Inmoco's digital servo drives used in AGV
An
Inmoco product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Sep 30, 2008
Inmoco's Elmo range of Eagle, Falcon and Harmonica intelligent digital servo drives have been integrated to provide a compact drive package for an autonomous guided vehicle.
The autonomous vehicle, a ground-based unit for industrial and military use, is capable of reaching speeds of 25+ MPH (40+ KPH).
The vehicle's robotic platform is omni-directional; all the wheels steer independently, which allows the vehicle to move in any direction.
The AGV has a manipulator arm allowing for five degrees of freedom and the capability to lift more than 45kgs (100+ lbs) at full extension.
The AGV can manoeuvre across harsh terrain in difficult environments while providing operations such as hauling, transportation, disposing and/or disarming of explosives, surveillance and recovery.
The compact nature of the AGV required compact electronics and minimised bulk from cabling.
The Elmo Falcon, Eagle and Harmonica drives met this requirement.
The military-specification Eagle digital drive was selected for the vehicle's drive system, providing encoder-only velocity control for the drive wheels.
Weighing less than 25ozs, the Eagle offers high power - 60amps in this application from a 46-195VDc bus - in a compact package, as well as CANopen communications.
Another military specification digital drive, the Elmo Falcon, was specified for manipulator arm control on the upper of the higher power arm joints.
Designed for use in extreme environments, the Falcon offers high power density from a compact package and CANopen communications.
It controls the manipulator arm in encoder-only velocity mode, with absolute position feedback from an analogue absolute encoder.
The final areas of servo control on the AGV, the lower power manipulator arm joints and the platform steering are handled by Elmo's Harmonica digital drives.
The Harmonica drives were selected for their compact size and ability to support up to a 200V DC bus.
The platform steering is achieved in position mode using only Hall effect sensors.
As with the Falcons, the Harmonicas control the manipulator arm in encoder-only velocity mode.
The Elmo drives were also specified for use on the AGV due to their robust connection facilities and interface capabilities.
The Eagle and Falcon are military specification drives that utilise D-sub style connectors.
These are rugged and can withstand the shock and vibration encountered while the vehicle travels over rough terrain.
All the Elmo drives support the CANopen protocol.
This allowed the drives to be mounted close to the electrical axis, reducing overall cabling.
In addition, supporting both CAN In and CAN Out terminals allows simple daisy-chaining of the CANopen communication lines from drive to drive.
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