How to implement a BLDC for variable torque in its phase (InstaSPIN, TI)

Question

By chance I read this patented method to control the rotor pitch without a swash plate usually a helicopter, by adding two parallel hinges on each blade root. When add torque to spin it the pitch would change so you can generate a vector force against the rotor axis:

http://modlabupenn.org/underactuated-rotor/

This is a very useful control technique for control a miniature indoor drone, although it's patented (https://www.google.ch/patents/WO2014160526A3?cl=en). I still want to try it at home by building an ESC (hobby model naming for brushless motor controller).

A good starting place may be to buy a cheap TI FOC InstalSPIN controller demo board by hacking some code on: http://www.ti.com/tool/launchxl-f28027f with a driver board to drive a 2213 dji phantom motor.

The question is:

1. I don't have any experience, would this board/code base could implement this function directly?
2. If not, any starting point for other FOC controller will do

I want to make a ESC with 3 120 angled position input to tell the motor controller where I want the positive pitch to go.

Answer 1

It's been a while so I'm not sure if you're still interested but.. there's a couple instaspin kits that fall under $100 total. It just depends on your motor requirements.

At the bottom of this page, there's a list of kits:

I've used a launchpad board (F28069M) with the BOOSTXL DRV8301 to drive a hefty air drone motor (20A+) at 15krpm. Just a note, drone BLDC motors tend to have very low inductance so you might want to look into the motors' spec.'s beforehand. The low inductance makes it difficult for instaspin to track the motor. Also, the control's also limits the motor speed. These very fast motors 15k+ rpm can be tricky for the limit microprocessor speed available. TI's community's pretty active and I'd definitely recommend looking and asking there.