MOTORS, DRIVES, CONTROLS
DISCUSSING DONUTS
Jake Holmes delves into how this new generation electric motor family is offering unprecedented performance and cost efficiency
The Donut Motor eliminates the need for power transmission T
he starting gun has gone on the race to create a more compatible world. Ease of use has become
a big factor for companies when deciding what products to incorporate into their designs. By creating and using technologies with improved compatibility it allows for faster production and reduced costs, as less skilled labour is required to build the finished product. Donut Lab is one company at
the forefront of this effort, having recently introduced its modular technology platform which includes an electric motor family that “completely eliminates the need for power transmission.” In addition to the motor, the
important components of the modular Donut platform are battery modules, computer units and software that controls the vehicle. Zero manual integration work is required to combine these components, reducing development time in electric vehicles (EVs). The Donut platform is just the start, with the company announcing at CES trade show it plans to speed up vehicle software development by 10- fold with its latest software update.
MOTOR INNOVATION One of the main components of the Donut platform is a donut motor that can be placed directly into the tyre
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and which has now been expanded into a motor family. Traditional powertrain systems have made EVs expensive to manufacture and maintain, while reducing vehicle performance and increasing weight and complexity. The firm’s donut motor integrated
directly with the tyre eliminates the need for power transmission entirely, making vehicles considerably lighter, more economical, and easier to manufacture. In addition, the second significant advantage of a donut motor is that it makes unsprung mass completely irrelevant. “Great unsprung mass has been the
most important reason why everyone hasn’t used motors integrated with the tyre in their vehicles,” says Marko Lehtimäki, Donut Lab’s CEO. “Through the torque and power density we’ve now achieved, the relative weight of the motor is so small that for the first time the unsprung mass is insignificant. For these reasons, we’ve also invested a lot of time into patenting our inventions, because we believe that these motors will change the whole industry.”
STREAMLINING HMIS CES also saw Donut Lab and international software company Qt introduce the latter’s new Qt Accelerate solution as part of a strategic partnership between the two companies.
“With the help of Qt Accelerate,
the development of HMIs (human- machine interfaces) will become automated and significantly more efficient. The technology to be integrated into the Donut platform will recognise the vehicle configuration and will be able to create an HMI that matches the vehicle’s actual features,” says Petteri Holländer, senior vice president of Ventures at Qt Group. “This takes place completely automatically and therefore requires no manual work.” “With the help of an intelligent
software layer, we can automatically integrate physical components, but in addition to this, we are now developing future software development solutions that will make vehicle development significantly more efficient and agile,” adds Lehtimäki. “At the core of all of this is advanced artificial intelligence, and in the future, the artificial intelligence features of the Donut platform will improve vehicle design, development, testing and validation in unimaginable ways.” Qt Accelerate aims to streamline
HMI for users in EVs. This simplifies the user experience and makes EVs easier to use, increasing the accessibility of the technology. This reduces the level of technical training someone needs to operate these machines.
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