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90 F or much of the century so far, many people following the scientific progress of electric motors have commented that most advances in them – particularly the size, weight and power classes relevant to unmanned vehicles – would be in complementary technologies such as ESCs, design software and energy storage, rather than the motors themselves. The past few years have proven that to be false. A number of new electric motor architectures, mechanical innovations and developments in materials science have recently become commercially available to the unmanned systems markets. These stand to dramatically change what we consider to be conventional for electric propulsion architecture for UAVs, UGVs and unmanned marine systems. They also come at a time of growth in new unmanned vehicle-based services and businesses in food delivery, industrial logistics, infrastructure maintenance and potentially hundreds of further, more niche applications. Electric motor technology must accordingly be looked at critically, as it directly affects the overheads for such services. For instance, a high-torque motor can enable longer flight endurances, thus enabling surveys over wider areas or deliveries over greater distances. Higher power efficiencies meanwhile could increase carrying capacities, allowing the use of more powerful sensors (for richer datasets) or the movement of bigger and heavier parcels. And naturally, higher motor powers and speeds mean recipients will get their packages faster, which for many mining companies, military bases, factories and other users will actually be far more urgent than longer ranges or heavier payload limits. With this spread of new technological Industrial revolution February/March 2022 | Unmanned Systems Technology Developments in electric motor technology are creating a new paradigm in propulsion architectures, writes Rory Jackson Electric motor designs for the unmanned market have evolved dramatically over the past few years, with many new innovations and options now available (Courtesy of Plettenberg)