Part

Motor driver

You might say: servo drive, ESC, amplifier

A motor driver switches power into motor phases and closes current, velocity or position loops. With sinusoidal commutation or FOC, current is the fast inner torque-related loop.

What it does
It turns commands into bounded phase current and protects the motor and power stage.
Ask
What current limits, loop rates, bus timing and fault protections are provided?
Typical
A motor amplifier uses current sensing and a local feedback loop to achieve a requested current.
Trouble
Current saturation, bus jitter, over-temperature, over-current or lost feedback causes tracking error or a drive fault.

What to look for

  1. Power switched into motor phases
  2. Current, velocity or position loop
  3. Bounded phase current
  4. Drive fault after over-current

Connections

Sources

  1. Kevin M. Lynch and Frank C. Park, Modern Robotics: Mechanics, Planning, and Control, Ch. 8 §8.9The amplifier uses a local feedback control loop to adjust the time-averaged voltage across the motor to achieve the desired current.
  2. David V. Gealy et al., Quasi-Direct Drive for Low-Cost Compliant Robotic Manipulation, p. 4, motor drivers and sensors12-bit current sensing for closed-loop current (and thus torque) control of each servomotor

Use it on your project

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