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Lecture 11
Stepper Motors
Actuators
• Actuators are hardware devices that convert a controller
command signal into a change in a physical parameter
• The change is usually mechanical (e.g., position or velocity)
• An actuator is also a transducer because it changes one type
of physical quantity into some alternative form
• An actuator is usually activated by a low-level command
signal, so an amplifier may be required to provide sufficient
power to drive the actuator
• Electrical actuators are widely used with control systems;
electricity is easy to wire to the system (easier than pipe work)
Electric motor
• An electric motor converts electrical energy into
mechanical energy
• Mechanical motion provides actuation
• These are found in industrial fans, blowers and
pumps, machine tools, household appliances, power
tools disk drives
• May be powered by
– DC sources, such as from batteries, motor vehicles
– AC sources, such as from the power grid, inverters or
generators
Motors used in control applications
• Brushless
Very reliable since there are no contact brushes in the motor.
Therefore the life of the motor is simply dependent on the life of
the bearing.
• Incremental steps/changes
The rotation angle of the motor is proportional to the input pulse.
360 360
• 𝑆𝑡𝑒𝑝 𝐴𝑛𝑔𝑙𝑒 = =
(𝑁𝑃ℎ ×𝑃ℎ) 𝑁