May 4-6, 2005
Omni Tucson National Golf Resort & Spa

THE FUTURE OF ELECTRIC MOTORS

We can be certain that the electric motor will carry its illustrious past
into an equally illustrious future, but it will be found in a wider range of
applications and it will be more deeply associated with related
technologies, especially power electronics, microelectronics, computer-aided
design, more advanced materials, and many changes on the manufacturing side.
The last 20 years have seen the great flourishing of AC drives and
permanent-magnet brushless machines, while the next 20 will see steady
advances in design and manufacturing that are essential to sustain a
competitive edge in an industry that requires billions of
application-optimized motor products and very few generic ones. At the
extreme fringes of the field, physics will take motors down to nanometer
dimensions and superconducting temperatures, with occasional trips to Mars
and beyond. Computer-aided design will refine and accelerate the design
optimization process and enrich our understanding of heat transfer, acoustic
noise, failure mechanisms, and losses. Environmental pressure will tend to
make electric motors more attractive for many applications, especially
traction, while at the same time pressure on energy resources will tend to
encourage more intelligent use of all forms of motive power and to limit the
growth in total energy consumption. This logic will encourage some motors
to cross the divide and become generators: to adapt the controllable flow of
energy in response to fundamental economic changes.

Prof. Miller's talk is based on a long-term perspective developed as
founder and director of the SPEED Consortium, which is a community of
electrical engineering companies involved in the development of electric
machines and drives.

Biography