Robots often operate both autonomously and alongside humans. They greatly benefit the industrial and manufacturing sectors with their accuracy, efficiency, and convenience. By monitoring motor positions at all times, it is possible to maintain not only system control but also prevent unintentional motion, as this can cause system damage or bodily harm.
Such monitoring of motor positioning is possible to implement by contactless angle encoding. It requires a magnet mounted on the motor shaft and provides an input for a magnetic encoder. As dirt and grime do not influence the magnetic field, integrating such an arrangement onto the motor provides a compact solution. As the encoder tracking the rotating magnet provides sinusoidal and 90-degree out-of-phase components, their relationships offer quick calculations of the angular position.
As the magnet rotates on the motor shaft, many magnetic encoding technologies can offer the same end effect. For instance, Hall-effect and magnetoresistance sensors can detect the changing magnetic field. 3D linear Hall effect sensors can help with calculating angular positions, while at the same time, also offering compensations for temperature drift, device sensitivity, offset, and unbalanced input magnitudes.
Apart from signal-chain errors, the rotation of the magnet also depends on mechanical tolerances. This also determines the quality of detection of the magnetic field. A final calibration process is necessary to achieve optimal performance, which means either harmonic approximation or multipoint linearization. With calibration against mechanical error sources, it is possible for magnetic encoding to achieve high accuracy.
The driving motor may connect directly to the load, through a gearbox for increasing the applied torque, through a rack and pinion, or use a belt and screw drive for transferring energy elsewhere. As the motor shaft spins, it transfers the kinetic energy to change the mechanical position somewhere in the system. In each case, the angle of the motor shaft correlates directly to the position of the moving parts of the system. When the turns ratio is different from one, it is also necessary to track the motor rotations.
Sensorless motor controls and stepper motors do not offer feedback for the absolute position. Rather, they offer an estimate of the position on the basis of the relative change from the starting position. When there is a loss of power, it is necessary to determine the actual motor position through alternate means.
Although it is possible to obtain the highest positional accuracy through the use of optical encoders, these often require bulky enclosures for protecting the aperture and sensor from contaminants like dirt and dust. Also, it is necessary to couple the mechanical elements to the motor shaft. If the rotational speed exceeds the mechanical rating of the encoder, it can lead to irreparable damage.
No mechanical coupling is necessary in the case of magnetically sensed technologies like magnetoresistive and Hall-effect sensors, as they use a magnet mounted on the motor shaft. The permanent magnet has a magnetic field that permeates the surrounding area, allowing a wide range of freedom for placing the sensor.
