System Modeling Coursework

Class 27: Modeling of servo motors

P.R. VENKATESWARAN
Faculty, Instrumentation and Control Engineering,
Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal
Karnataka 576 104 INDIA
Ph: 0820 2925154, 2925152
Fax: 0820 2571071
Email: pr.venkat@manipal.edu, prv_i@yahoo.com
Web address: http://www.esnips.com/web/SystemModelingClassNotes
 WARNING!

• I claim no originality in all these notes. These are the

compilation from various sources for the purpose of
delivering lectures. I humbly acknowledge the
wonderful help provided by the original sources in
this compilation.
• For best results, it is always suggested you read the
source material.

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 Contents

• What is servo mechanism

• Applications of servomechanism
• Construction of AC servo motor
• Transfer function of AC servo motor

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 Servo explanation

• When the objective of the system is to control the

position of an object then the system is called
servomechanism.
• Servomotors are used to convert an electrical signal
(control voltage) applied to them into an angular
displacement of the shaft.
• They can either operate in a continuous duty or step
duty depending on construction.

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 Characteristics of servo motors

• Linear relationship between the speed and electric

control signal
• Steady state stability
• Wide range of speed control
• Linearity of mechanical characteristics throughout
the entire speed range
• Low mechanical and electrical inertia and
• Fast response
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 Types of servo motors
• DC servo motors
– Generally used for large power
applications such as in machine
tools and robotics
– High torque to inertia ratio that
gives them quick response to
control signals
– Low electrical time constants (0.1
to 6ms) and low mechanical time
constants(2.3 to 40ms)
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• AC servo motors
– Generally suited for low power
applications such as instrument
servo (e.g.) control of pen in X-Y
recorders) and computer related
equipment (disk drives, tape
drivers, printers).
– Lower cost, higher efficiency and
less maintenance
– Characteristics are nonlinear and
more difficult to control
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 AC Servo motor

• It is basically a two phase induction motor except

for certain special design features. A two phase
servomotors differs in the following two ways from
a normal induction motor.
– The rotor of the servomotor is built with high resistance,
so that its X/R (Inductive Resistance/Resistance) ratio is
small which results in linear speed torque characteristics.
– The excitation voltage applied to two stator windings
should have a phase difference of 900

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 Construction of AC servo motor

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 Constructional features of AC servo motors

• The stator consists of two pole – pairs (A-B and C-D)

mounted on the inner periphery of the stator, such that
their axes are at an angle of 900 in space. Each pole-pair
carries a winding. One winding is called the reference
winding and the other is called control winding.
• The exciting current in the winding should have a phase
displacement of 900.
• The supply used to drive the motor is single phase and so a
phase advancing capacitor is connected to one of the phase
to produce a phase difference of 900.

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 Constructional features of AC servo motors

• The rotor construction is usually squirrel cage or drag cup

type. The squirrel cage rotor is made of laminations. The
rotor bars are placed on the slots and short circuited at both
ends by end rings.
• The diameter of the rotor is kept small in order to reduce
inertia and to obtain good accelerating characteristics.
• The drag cup construction is employed for very low inertia
applications. In this type of construction, the rotor will be in
the form of hollow cylinder made of aluminum.
• The aluminum cylinder itself acts as short circuited rotor
conductors. (Electrically both the type of rotors are
identical)

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 Working of AC Servomotor

1. The stator windings are excited by voltages of equal rms

magnitude and 900 phase difference. This results in
exciting currents i1 and i2 that are phase displaced by 900
and have equal rms values.
2. These currents give rise to a rotating magnetic field of
constant magnitude. The direction of rotation depends on
the phase relationship of the two currents (or voltages)
3. The exciting currents shown in the figure produce a
clockwise rotating magnetic field and a phase shift of 1800
in i1 will produce an anticlockwise rotating magnetic field.

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 Working of AC Servomotor

4. The rotating magnetic field sweeps over the rotor

conductors. The rotor conducts experience a change in
flux and so voltages are induced in rotor conductors.
5. This voltage circulates current in the short circuited rotor
conductors and the currents create rotor flux.
6. Due to the interaction of stator and rotor flux, a
mechanical force (or torque) is developed on the rotor and
so the rotor starts moving in the same direction as that of
the magnetic field.

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 Working of AC servo motor in control systems

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 Working of AC servo motor in control systems

• The reference winding is excited by a constant

voltage source with a frequency range of 50 to
1000Hz.
• By using frequencies of 400Hz or higher, the system
can be made less susceptible to low-frequency noise.
• Due to this feature, ac devices are extensively used
in aircraft and missile control system in which the
noise and disturbance often create problems.

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 Control signal
• The control winding is excited by the modulated control signal and
this voltage is of variable magnitude and polarity. The control signal
of the servo loop (or the system) dictates the magnitude and polarity
of the voltage.
• The control signals in control systems are usually of low frequency, in
the range of 0 to 20Hz. For production of rotating magnetic field, the
control phase voltage must be of the same frequency as the reference
phase voltage and in addition the two voltages must be in time
quadrature.
• Hence the control signal is modulated by a carrier whose frequency is
same as that of reference voltage and then applied to control winding.
• The ac supply itself is used as carrier signal for modulation process.
The 900 phase difference between the control-phase and reference-
phase voltage is obtained by the insertion of a capacitor in reference
winding.

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 Waveforms of control signal, modulated wave and carrier
signal

• ec = control signal

• ecar = E cosωct
= carrier signal

• ecm= modulated control

signal

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 Output Waveforms

• The type of modulation is amplitude modulation

and so the information is available on the envelope
of the modulated signal.
• It can be observed that the envelope of the
modulated wave is identical to control signal.
• The polarity of ec dictates the phase of ecm with
respect to that of carrier.
• If ec is positive then ecm and ecar have the same
phase otherwise they have 1800 phase difference.

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 Speed Torque characteristics of ac servomotor

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 Speed Torque characteristics

• The speed torque curves of a typical ac servomotor plotted

for fixed reference phase voltage E cosωct and different
values of constant input voltages ec≤E are shown.
• All these curves have negative slope. Note that the curve for
ec=0 goes through the origin, this means that when the
control phase voltage becomes zero, the motor develop a
decelerating torque and so the motor stops.
• The curves show a large torque at zero speed. This is a
requirement for a servomotor in order to provide rapid
acceleration.

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 Transfer function of AC servo motor

• Let
Tm – Torque developed by servomotor
θ – Angular displacement of rotor
ω – angular speed
Tl – Torque required by the load
J – Moment of Inertia of load and the rotor
B – Viscous – frictional coefficient of load and the rotor
K1 - slope of control – phase voltage vs torque characteristic
K2 – slope of speed – torque characteristic

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 Torque equations

• With respect to the characteristics of the servo motor, for

speeds near zero, all the curves are straight lines parallel to
the characteristic at rated input voltage (ec=E) and are
equally spaced for equal increments of the input voltage.
Under this assumption, the torque developed is given as:
Torque developed by the motor, Tm = K1ec – K2dθ/dt
• The load torque is given by
d 2θ dθ
Tl = J 2 + B
dt dt

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 Equilibrium condition

• At equilibrium, load torque is equal to load torque.

Therefore,
d 2θ dθ dθ
J 2 +B = K1ec − K 2
dt dt dt
• On taking laplace transform of equation with zero initial
conditions, we get,
Js2θ(s)+Bsθ(s)=K1Ec(s)-K2sθ(s)
[Js2+Bs+ K2s ]θ(s)=K1Ec(s)

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 Transfer function
θ ( s) K1 K1 /( B + K 2 )
= =
Ec ( s ) s ( Js + B + K 2 ) s ( J s + 1)
B + K2
Km
=
s (τ m s + 1)

K1
where K m = = Motor gain constant
B + K2
J
τm = = Motor time cons tan t
B + K2

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 References

• Control Systems – A. Nagoor kani, RBA

Publications, Chennai

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 And, before we break…

• When deeds speak, words are nothing

– African Proverb.

Thanks for listening…

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