Faculty of Engineering and Technology

Department of Mechatronics Engineering

MEASUREMENTS and CONTROL LAB 0908448

Exp 1: DC Servo

Prepared by: Anas Wajih Al-Hamad 0057371

Ahmad abu Jajeh

Ahmad abu Hashim 0050537

Ramzi Al-Assaf

Instructor: Eng. Nazmi Ahmed Abu-Ashour

Introduction:

Servo motors, by definition, run using a control loop and require feedback of some kind. A
control loop uses feedback from the motor to help the motor get to a desired state (position,
velocity, and so on). There are many different types of control loops. Generally, the PID
(Proportional, Integral, and Derivative) control loop is used for servo motors.

When using a control loop such as PID, you may need to tune the servo motor. Tuning is the
process of making a motor respond in a desirable way. Tuning a motor can be a very difficult
and tedious process, but is also an advantage in that it lets the user have more control over the
behavior of the motor.

Since servo motors have a control loop to check what state they are in, they are generally more
reliable than stepper motors. When a stepper motor misses a step for any reason, there is no
control loop to compensate in the move. The control loop in a servo motor is constantly checking
to see if the motor is on the right path and, if it is not, it makes the necessary adjustments.

In general, servo motors run more smoothly than stepper motors except when micro-stepping is
used. Also, as speed increases, the torque of the servo remains constant, making it better than the
stepper at high speeds (usually above 1000 RPM). For information about how servo motors work
see the related link below.

Advantages of Servo Motors

Some of the advantages of servo motors over stepper motors are as follows:
 High intermittent torque
 High torque to inertia ratio
 High speeds
 Work well for velocity control
 Available in all sizes
 Quiet
Disadvantages of Servo Motors
Some of the disadvantages of servo motors compared with stepper motors are as follows:
 More expensive than stepper motors
 Cannot work open loop - feedback is required
 Require tuning of control loop parameters
 More maintenance due to brushes on brushed DC motors

EQUIPMENT and APPARATUS:

1. Power supply.
2. Personal computer.
3. Feedback, 33-002 Servo Fundamentals Trainer, which consists of the following:
Mechanical Unit 33-100
Analogue Unit 33-110
Digital unit the 33-120
Software pack 33-911

Mechanical Unit 33-100:

It contains a power amplifier to drive the motor from an analogue or switched input. The motor
drives the output shaft through a 32:1 belt reduction. The motor shaft also carries a magnetic
brake disc and an analogue speed transducer (tacho-generator). A two-phase pulse train for
digital speed and direction sensing is also derived from tracks on the brake disc. The output shaft
carries analogue (potentiometer) and digital (64 location Gray code) angle transducers.
The unit contains a simple signal generator to provide low frequency test signals; sine, square
and triangular waves, and requires an external power supply providing:
+15 V, 0, .15 V at 1.5 A
+5 V, 0, at 0.5 A
PART I: Steady-State Characteristics:

Amplifier output shaft motor speed

input (V) speed(RPM) (RPM)
10 -87.3 -2793.6
9 -85.8 -2745.6
7.5 -74.4 -2380.8
5 -51.2 -1683.4
2.5 -26.7 -854.4
1 -11.4 -364.8
0 0 0
-1 11.4 364.8
-2.5 27.1 867.2
-5 52.2 1670.2
-7.5 76.6 2451.2
-9 83.1 2659.2
-10 83.3 2665.6
We notice that the relationship is almost linear which is close to the expected curve.
When using the tacho-generator:

Generated output shaft motor speed

volts (V) speed(RPM) (RPM)
7.5 -74.3 -2377.6
5 -51.3 -1641.6
2.5 -26.5 -848
1 -11.5 -368
0 0 0
-1 12.1 387.2
-2.5 26.8 857.6
-5 51.3 1641.6
-7.5 76.1 2435.2
This relationship is almost linear and can be assumed linear to find K tacho-generator factor:
Slope = (7.5-5)/(2377.6-1641.6) so K= slope *1000 = 3.4 V/100rpm
Brake Load:

Brake Armature output shaft motor

setting current Ia (amps) speed(RPM) speed(RPM)
0 -0.25 62.4 1996.8
1 -0.29 60.6 1939.2
2 -0.43 55 1760
3 -0.6 47.4 1516.8
4 -0.72 41.9 1340.8
5 -0.81 37.1 1187.2
6 -0.86 34.2 1094.4
We notice that this figure is close to the expected one.

PART II: Error Channel and Feedback Polarity:

If we use negative feedback the error will be reduced to go back to the desired value but if the
feedback is positive then this will increase the error and theoretically will go to infinite but it
stopped because the slider arm of the potentiometer has moved into the gap between the ends of
the track and Vo becomes zero.
 PART III: The Influence of Gain:
 Critical damping when zeta = 1,
 Over-damping when zeta > 1,
 Under-damping when zeta < 1
Where “zeta” is the Damping ratio.

p1 percentage Ta settling peak Vo overshoot Overshoot System

value(&) time (s) value (V) value (V) percentage (%) behavior
0 0 0 0 0 none
10 0 0 0 0 none
20 3.7 3.9 ____ ____ Over-damped
30 3.25 4.9 ____ ____ Over-damped
50 2.49 5.9 0.9 18 Under-damped
70 3.69 6.5 1.5 30 Under-damped
80 3.86 6.9 1.1 22 Under-damped
100 4.21 7.3 2.7 54 Under-damped

The percentage of p1 to make the system over shoot is around 50%.

The settling time increase as the overshoot increase which is logical as we need more time to
settle the system back if the overshoot is big.
PART IV: Velocity Feedback:

brake Armature output shaft motor speed

setting current Ia speed (RPM) (RPM)
(amps)
0 -0.22 30 992
1 -0.25 30.5 976
2 -0.32 27.4 876.8
3 -0.4 24.2 771.2
4 -0.47 21.6 691.2
5 -0.53 19.2 614.2
6 -0.55 18.2 582.4
 brake armature output motor PA
setting current shaft speed input
Ia (amps) speed(RPM) (RPM) (V)
0 -0.22 31.2 998.4 -3.07
1 -0.24 30.4 972.8 -3.1
2 -0.33 29 928 -3.26
3 -0.44 26.8 857.6 -3.5
4 -0.52 25.3 809.6 -3.6
5 -0.6 23.8 761.6 -3.75
6 -0.65 22.8 729.6 -3.8
Conclusions:

 In this experiment we learned about the servo motor and how to control its
speed and position using the closed loop (feedback system).

 From this experiment we noticed that when applying the brake to the system
the speed of the motor decreased because the torque increased in the open
loop system but in the closed loop system the speed decreased slightly
because the system is trying to speed up and return to the original desired
speed.

 We noticed the effect of the proportional controller which increases the

overshoot of the system and thus increase the time needed to settle which
makes the system behaves in a bad way.

 The polarity of the feedback is very important that determine if the error
while be reduced and stabilize the system or increased and make the system
unstable.