Robotic winding of non-planar high-temperature superconducting coils

The development of non-planar high-temperature superconducting (HTS) coils enables magnet designs that make more efficient use of superconducting material, benefiting applications such as rotating machines, particle accelerators, energy storage systems, and fusion devices. Robotic winding enables consistent, safe, and adaptable construction of such non-planar coil geometries. We present our robotic winding setup consisting of an articulated robot equipped with a specialized winding tool and a synchronized workpiece positioner. We employ a differential geometry approach to design non-planar HTS coil shapes with hard-way bending, in which the mechanical strain remains within material limits. Based on the coil shape, we derive winding tool trajectory and rotations required for robotic execution. We validate our approach by winding a non-planar superellipse-shaped HTS coil and experimentally characterizing its electromagnetic performance.