With all of the development activity to improve motion control, identifying the top trend would seem to be a daunting task. However, that did not stop a number of experts from offering their input. They thought it was easy.
Steve Wirtz, Sr. application engineer for Engineered Drives at Rockwell Automation says some of the key trends in motor drive technology include “ease of configuration, multiple communication options, software tools and multiple position feedback choices.”
According to Miles Mahaffey, multidrive sales manager for power and control at ABB, market research surveys indicate that the number one requirement from users is simple control and setup and the number two requirement is a convenient operator interface. “Making drives easier to use is a major focus of drive makers,” notes Mahaffey. “Everything has to be plug- and-play.”
Ease at the Component Level
With microcontrollers and digital signal processing technologies providing the capability for advanced motion control, experts at these companies certainly have insight into the trends in a wide variety of applications. “The use of brushless motors is rapidly increasing, due to the efficiency that can be obtained from this type of motor,” says Steve Bowling, technical staff engineer for Microchip Technology's Application Segments Group. “Sinusoidal control of these motors helps reduce noise, especially for appliance applications.”
To save money and reduce components, many customers want to use advanced control algorithms that eliminate the need for mechanical and electrical position feedback sensors. But it takes a little extra work to do this. “The advanced sensorless algorithms must be tuned to different types of motors to ensure successful application results,” says Bowling. “Comprehensive documentation, customer training and support, and customized software development tools help reduce this effort.”
Encoder companies are not conceding their business to software. Easier to use encoders represent another critical part of the system. With no batteries or static memory to retain the position data, a unit like Newall's Spherosyn absolute encoder certainly gets easier to use. The encoder's design allows installation in almost any position adding another ease-of-use factor.
Other Motion Control Experts' Views
When asked about the most important new or ongoing trends in motion control, three experts provided some interesting insight.
“There is no doubt that the long range trend is toward motion systems,” says Dan Jones, president of Incremotion Assoc., and an expert in the area of motor design.
Experts at Galil Motion Control, a supplier of microprocessor-based motion controllers, provide additional viewpoints. “The most important issue in the motion control industry today is how to package the system elements in a manner that reduces wiring complexity, while providing performance and ease-of-use,” says Jacob Tal, chairman of the board and co-founder. “Ease-of-use is important and getting more important in time, as motion control systems are designed now by the non-specialists.”
One final input came from George Gulalo, president of Motion Tech Trends, a consultancy for Electric Motors and the Motion Control Industry. “More and more companies are taking a systems' approach to solving the problem of motion control for their customers,” says Gulalo. Gulalo points out that software is as critical to the system these days as the hardware and it does not end at the motion control system.
On the trend of ease-of-use, Gulalo observes, “The reality is that as the systems continue to get more and more complex, so ease-of-use becomes more and more of a challenge.”
Besides ease of use, trends pointed out by the experts include:
Design Tools
Many companies have developed design tools to simplify the selecting and matching of hardware. Software tools like Motion Tech Trends' Component Selector are meant to do a number of things. First, it takes the burden off of the engineer from doing all of the searching and calculations to decide what product match the application needs. “It's really an attempt to make it easier for the engineer who is responsible for electric motor motion side,” says Motion Tech Trends' Gulalo. “It makes it easier for him to make intelligent decisions.” Motion Tech Trends' Component Selector is a tool that allows users to search by specifications for the best fit motor for the application providing ranked results.
Future Expectations
ABB's Mahaffey says in the future expect to see drives with wireless interfaces, color LCD displays on control panels, function plotting on the LCD, drives that call cell phones, and remote maintenance and diagnostics via the Internet. This capability will enhance performance, provide flexibility and the functionality that users need, as well as ease-of-use.
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