Fürth, Germany / Basingstoke, UK, 29th March 2021 – The importance of sensor resolution and sample time when tuning servo systems has been highlighted in the latest webinar from international motion control and positioning specialist Aerotech.
The webinar is the third in a specialist series aimed at servo system users across a broad spectrum of industry sectors. It focuses on the role of these key digital control elements when a user is seeking to optimise the performance of their servo systems.
Dr Joseph Profeta, Director – Control Systems Group at Aerotech, explained: “Sampling often uses an Analogue to Digital Convertor (A/D), with the signal sampled at a regular interval. However, sampling can introduce a delay in the control loop, resulting in phase loss. A higher frequency can also ‘alias’ to a lower frequency. This inevitably produces misleading results and means that an anti-aliasing filter will be needed.”
He continued: “Various types of encoders are available – TTL, incremental, absolute and amplified sine. However, whatever type is in place, its performance will be largely determined by how well it has been tuned.
“Resolution will be key in determining accuracy of tuning, and should be greater than the final accuracy required – indeed, higher resolution will generally yield greater improvement in accuracy than a higher sample rate. Ultimately, when it comes to sample rate, faster is almost always better while with resolution, more is almost always better.”
The webinar discusses all of these issues in depth and provides advice for users on how to develop a regime to get the best out of their servo systems, whatever the application in which they are being used.
For further information and to access the webinar, visit:
Part 1, How to Tune Servo Systems: The Basics
Part 2, How to Tune Servo Systems: Tuning for Optimal Performance
Part 3, How to Tune Servo Systems: Sensor Resolution & Sample Time
