ACTUATOR CONTROL

• Control systems for devices can be described using block diagrams
• Two main approaches to actuator control
1. Torque controlled by current amplifiers driving a motor
2. Speed controlled by voltage using a voltage amplifier
• Torque control maintains a constant desired torque which is desirable in assembly operations.
Also maintains constant force (gripper) without drawing additional power. A disadvantage
occurs when the required torque is less than the applied torque. This causes higher acceleration
and velocities resulting in the non-zero velocity at the target point and inaccuracies. If the inertia
is higher than expected the resisting torque would be larger than the constant applied torque
causing slow motion, and loss of production time.
• Speed control is less affected by variations in inertia and the time to reach the target point is not
affected. The approach is slow and smooth. Problems occur because torque is not controlled.
Motor draws from the voltage amplifier the current required to overcome the disturbance. If
the robot encounters a rigid obstacle the amplifiers fuse could burn-out. This makes it unsuitable
for assembly tasks such as press fitting where a constant force is required, but it is good
for spray painting and seam welding.
• The choice of control depends on the application and the environment
• Inputs to velocity controlled robots from the computer are,
a) A sequence of pulses - each pulse generates one BRU (Basic Resolution Unit). The number of
pulses represents position and the pulse frequency is proportional to velocity
b) a binary word as samples data - used in most modern robots with both velocity-controlled and
torque controlled systems.