The Future of the Future

The future is never certain.  That’s for sure. (irony intended)

The future of electric motor technology is going to come from the electronics industry.  That has been my position for some time.  And I think its still true to a large extent.  The improvements in control technology made possible through powerful processors like DSP’s and MCU’s have increased performance of a lot of major technologies.  Old-school closed loop servo controls that used to keep track of things down to the millisecond, are now able to regulate in the microseconds.  Control systems are now capable of coordinated motion that updates in the microsecond range. Read more

Got Brushes?

So, on the theme of the old “Got Milk?” ad campaign, and at the risk of sounding absurd, Got Brushes?  No?  That’s okay.  But don’t be surprised if a lot of the toys you have around you do!

From my narrow slice of the world in industrial motion control, we have long since abandoned the brush motor, or brush servo, to the boneyard of antiquity.  Like the single phase SCR drive, or dare I say the old GE vacuum tube (yes you read that right) motor drive of yesteryear, gone and almost completely forgotten. Read more

Mechanics vs. Electronics

I have offered the opinion that mechatronics is a field whose solutions are mechanically bounded.  The limits to performance are initially constrained by the mechanical design of the system.  This is no small matter.

In many companies the mechanical design and electrical design are separate activities.  I know many companies whose mechanical and electrical departments are at war with each other after years of struggles and crises generated by the separation of the disciplines.

Sometimes the mechanical design team takes the lead in creating a machine with longevity as its primary constraint.  And customers deserve equipment that runs reliably for many years.  The mechanical designers may choose heavy materials for high strength to support the demand for strength and reliability.  Read more

The Sound of Mechatronics

Yamaha’s Disklavier Mark IV piano is more than just ebony and ivory, integrating complex electronic systems and components to take sound where it’s never been before.

By Ralph Raiola,
Electronic Products

The task of building a piano capable of producing the sound quality expected and sought after by the world’s best musicians is a difficult enough task. Add modern digital features—built-in recording and playback, data storage, an LCD touchscreen interface, wireless remote control, and more—into the mix, which is what Yamaha has been doing for years with its Disklavier series, and there is always the potential for disaster.
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Simulations and Priorities

Some recent responses to the last post on tradeoff analysis made me think about the complex math behind the design of electric motors.  Its way more complex than you would think.  Not because I know anything about it, but a good friend of mine Dr. Hao Huang, did an incredible job of building an inclusive model of the electric motor and an optimization program as his doctoral thesis.  Its an incredible piece of programming, dare I say art?, that took an entire case of paper to print out.

In the electric motor, its not just torque and speed.  Its all the other things that have to be addressed simultaneously in order to produce the torque and speed. Read more