What Are Servos?

In the modern world gadget addiction is common place and those addicted are getting younger and younger

. In the world of consumerism having possession of of the latest product is a status symbol. One aspect of technology which is increasingly becoming an element in consumer products is components more commonly associated with robotics. Although robots in industry remain costly consumer robotics are becoming less costly and therefore the relating components far cheaper. Sadly numerous components of robotics continue to be costly and anyone becoming involved in hobbyist robotics has to be careful and educate themselves as much as possible in order to avoid costly errors. One component often associated with robotics are servos but what are they?

Trying to find information about servo motors and drives online is incredibly difficult and if you are lucky the language used is often over complicated and hard to comprehend. Most commonly the information is related to industrial situations. This is often the case in the field of motion control and servo motors and drives.

Servo motors are important elements in robotics but they are also components utilsed in such items as radio controlled cars and airplanes. Servo motors are devices which have a shaft (a rod which can be positioned using a coded signal. By altering the signal the servo will accordingly alter the angle of the shaft.

Although Servo motors are rather small they feature built in control circuitry and they are extremely powerful packing enormous torque. This power is controlled by just three wires, one for power and the other two for earth and control.

The Technical Part

Sadly I cannot avoid being a little technical here, but stick with me and you might discover that you comprehend the basic concept.

Together with the control circuit servos have a a component called a potentiometer which is a variable resistor that is connected to the output shaft. The potentiometer helps the control circuit to monitor the current angle of the servo.

Normally servos control angular motion up to a hundred and eighty degrees, a few servo motors go beyond this however to exceed 210 degrees is nearly impossible and servo motors feature a mechanical stop which is built into the main system to prevent it.

Servo Drives

A servo drive is used to power servos. By altering the current sent to the servo the drive enables proportional control. As the amount of power sent to the motor is proportional to the amount of distance it moves extremely accurate movement is possible.

Servo systems are used in many areas of industry such as CNC machining, robotics and factory automation. While these servos are most often huge they are also found much smaller for using in consumer products and hobbyist systems such as the incredibly popular Lego Mindstorms.

by: Chris Collins..

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