Galil Motion Control

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Part 3 of 3: Superposition of Motion Profiles

Introduction

      This is the final paper of three delving into advanced electronic gearing topics in motion control.  The first two, Tension Control on Spindle Wheel and Positional Correction on Color Print Rollers in Offset Printing, dealt with both low and high bandwidth corrections by correcting for frequency and phase.

      This paper will cover how to apply electronic gearing to superimpose two motion profiles for a single axis.  Three different examples will be discussed showing the many different applications where adding two motion profiles together can simplify the system’s design.

Example 1: Writing on a cake that is moving on a conveyor

Figure 1: Cake writing on a moving conveyor

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      The purpose of an amplifier in a motion control system is to provide a controlled amount of current or voltage to a motor based on a command signal from the motion controller. This is done by a current (transconductance) or voltage amplifier. Each of these two type of amplifiers has benefits and drawbacks which must be considered in order to choose the correct structure for a given motion control application. This paper will examine the similarities and differences between the two main types of switching amplifiers by addressing three key areas: performance, safety, and efficiency.

Figure 1: Typical H-Bridge Circuit of Switching Amplifier

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      When an external force is applied to a system, standard PID parameters may not be sufficient to compensate for it. To better understand how to address this problem, four applications with external forces will be analyzed and an effective solution will be provided for each application. These applications include servo motors moving a vertical load, a spring load, a lever arm, and a compressible substance.

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Part 1 of 3: Tension Control on Spindle Wheel

Introduction    

    Electronic gearing in motion control allows for a slave axis to follow a master axis with a programatically set gear ratio.  There are certain applications that obviously lend to an electronic gearing solution, but there are some challenging applications where the functionality of electronic gearing can greatly simplify a solution in a manner that may not seem obvious at first.  This series of three papers will discuss how electronic gearing  can provide simple solutions to different motion control challenges.  The second and third installments will provide solutions to the problems of making precision adjustments for a cutting axis on a high-speed material feed, and image drawing or writing on a moving conveyor system.  

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      With continued miniaturization, the requirements for sub micron control of high bandwidth, high resolution, low inertia systems are becoming more and more stringent. To match this demand, the motion control industry has steadily moved to more powerful and higher resolution platforms. This iterative process has continued to drive improvements in the PID control loop and its capabilities from 8 bit systems in the 1980's to today's 16 to 32 bit architectures. Any control system however is only as capable as it's 'weakest' component. 20 bit encoders, 32 bit processors and 16 bit DACs are of limited benefit when the resolution of the amplifier is typically limited to only 12 bits. A 16 bit amplifier with the same high PWM frequency of a 12 bit allows for the full performance capabilities of a modern control system.