A dynamometer is a testing device that helps engineers collect data for various mechanical loading conditions that a motor or engine might encounter in a particular application. Other than testing the motor itself, a dynamometer helps engineers test how their motor-control algorithms and motor-driving power electronics respond to these conditions. In my role as an applications engineer at Texas Instruments (TI), I needed a better way to test various loading conditions on small motors.
From August 2018 to May 2019, I had the opportunity to work with an excellent group of engineering students in the UTDesign program at the University of Texas at Dallas to do just that. They called themselves the Motor Torque Test Bench team (MTTB). In this first article, I review the technical questions we needed to answer even before making our component selections.