power supply system of advanced robotic systems requires the development of electromechanical energy converters with high energy and minimum weight and overall dimensions. In this regard, a free piston engine with an electric generator is considered as a promising plant.Interest in the study of power plants based on free piston engines is caused by several advantages compared to conventional internal combustion engines with a crank mechanism: relative simplicity of the design, 40 % fewer elements, which reduces the overall capacity, specific gravity and metal content of the free piston engine in 2.5–3 times. In addition, the fuel consumption is 30 % lower. Also an important design advantage of power plants based on free piston engines is a relatively simple modular construction. Reciprocating electric generators with transverse increment of the magnetic flux are the most commonly used ones in currently developed power plants based on free piston engines of foreign countries (USA, Russia, Germany, China, UK, Japan, Sweden, Israel, etc.) as the electrical AC machines. The main disadvantage of this type of generators are the absence of coordination of electrical and mechanical subsystems of the power plant at the extreme points of the operating cycle, which limits the efficiency of the free piston engine and reduces the reliability of the power plant.To solve this problem it is proposed to use Electromechanical energy Converter with transverse and longitudinal increment of the magnetic flux (combo generator). However, currently there is no scientifically valid method of synthesis of this type of generator. To address this problem we have developed the methodology of structural and parametric synthesis of combined generator of the reciprocating type for a plant on the basis of free piston engine, which is based on the use of the specific gravity of the combined generator as the objective function. It allows synthesizing electric machine of the reciprocating type with the specified efficiency and minimum specific mass.