Revolutionizing the Electric Motor Market

Vertiq is excited to announce that we recently received a National Science Foundation (NSF) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I grant. The NSF funds the research and development efforts of innovative companies to transform ideas into marketable products and services. The funding is also extremely company-friendly, allowing the business to control its technical vision, go-to-market strategy and intellectual property without taking any equity.

Vertiq received the SBIR Phase I award to prove the technical feasibility of a new calibration approach to solve electromagnetic and hardware flaws in BLDC motors. Vertiq already employs advanced calibration techniques to improve motor performance, but additional R&D must be done to fully compensate for the intrinsic flaws that hinder the performance of BLDC motors. Various types of torque ripple and errors in position sensing often result in poor responsiveness, noise, imprecise positioning, vibrations, and high-power consumption. These complications (along with high costs) have stymied the widespread adoption of sensored BLDC motors with advanced motor control capabilities. With the proprietary calibration algorithms that result from the NSF-funded R&D, Vertiq will be able to deliver industry-leading motor performance.

The long-term goal of the project is to develop inexpensive motor designs that will take advantage of Vertiq’s calibration software. With the new calibration approach, low-end motors will be able to perform with the efficiency, power, and smoothness of high-end motors at anaffordable price. Vertiq wants to take this a step further, so part of this grant will go towards evaluating innovative stator and rotor configurations specifically designed to reduce manufacturing costs. If Vertiq is successful, this technology will improve the performance of robotic companies’ devices while saving up to 90% on motor costs, as well as bring a competitive advantage back to American motor manufacturers.