Mobile Robot chapter 7: The motors of the robot (v.

4a)

Chapter 7: The motors of the robot

z z z Learn about different types of motors Learn to control different kinds of motors using open-loop and closedloop control Learn to use motors in robot building

7.1

Introduction
In this chapter we will discuss three types of motors, namely direct current (DC) motors, servomotors and stepping motors. z DC motors: A DC motor with a gearbox can offer a large torque that is suitable for the motor drive system for carrying the robot around. It is analogous to the engine of a land vehicle. We will discuss the open-loop and closed-loop methods for controlling the speed of a DC motor. Servo motors: On the other hand, servo motors are positional motors that the rotational angle of it shaft can be controlled precisely to a particular angular position but limited to a certain range within 360 degrees, therefore it is suitable for carrying sensors (e.g. ultra-sonic radar) for pointing to different directions. It is analogous to the human neck supporting our head that it can move to a particular angle within a certain range with precision. In fact servomotors with high torque are not limited for carrying sensors, it can also be the power drive system to carry the robot around in the case of a legged robot as shown below. We will talk about legged robot later in this chapter.

Figure 7. 1: 6-leg crawling robots, from http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/hannibal/hannibal.html & http://www.lynxmotion.com)

Stepping motors: A stepping motor can rotate to a fixed angular position according to the input pulses, so it is very suitable for digital controlled machines. We will talk about methods for controlling such motors and also discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using these motors.

Mobile Robot chapter 7: The motors of the robot (v.4a)

7.1

DC motors
The DC motor we are using is small but can run at high speed (~ 2000 rpm). It operates on a 3~5Volt source and drains about 300~500m current when in motion. With the help of a gearbox (ratio 58:1), the torque can be increased but the speed is reduced. The main reason for choosing such motors is that they are low cost and powerful enough for our robot, and moreover it is widely available in most model shops. As said before the current supply for a DC is about 300~500mA (1A during start-up) which is quite large for a digital system, say an I/O pin at the 8255 (typically 2.5 mA), therefore the following issues are needed to be solved.

Figure 7. 2 A DC motor (FA130); The motors, gearbox(58:1) and wheel of our robot

A current driver circuit is required to increase the current from an I/O of a digital IO pin (~2.5mA) to 500mA required by a motor. Develop ways to control effectively the rotational direction and velocity of the motors. To have such a large current system in the system it is bound to create noise when the current is switched on and off at the power source. It may affect other digital circuits that drain current from the same power supply. Therefore a separate power system is designed for the DC motors to avoid noise interference.

We will deal with the problems above, and the structure of the following sections are summarized below: Overview of the robotic system H-bridge circuit for producing large current for motors. How to use pulse-width modulation for controlling the speed of the motors. How to use open-loop and closed-loop methods for speed control How to use servo motors and stepping motors

Mobile Robot chapter 7: The motors of the robot (v.4a)

7.2

Overview of the mobile robot system

The robot Rear side Left motor (Front side)

right motor

On/off

(LEN)

H-bridge system to generate large current for the DC motor

Left motor

Direction (LDIR)

7.2~9.6V battery

Power stabilizer for the motor driving system Using a 7805 GND

Figure 7. 3 The robot with motors, and motor drive block diagram for the left motor

Similarly there is a right motor drive system for the motor on the right hand side, but they can share the same power stabilizer to save cost. For the left motor there are two control bits: LDIR, LEN for controlling the rotational direction and enable motor on/off, respectively. For the motor on the right the corresponding bits are RDIR and REN. Exercise 7. 1Why does the robot use front wheel drive? Exercise 7. 2 Estimate how many power stabilizer systems are needed for the whole system. Draw a block diagram showing the power stabilizer circuits and the sub-modules of the robot systems including DC motors, Servomotors, 8031SBC, and an ultra-sonic radar system.

7.3

Power electronic system for the DC motors:

z z z Mechanical and solid state relay Power transistor H-Bridge circuit

Mobile Robot chapter 7: The motors of the robot (v.4a)

7.3.1

Relays mechanical and solid state types

We can use a simple mechanical replay to turn on or off a DC motor. A mechanical relay consists of a two-way switch that can be turned on or off by a solenoid as shown below. When the input is low, the spring will pull the switch upwards and A-B will be connected. However, when the input is high, the current passing through the solenoid will attract the magnet downwards hence the point A-B will be disconnected and B-C will be joined together.

Figure 7. 4: two views of a mechanical replay

Spring Current driver ULA2003 Magnet A B C input Solenoid

Figure 7. 5 A mechanical replay setup

The major advantage of the mechanical replay is its simplicity and low cost. Because a small solenoid is powerful enough to energize a large switch, hence a small current input can be used to turn on a high power device. It is widely used in electrical appliances, such as televisions, monitors, or even washing machines where very high current switching is employed. Many commercial available relays have rating printed on the device; they can range from a few Amperes to hundreds of Amperes. However, such devices have also their shortcomings, the mechanical contact point of the switch ionizes the carbon in air each time it switches on, so after some time the carbon deposited may be accumulated to an amount to block current flow. Also the mechanical switching time is too slow for fast switching applications; hence it is not suitable for generating pulse width modulation signals. There are also solid-state relays that work on the solid state MOS switching principle, but they are more expensive. Students may find details of these products in the web.

Mobile Robot chapter 7: The motors of the robot (v.4a)

7.3.2

Power transistors
In order to implement pulse-width-nodulation, power transistor for DC motor switching is a good choice. The main idea is to amplify the current from the input and passes the large current output to energize the motor. We used some design found in the reference book C and 8051 building efficient applications by Schultz, Prentice Hall [2]; some of the circuit diagrams shown below are also taken from that reference. z One direction current drive: If we only need the motor to turn to one direction only we have four different designs here.

Figure 7. 6 One direction DC motor drive.

Two directional drive circuit: If we need the motor to turn to both rotational directions we need the following diagram. It is also called the H-bridge circuit

Figure 7. 7 : H-bridge Bi-directional drive

Analog speed control: Apart from the pulse-width-modulation method discussed in the last chapter, we can also control the speed of a motor by the analog method,

Mobile Robot chapter 7: The motors of the robot (v.4a)

Figure 7. 8: Analog variable speed drive

7.3.3

The L293D H-bridge circuit package

The H-bridge current driver device L293 is ideal to be used in our small robots. It is small size, low cost and very efficient. It can drive up to 2A of current, which is quite enough for our application.

2 (1A) LEN LDIR 1(EN1/2) 7(2A) 10(3A) REN RDIR 9(EN3/4) 15(4A)

1Y(3) Left-motor (2Y)6 (3Y)11 Right-motor (4Y)14

Figure 7. 9 The use of a H-bridge circuit L293D for dual motor control

The signal names and the H bridge circuit L293D: H-bridge circuit, one for two motors, up 2A LDIR: left motor direction; RDIR: right motor direction LEN : left motor enable; REN : right motor enable

The idea of the H-bridge circuit is very simple: Using the left motor for the example, when LEN is 0, all drivers for the left motor are disabled so that the motor is not moving. When LEN is 1, then LDIR determines the polarity of the voltage applied to the motor, so it governs the rotational direction of the motor. In our control program we only control 2 bits for the left motor: one bit for the direction (LDIR); another bit is the pulse width

Mobile Robot chapter 7: The motors of the robot (v.4a)

modulated signal to the left motor to control its speed. The same applies to the motor on the right hand side. Here, the drivers in L293D are special power electronic circuits that raise the current 100 times to increase output power. Exercise 7. 3: Give the states of LEN, LDIR, REN and RDIR for turning the robot clockwise. Exercise 7. 4: What alternatives other than PWM are available for controlling the speed of the DC motors?

7.4

Open-loop motor control and its problem

Change motor supply power change speed Problem: How much power is right? Problem: How to make the robot walk straight?

How to control power (Ton) by ISR & 8253? Solution: Use feedback control to read actual wheel, Slower, increase power (+ Ton) Faster, reduce power (- Ton)

Using the pulse width modulation program we developed earlier in the last chapter we can now make the motor drive to rotate at a required speed.

PWM Pulses 8031RL SBC Direction(1 or 0)

H-bridge LEN LDIR

Left -motor

Figure 7. 10 Figure: An open loop motor drive

Using the following ISR (isr_left_pwm())to drive the motor, we can control roughly the speed of the left motor but would not be too accurately. int T_on; isr_left_pwm2() //interrupted at 64Hz { set 8253 with Ton = T_on; } This is called open loop motor control. That means we control the supply of the energy to the motor hoping that it will rotation at a speed we expected. This method has a problem that we dont know how much energy we should give to the motor to make it rotates at a certain speed. And even more serious is that, a motor is not always at a fixed efficiency level, thus the speed may change even you give it the same energy at different times. It becomes a very serious problem especially when the differential-wheeled robot (a robot uses left-right wheels powered separately) we designed needs to move in a straight line, because the two motors are not turning at the same speed. In other words, we

Mobile Robot chapter 7: The motors of the robot (v.4a)

dont know how much we should power the left and the right motors to make them behave the same. To overcome this problem, a technique called closed-loop feedback control is needed which requires the system to read back the rotational speed of the motors and determines how much energy (PWM pulse width Ton) the controllers should deliver to them. To achieve this goal we do need to know the rotational speed of the wheel, which is the theme of the section on closed-loop control.
Exercise 7. 5: When using the open-loop control method with a constant PWM signal for both wheels, explain why the robot would slow down when climbing up hill.

7.4.1

Experiment for open loop motor control hardware counter method

Based on the ISR (interrupted at 64Hz) shown above, write a program to control the motor. The PWM signal control levels are 64 steps, and use the following program structure and variable names. (No need to drive motor; observe the waveform by a Oscilloscope at 8253 out0) int T_on; //no need to drive motor; observe the waveform by a Oscilloscope at 8253 out0 isr_left_pwm2() //interrupted at 64Hz { set 8253 with Ton = T_on; }

Procedure: 1. Design an interrupt based, hardware counter method (PWM type2 using 8253) for generating a PWM signal for the left motor: Interrupt rate 64Hz, control steps is 64.
2.

Feed the PWM signal to the H-bridge (L293) for driving the left DC motor.

7.5

Infrared Red (IR) wheel speed encoder

Used to read actual wheel speed Use photo interrupter Use reflective disk to safe space Based on 8255, 8031SBC interrupts

In order to have precise control of the motor, we need to know the actual velocity of the wheel. This can be achieved by using an infrared photo-interrupter as the speed encoder.

Figure 7. 11: The picture of the speed encoder of our robot

Mobile Robot chapter 7: The motors of the robot (v.4a)

Figure 7. 12:Read back rotating speed of a wheel by IR interrupter

As we can see that when the motor turns, the disk also rotates and chops the light on-andoff periodically, by measuring the pulses at the output of the IR detector we can deduce the speed of the motor. However if you are developing a small robot, sometimes it is not easy to fit two IR photo-interrupters in the chassis hence you can adopt an alternative method -- the reflective disk method, which would save some space. 1024Hz

/int0 8255 IR transmitter 8031

IR receiver
Figure 7. 13: The rotating wheel speed encoder of our robot

The reflective disk method is done by placing the IR transmitter and receiver pointing to the same direction towards a disk. The disk is painted with a pattern shown in the diagram. When the disk rotates, the I.R. receiver will receive on-off pulses corresponding to the angular position of the disk. The other hardware needed is the 8255 for receiving the IR receiver signal, and the 8031 is interrupted regularly and uses the ISR for measuring the wheel speed.

Mobile Robot chapter 7: The motors of the robot (v.4a)

7.5.1

IR encoder circuit and program

Now we will discuss how the chopping of the light can result into a value representing the speed of the motor. As you can see from the above diagram that the IR receiver is connected to the 8255 of our system, it is a good point to begin our discussion because the system can read in the chopping light information. Now we need a program to turn this information into a variable inside our program. Because precise timing is required, it is no wonder an interrupt service routine is definitely required. In the following interrupt service routine with interrupt rate of 1024Hz, the unsigned char wsl_speed_measured will represent the actual speed of the wheel on the left-hand side. In the following ISR program for the left wheel, we need to do the following. Wsl_counter is a counter to keep track of how many changes of pattern of the wheel disk has been detected since wsl_count is last reset. At the beginning of every 1/4 seconds (after 256 interrupts) wsl_count will be stored in wsl_speed_measured and wsl_count is reset to 0. Unsigned char wsl_speed_measured; // wsl_speed_measured=a global variable (pattern changes per 1/4 seconds) of left wheel //timer_counter : an unsigned char main { set isr_read_actual_lspeed( ) interrupt rate at 1024 Hz do_something; } isr_read_actual_lspeed( ) // ISR example for the left wheel; interrupt at 1024 Hz { unsigned char wsl_count; //keep track of the change of pattern since wsl_count reset timer_counter++; // it is a global 8-bit unsigned char if ( the IR receiver reports pattern change) //from black to white or vice versa { wsl_count++; if (timer_counter = = 0) //each wheel speed measurement cycle starts here ; happens once in 0.25s //meaning if( ISR executed 256 times after last reset occurs); { wsl_speed_measured = wsl_count; //integrated result wsl_count = 0; } } }
Exercise 7. 6: What are the disadvantages of using the reflected IR disc method for building an motor speed encoder. Exercise 7. 7: The speed encoder wheel disk has 16 white and 16 black strips, what is the relation between wsl_speed_measured (w) and rotation per second of the wheel(R)?

Note: It is interesting to know how many PWM cycles (discussed in the chapter on PWM) have been sent to the motor for each wheel speed measurement cycle. The wheel speed measurement cycle is executed at 4Hz (period 1/4 s, see the above ISR). For example, if the PWM of the motor is we are using an interrupt rate of 1024Hz and 16 control levels, the PWM signal is at 64Hz. So for each wheel speed measurement cycle, there should be (64/4)=16 PWM cycles.

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Mobile Robot chapter 7: The motors of the robot (v.4a)

7.5.2

Experiment 7_1, Program to read the speed of the wheels

1. Design the IR wheel speed encoder circuit. 2. Write an program to read the speed of the left wheels

isr_read_actual_lspeed( ), results stored at actual_lspeed

7.6 7.6.1

Closed-loop feed back control system A simple closed-loop control system

As we have discussed before, in order to achieve precise speed control, a closed loop feedback system is necessary. A simple method is show below. For example, we have a certain required speed wsl_speed_input , say 10 units for the robot, if the wsl_speed_measured is lower than 10, it increases power by adding 1 unit to wsl_t_on, otherwise it decreases power by subtracting 1 unit from wsl_t_on. It is effective and simple, but stability is a problem if we look at the following example. If the initialize value of wsl_speed_measured is low, say 5 and we want wsl_speed_input to be 10. Power will be increased and it adds 1 to wsl_t_ton and the wheel will turn faster. Then we will have the following two scenarios happening alternatively: z Because of certain mechanical delay the speed of the wheel will not change to 10 instantly as required. But the control system sees that delta_speed is still negative, hence it will increase power again. With a few interrupt cycles (few ms), wsl_t_ton will be increased many times and reaches to the top level. So the system will exert full power to increase the speed from 5 to 10. Later, when delta_speed finally becomes negative (wsl_speed_measured > wsl_speed_input), say 11, the system will decrease wsl_t_on by 1, but the wheel is not moving slower because of inertia, hence after a few interrupt cycle (few ms) wsl_st_on will decrease to 0. So the system will exert no power (wsl_t_ton=0) to make the wheel to return from 11 to 10.

The above two scenarios will happen alternatively. The frequency of the occurrence will increase as wsl_speed_measured and wsl_speed_input are close, hence the wheels will jerk. If we look at the cause of the problem, we find that the system may be too sensitive; it is responding too quickly. Hence we conclude that if a system is too sensitive, it is unstable. Do you find the same thing happen to humans as well?

if (delta_speed >0) wsl_t_on=wsl_t_on+1; else wsl_to n=wsl_t_on-1; Required speed= Wsl_speed_input + delta_speed Alter PWM for driver L293

wsl_t_on Motor IR wheel Speed encoder

Wsl_speed_measured

Figure 7. 14: A simple closed loop feedback control of the left motor speed

Wheel speed
11 Wsl_speed_input

wsl_t_ton value

The unstable Wsl_speed_measured

Initial Wsl_speed_measured

time

Mobile Robot chapter 7: The motors of the robot (v.4a)

Figure 7. 15: If the feedback loop is too fast, the system is unstable. It is now turned into a bang-bang (a bad name for unstable systems) control system.

7.6.2

Increase stability by using delay

There are many methods to make a system more stable. For example we can add delay to the feedback path, such as to add a rule saying that if wsl_speed_measured is not changed, we keep the current power wsl_t_ton level. It is effective because the system would not change wsl_t_on so rapidly. However we may have some other problems, such as, the speed may be locked into a local minimum; it will not change speed at a certain value. A case in point is that if wsl_speed_measured is initially at 0 speed, it may not change forever. Think about the reason! Students can experience this when they perform the experiments. Of course some methods for fixing this deficiency can be devised and it will be left for an exercise for students. //The simplified algorithm for feedback control of the left wheel of desired speed //wsl_speed_input: the desired moving speed //wsl_speed_measured: actual speed measured //wsl_t_on: Ton time of the left wheel //A simple control algorithm with stabilizer Main() //only left motor control is shown, a simplified algorithm { Initialize wsl_t_on ; Loop forever { change wsl_speed_input to the desired speed by user or program; Do_something(); } } ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// //combined both isr_left_pwm1 and isr_read_actual_lspeed( ) Isr_left_feedback() //interrupted at 1024Hz { generate PWM Ton according to wsl_t_on, //see the chapter on PWM; e.g. 16 control steps, PWM signal = 64 Hz read wsl_speed_measured, see isr_read_actual_lspeed( ). If (wsl_speed_measured has changed since last interrupt, or add delay if wsl_t_on has just changed) //stabilize the system { if ( wsl_speed_measured < wsl_speed_input) increase Ton by wsl_t_on= wsl_t_on+1; else decrease Ton by wsl_t_on= wsl_t_on-1; } }

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Mobile Robot chapter 7: The motors of the robot (v.4a)

7.6.3

Increase stability by using proportional closed-loop control

Delta_wsl_t_on Required speed= Delta_speed Wsl_speed_input + K1=1 (forward gain) Alter PWM for driver L293

wsl_t_on Motor IR wheel Speed encoder

Wsl_speed_measured K2=1 (feedback gain)

Exercise 7. 8 Closed feed back control of the left motor speed

//The proportional feedback control method //The actual code is not available yet, students should write their own, // //Wsl_speed_input: the desired moving speed //Wsl_speed_measured: actual speed measured //wsl_t_on: Ton time K1, K2, delta_speed are floating point numbers Main() //only left motor control is shown, a simplified algorithm { Initialize wsl_t_on ; Loop forever { change wsl_speed_input to the desired speed by user or program; Do_something(); } } ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // K1,K2 are floating point numbers, by careful selecting K1,K2 we can have // a stable and responsive control system. // //combined both isr_left_pwm1 and isr_read_actual_lspeed( ) Isr_left_feedback() //interrupted at 1024Hz { generate PWM Ton according to wsl_t_on, see chapter 5; read wsl_speed_measured, see isr_read_actual_lspeed( ). If (wsl_speed_measured changed above a limit since last interrupt) // the above may be used to stabilize the system { delta_speed = wsl_speed_input (wsl_speed_measured) * K2 ; wsl_t_on = wsl_t_on + delta_speed * K1; } }

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Mobile Robot chapter 7: The motors of the robot (v.4a)

Wheel speed Wsl_speed_input Initial Wsl_speed_measured

Wsl_t_on value

The stablized Wsl_speed_measured

time

Figure 7. 16: Proportional feedback will enable the system to reach the desired speed in a more stable manner.

Proportional control is a formal method to make a system more stable as well responsive. In the system block diagram, the user can input the desired speed wsl_speed_input to the system, for example through the keyboard. If the motor is rotating slower then expected, then delta_speed should be positive, thus we proportionally increase the PWM pulse on-time Ton wsl_t_on . That is the increase in wsl_t_on is proportional to K1* {wsl_speed_input - K2* (wsl_speed_measured) }. We will do the opposite if delta_speed is negative. And this is the basic concept of a proportional closed-loop control system, which is used widely in many different fields of engineering, for example, airplanes, printers, disk drives etc. It is noted that in order to have accurate control, the variables used in this system should be in floating point format so that enough data accuracy can be utilized.
Exercise 7. 9: Write the algorithm for making the robot move straight in the forward direction at a constant speed. (Hint: (1) set two wheels at the same speed, or (2) compare speed of two wheels, comment on the differences.) Exercise 7. 10: Modify the algorithm in the above question to make the robot to follow a circular path of radius R1=0.5 meters.

7.7

Control theory
The above control system is a simple but effectively one, however, by selecting the forward and feedback gain (K1,K2 resp.) factors carefully, we can achieve an effective and stable control system. However, this is only a brief example, interested students should consult books on control theory for more in depth discussions of this issue.

7.8

Servo motor system

The servomotor motor is a positional motor system that carries a load accurately to a particular rational angle. We have discussed the pulse width modulated signal for a servomotor, please refer back to the chapter on PWM for details. In our robot we will use it to carry an ultra-sonic radar system. Since the radar system can only detect obstacles directly ahead of its transmitters and emitter, to widen its viewing scope, we can put the radar system on top of a rotational table for pointing it to different directions. Ultrasonic obstacle Radar system Transmitter on a rotational Receiver platform

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Mobile Robot chapter 7: The motors of the robot (v.4a)

Figure 7. 17 : Application of a servomotor in a ultra-sonic radar system

Another application of servomotors is use them for making the join of an insect like the legged robot as shown in figure 1. In such a robot, each leg consists of three servomotors enabling the leg to perform complex motion. By carefully setting the legs to move synchronously we can move the robot just like a crawling insect. However, it is a highly complex system because the control mechanism involves so many degrees of freedom. Hence it is still a research problem for many researches all over the world, interested students should find more information from the Internet.

7.9

Stepping motors and control

Stepping motors are good positional control motors used widely in digital controlled machineries such as digital arm-clocks, printers, disk drives etc.

Figure 7. 18 small stepping motors

The shaft of a stepping motor can rotate to precise angular positions according to the input control signals. For a small 4-phase stepping motor as shown above, there are 5 excitation input lines including in0, in1, in2, in3 and a common (com). The interface circuit is as follows. Even for the small stepping motors shown above, the requirement of current for each excitation input is rather high (over 500mA), so a power electrical driver circuit is necessary. In our experiment we used a L293 H-bridge circuit (in fact 74245 current driver is more cost effective) and four TIP3055 transistors to boost up the current and voltage from the TTL to the required level.

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Mobile Robot chapter 7: The motors of the robot (v.4a)

Figure 7. 19: Steeping motor interface circuit

The method of making the motor to rotate is to give a step pattern to the inputs of the motor at a regular time interval. The motor will rotate according to the step rate. Therefore the motor rotating speed can be controlled precisely. Also if the sequence is reversed the motor will rotate to the opposite direction. It is shown that there are two methods for excitation: (1) full step method ; (2) half step method. Type Full wave stepping Step index pb0 1 2 3 4 Half wave stepping 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 Pb1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 Pb2 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 Pb3 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 Code 0011=0x03 0110=0x06 1100=0x0c 1001=0x09 0001=0x01 0011=0x03 0010=0x02 0110=0x06 0100=0x04 1100=0x0c 1000=0x08 1001=0x09

table 7 1 Stepping motor excitation sequence

Generating the excitation pulse sequence can be done by either software delay method or interrupt method. Of course the interrupt method should give better accuracy and controllability. Students should work out the algorithms themselves. Excitation method Full step Advantages Shorter sequence Higher torque Disadvantages Oscillate, relatively unstable. Easy to slip steps when excitation time step is too short; slower rotation speed limit Smooth rotation, relative stable Higher rotation speed limit

Half step

Longer sequence Lower torque

table 7 2 The relative advantages and disadvantages are shown below

A major problem for stepping motors is their stepping rate limit. There is a relatively lower rotating speed limit compared to that of the DC motors. Because when the stepping

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Mobile Robot chapter 7: The motors of the robot (v.4a)

rate is too fast, the stepping motor will slip steps and sometimes results in local oscillating at the same position. Therefore the main advantage of stepping motors is their precision in speed and positional control because using a simple digital control sequence one can control the speed and rotation position precisely. While, for a DC motor, a more complex feedback control setup must be used for precise speed or positional control as discussed before.

Figure 7. 20 : (Left)Top,(Middle) side views of a micro-mouse using 2 stepping motors. (Right) The standard maze of a micro-mouse competition, the mouse is at the far right corner of the picture.( See also http://www.ai.com.sg/products.htm)

7.10 Method to solve the step-slipping problem

Because of the advantages of easy control, stepping motors are used widely for building micro-mouse robots for micro-mouse competitions. For example we can change the stepping rate of the input sequence to control the speed of the motor, however, if the change is too rapidly, some controlling steps may be missed (step-slipping). It is higher undesirable in micro-mouse control, because the mouse may lose track of where it is. To overcome this, rotation profile is used. The idea is illustrated in the following diagrams. It is shown that if we increase the rotating step too sudden the stepping motor may slip some steps or may not rotate at all. Using a profile method to increase or decrease the rotating speed gradually the problem can be solved. The precise profile parameter depends on the motor and its loading so it must be worked out by actual experimentation.

Rotating Speed 1

Sudden change of speed may result in step-slipping

Time

Rotating speed 1

Gradual change of speed will solve the step-slipping problem

Figure 7. 21 : The method of using a speed profile to solve the step-slipping problem

7.11 Conclusion
In this chapter we studied the methods of controlling the speed of a DC motor. First an open-loop method is discussed then followed by a more precise closed-loop feedback method. Finally applications and use of servomotors and stepping motors for robot engineering are covered.

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Mobile Robot chapter 7: The motors of the robot (v.4a)

7.12 Reference
1. Data sheet of H-bridge driver circuit device by Texas instrument

http://www.ti.com/sc/docs/products/analog/l293.html#Datasheets
2. Schultz , C and 8051 building efficient applications , Prentice Hall

7.13 Appendix
Answer for exercise 7. 11: What are the disadvantages of using the reflected IR disc method for building an motor speed encoder. ANSWER: save space, easier to install. Answer for exercise 7. 12: The speed encoder wheel disk has 16 white and 16 black strips, what is the relation between wsl_speed_measured (w) and rotation per second of the wheel(R)? ANSWER: Each rotation there are 32 changes (white to black, black to white), so R=w/32

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