Experiment No 04: Angular control of the Servo motor Objective: In this experiment, we will learn to control a servo motor

Introduction of servo motor Servo motors (or servos) are self-contained electric devices that rotate or push parts of a machine with great precision. Servos are found in many places: from toys to home electronics to cars and airplanes. If you have a radio-controlled model car, airplane, or helicopter, you are using at least a few servos. In a model car or aircraft, servos move levers back and forth to control steering or adjust wing surfaces. By rotating a shaft connected to the engine throttle, a servo regulates the speed of a fuel-powered car or aircraft. Servos also appear behind the scenes in devices we use every day. Electronic devices such as DVD and Blu-ray Disc TM players use servos to extend or retract the disc trays. How does a servo motor work? The simplicity of a servo is among the features that make them so reliable. The heart of a servo is a small direct current (DC) motor, similar to what you might find in an inexpensive toy. These motors run on electricity from a battery and spin at high RPM (rotations per minute) but put out very low torque (a twisting force used to do work you apply torque when you open a jar). An arrangement of gears takes the high speed of the motor and slows it down while at the same time increasing the torque. (Basic law of physics: work = force x distance.) A tiny electric motor does not have much torque, but it can spin really fast (small force, big distance). The gear design inside the servo case converts the output to a much slower rotation speed but with more torque (big force, little distance). The amount of actual work is the same, just more useful. Gears in an inexpensive servo motor are generally made of plastic to keep it lighter and less costly. On a servo designed to provide more torque for heavier work, the gears are made of metal. Mechanism: As the name suggests, a servomotor is a servomechanism. More specifically, it is a loop servo mechanism that uses position feedback to control its motion and final position. The input to its control is some signal, either analogue or digital, representing the position commanded for the output shaft. The motor is paired with some type of encoder to provide position and speed feedback. In the simplest case, only the position is measured. The measured position of the output is compared to the command position, the external input to the controller. If the output position differs from that required, an error signal is generated which then causes the motor to rotate in either direction, as needed to bring the output shaft to the appropriate position. As the positions approach, the error signal reduces to zero and the motor stops. Servomotors vs. stepper motors A servomotor consumes power as it rotates to the commanded position but then the servomotor rests. Stepper motors run warm to the touch because they continue to consume power to lock in and hold the commanded position. Servomotors are generally used as a high performance alternative to the stepper motor. Stepper motors have some inherent ability to control position, as they have built-in output steps. This often allows them to be used as an open-loop position control, without any feedback encoder, as their drive signal specifies the number of steps of movement to

rotate. This lack of feedback though limits their performance, as the stepper motor can only drive a load that is well within its capacity, otherwise missed steps under load may lead to positioning errors. The encoder and controller of a servomotor are an additional cost, but they optimise the performance of the overall system (for all of speed, power and accuracy) relative to the capacity of the basic motor. With larger systems, where a powerful motor represents an increasing proportion of the system cost, servomotors have the advantage. Many applications, such as laser cutting machines, may be offered in two ranges, the low-priced range using stepper motors and the high-performance range using servomotors.