What is Servo Motor?

This is nothing but a simple electrical motor, controlled with the help of
servomechanism. If the motor as controlled device, associated with servomechanism
is DC motor, then it is commonly known DC Servo Motor. If the controlled motor is
operated by AC, it is called AC Servo Motor.

Servo Motor Theory

There are some special types of application of electrical motor where rotation of the
motor is required for just a certain angle not continuously for long period of time.
For these applications some special types of motor are required with some special
arrangement which makes the motor to rotate a certain angle for a given electrical
input (signal). For this purpose servo motor comes into picture. This is normally a
simple DC motor which is controlled for specific angular rotation with help of
additional servomechanism (a typical closed loop feedback control system). Now
day’s servo system has huge industrial applications. Servo motor applications are
also commonly seen in remote controlled toy cars for controlling direction of motion
and it is also very commonly used as the motor which moves the tray of a CD or DVD
player. Beside these there are other hundreds of servo motor applications we see in
our daily life. The main reason behind using a servo is that it provides angular
precision, i.e. it will only rotate as much we want and then stop and wait for next
signal to take further action. This is unlike a normal electrical motor which starts
rotating as and when power is applied to it and the rotation continues until we
switch off the power. We cannot control the rotational progress of electrical motor;
but we can only control the speed of rotation and can turn it ON and OFF.

Now we come to the specific answer of the question "what is servo motor?" Servo
motor is a special type of motor which is automatically operated up to certain limit
for a given command with help of error-sensing feedback to correct the
performance.

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Servo Motor Working Principle
Before understanding the working principle of servo motor we should understand
first the basic of servomechanism.

Servomechanism
A servo system mainly consists of three basic components - a controlled device, a
output sensor, a feedback system. This is an automatic closed loop control system.
Here instead of controlling a device by applying variable input signal, the device is
controlled by a feedback signal generated by comparing output signal and reference
input signal. When reference input signal or command signal is applied to the system,
it is compared with output reference signal of the system produced by output sensor,
and a third signal produced by feedback system. This third signal acts as input signal
of controlled device. This input signal to the device presents as long as there is a
logical difference between reference input signal and output signal of the system.
After the device achieves its desired output, there will be no longer logical difference
between reference input signal and reference output signal of the system. Then, third
signal produced by comparing theses above said signals will not remain enough to
operate the device further and to produce further output of the system until the next
reference input signal or command signal is applied to the system. Hence the primary
task of a servomechanism is to maintain the output of a system at the desired value in
the presence of disturbances.

Working Principle of Servo Motor

A servo motor is basically a DC motor(in some special cases it is AC motor) along with
some other special purpose components that make a DC motor a servo. In a servo

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unit, you will find a small DC motor, a potentiometer, gear arrangement and an
intelligent circuitry. The intelligent circuitry along with the potentiometer makes the
servo to rotate according to our wishes.

As we know, a small DC motor will rotate with high speed but the torque generated
by its rotation will not be enough to move even a light load. This is where the gear
system inside a servomechanism comes into picture. The gear mechanism will take
high input speed of the motor (fast) and at the output, we will get a output speed
which is slower than original input speed but more practical and widely applicable.
Say at initial position of servo motor shaft, the position of the potentiometer knob is
such that there is no electrical signal generated at the output port of the potentiometer .
This output port of the potentiometer is connected with one of the input terminals of
the error detector amplifier. Now an electrical signal is given to another input terminal
of the error detector amplifier. Now difference between these two signals, one comes
from potentiometer and another comes from external source, will be amplified in the
error detector amplifier and feeds the DC motor. This amplified error signal acts as
the input power of the dc motor and the motor starts rotating in desired direction. As
the motor shaft progresses the potentiometer knob also rotates as it is coupled with
motor shaft with help of gear arrangement. As the position of the potentiometer knob
changes there will be an electrical signal produced at the potentiometer port. As the
angular position of the potentiometer knob progresses the output or feedback signal
increases. After desired angular position of motor shaft the potentiometer knob is
reaches at such position the electrical signal generated in the potentiometer becomes
same as of external electrical signal given to amplifier. At this condition, there will be
no output signal from the amplifier to the motor input as there is no difference
between external applied signal and the signal generated at potentiometer . As the
input signal to the motor is nil at that position, the motor stops rotating. This is how a
simple conceptual servo motor works.

Servo Motor Control

For understanding servo motor control let us consider an example of servomotor
that we have given a signal to rotate by an angle of 45° and then stop and wait for
further instruction.

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The shaft of the DC motor is coupled with another shaft called output shaft, with help
of gear assembly. This gear assembly is used to step down the high rpm of the motor's
shaft to low rpm at output shaft of the servo system.

The voltage adjusting knob of a potentiometer is so arranged with the output shaft by
means of another gear assembly, that during rotation of the shaft, the knob also rotates
and creates an varying electrical potential according to the principle of potentiometer .
This signal i.e. electrical potential is increased with angular movement of
potentiometer knob along with the system shaft from 0° to 45°. This electrical
potential or voltage is taken to the error detector feedback amplifier along with the
input reference commends i.e. input signal voltage.

As the angle of rotation of the shaft increases from 0° to 45° the voltage from
potentiometer increases. At 45° this voltage reaches to a value which is equal to the
given input command voltage to the system. As at this position of the shaft, there is no
difference between the signal voltage coming from the potentiometer and reference
input voltage (command signal) to the system, the output voltage of the amplifier
becomes zero.

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As per the picture given above the output electrical voltage signal of the amplifier,
acts as input voltage of the DC motor. Hence the motor will stop rotating after the
shaft rotates by 45°. The motor will be at this rest position until another command is
given to the system for further movement of the shaft in desired direction. From this
example we can understand the most basic servo motor theory and how servo motor
control is achieved. NB: Although in practical servo motor control system,
instead of using simple potentiometer we use digital or analog position sensor
encoder.
From this basic working principle of servo motor it can be concluded. The shaft of
the servo is connected to a potentiometer . The circuitry inside the servo, to which the
potentiometer is connected, knows the position of the servo. The current position will
be compared with the desired position continuously with the help of an Error
Detection Amplifier. If a mismatch is found, then an error signal is provided at the
output of the error amplifier and the shaft will rotate to go the exact location required.
Once the desired location is reached, it stops and waits.

Continuous Rotation Servo Motors

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Continuous rotation servo motors are actually a modified version of what the servos
are actually meant to do, that is, control the shaft position. The 360° rotation servos
are actually made by changing certain mechanical connections inside the servo.
However, certain manufacturer like parallax sells these servos as well. With the
continuous rotation servo you can only control the direction and speed of the servo,
but not the position.

Two of the most popular Servo motor manufacturers are FUTABA and HITEC.

DC Servo Motors | Theory of DC Servo Motor

Under Electrical Motor
As we know that any electrical motor can be utilized as servo motor if it is controlled
by servomechanism. Likewise, if we control a DC motor by means of
servomechanism, it would be referred as DC servo motor. There are different types
of DC motor, such shunt wound DC motor, series DC motor, Separately excited DC
motor, permanent magnet DC motor, Brushless DC motor etc. Among all mainly
separately excited DC motor, permanent magnet DC motor and brush less DC motor
are used as servo.

Separately Excited DC Servo Motor

DC Servo Motor Theory

The motors which are utilized as DC servo motors, generally have separate DC source for field
winding and armature winding. The control can be archived either by controlling the field current or

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armature current. Field control has some specific advantages over armature control and on the other
hand armature control has also some specific advantages over field control. Which type of control
should be applied to the DC servo motor, is being decided depending upon its specific applications.
Let's discus DC servo motor working principle for field control and armature control one by one.

Field Controlled DC Servo Motor Theory

The figure below illustrates the schematic diagram for a field controlled DC servo
motor. In this arrangement the field of DC motor is excited be the amplified error
signal and armature winding is energized by a constant current source .

The field
is controlled below the knee point of magnetizing saturation curve. At that portion of
the curve the mmf linearly varies with excitation current. That means torque
developed in the DC motor is directly proportional to the field current below the
knee point of magnetizing saturation curve.

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From general torque equation of DC motor it is found that, torque T ∝ φIa. Where, φ
is field flux and Ia is armature current. But in field controlled DC servo motor, the
armature is excited by constant current source , hence Ia is constant here. Hence, T ∝
φ

As field of this DC servo motor is excited by amplified error signal, the torque of the
motor i.e. rotation of the motor can be controlled by amplified error signal. If the
constant armature current is large enough then, every little change in field current
causes corresponding change in torque on the motor shaft.

The direction of rotation can be changed by changing polarity of the field.

The direction of rotation can also be altered by using split field DC motor, where the
field winding is divided into two parts, one half of the winding is wound in clockwise
direction and other half in wound in anticlockwise direction. The amplified error
signal is fed to the junction point of these two halves of the field as shown below. The
magnetic field of both halves of the field winding opposes each other. During
operation of the motor, magnetic field strength of one half dominates other depending
upon the value of amplified error signal fed between these halves. Due to this, the DC
servo motor rotates in a particular direction according to the amplified error signal
voltage.
The main disadvantage of field control DC servo motors, is that the dynamic
response to the error is slower because of longer time constant of inductive field
circuit. The field is an electromagnet so it is basically a highly inductive circuit hence
due to sudden change in error signal voltage, the current through the field will reach to
its steady state value after certain period depending upon the time constant of the field
circuit. That is why field control DC servo motor arrangement is mainly used in small
servo motor applications.
The main advantage of using field control scheme is that, as the motor is controlled by
field - the controlling power requirement is much lower than rated power of the
motor.

Armature Controlled DC Servo Motor Theory

The figure below shows the schematic diagram for an armature controlled DC servo
motor. Here the armature is energized by amplified error signal and field is excited

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by a constant current source .

The field
is operated at well beyond the knee point of magnetizing saturation curve. In this
portion of the curve, for huge change in magnetizing current, there is very small
change in mmf in the motor field. This makes the servo motor is less sensitive to
change in field current. Actually for armature controlled DC servo motor, we do not
want that, the motor should response to any change of field current.

Again, at saturation the field flux is maximum. As we said earlier, the general torque
equation of DC motor is, torque T ∝ φIa. Now if φ is large enough, for every little
change in armature current Ia there will be a prominent changer in motor torque. That
means servo motor becomes much sensitive to the armature current.
As the armature of DC motor is less inductive and more resistive, time constant of
armature winding is small enough. This causes quick change of armature current due
to sudden change in armature voltage. That is why dynamic response of armature

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controlled DC servo motor is much faster than that of field controlled DC servo
motor.
The direction of rotation of the motor can easily be changed by reversing the polarity
of the error signal.

Permanent Magnet DC Servo Motor

Field control is not possible in the case of permanent magnet DC motor as the field is
a permanent magnet here. DC servo motor working principle in that case is similar to
that of armature controlled motor.

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