INDUSTRIAL SERVO DRIVES STATE OF THE ART

Transcription

1 INDUSTRIAL SERVO DRIVES STATE OF THE ART Ralph Kennel *, Gerhard Kobs #, Rupert Weber * Electrical Machines and Drives Wuppertal University, D 4297 Wuppertal, Germany Phone: Fax: # Robert BOSCH GmbH Postfach 1162, D 6471 Erbach, Germany Phone: Fax: Robert BOSCH GmbH Postfach 1162, D 6471 Erbach, Germany Phone: Fax: Abstract: This contribution shows the state of the art of serial products and the reasons for using a completely digital drive control. New servo drive products show that the commutation of analogue to digital drive control is now completed even in industrial products with high production quantities. The way for modern control algorithms in industrial servo drives is now open. Keywords: adjustable speed drives, brushless drives, industrial applications, intelligent drives, machine tool drives, speed control, servo drives, EMC/EMI, safe operation 1. INTRODUCTION In the area of servo drives for machine tools the cycles of innovation are very short. Servo drive manufacturers introduce results of university research into their products as early as possible. Furthermore they make their own efforts to realize new developments in servo drive products. Recently several servo drive manufacturers presented new servo drives which can be called a new generation of servo drives. The main features of these drives are: - A digital control of position, speed and current. Since 1987, when first industrial servo drives with completely digital control had been presented [1], the performance of these drives has improved more and more and today is better than the behaviour of analogue controlled drives [9]. Therefore servo drives with analogue control are going to be replaced completely by digitally controlled drives. - The same inverter hardware and software is used for synchronous as well as for asynchronous and even synchronous reluctance motors. An electronic name plate (patent pending) inside the motor is the most progressive solution to transfer all data necessary to operate the drive. An optimization by technical staff is possible but not necessary any more. - A high resolution encoder system for simultaneous sensing of position and speed provides a resolution of several million positions per revolution. A significant reduction of encoder costs introduced even multi-turn absolute encoders to a wide field of applications. - Digital interfaces (e.g. SERCOS interface [2], CAN,...) provide full access to all data inside the servo drive. Besides the advantage of having the possibility to use modern and sophisticated control algorithms, servo drives with microcomputer control also have some disadvantages. Control algorithm, cycle time, microcomputer, sensors and interface have to be perfectly combined to achieve better performance as it is known by servo drives with analogue control. It is necessary to use special current, speed and

2 inverter modules folding/plug mechanism...12kw Processor Board SERCOS interface Fig: 1 position sensors as well as digital interfaces to transfer the reference values. Internal synchronization of all control parts is essential as well. This paper presents experiences and results of a modern digital drive system pointing out the influences of low and high accuracy position sensors and the interdependencies mentioned above. 2. DRIVE CONTROL The reasons for using a completely digital drive control in industrial applications ([4], [5], [6]) in spite of being slightly more expensive than drives with analogue control can be found in a lot of advantages. When using servo drives with digital control remarkable improvements of the drive behaviour are obtained during operation. Due to the fact of digital signal processing and - what is even more important - digital sensing of speed and position there are no offsets and no drifts any more within the control loops. A command value of really leads to a standstill of the drive. The development of digital servo drives meant integrating microcomputers into inverter designs. This is possible today without negative interferences between power stage and microcomputer. The new drive generation provides a modular mechanical structure by using identical power stage and control hardware for synchronous and asynchronous motors as well as for power supplies. Processor boards are only different due to the different digital interfaces. Fig. 1 shows the possibility to combine inverters with power stages for different output powers and processor boards with different processor performance for any servo drive system. inverter modules compact and stand alone...15kw Modular Servo Drive System This concept saves cost and effort on the customer s side. To control synchronous and asynchronous motors the servo drives use the same control structure in field orientation. Furthermore it is not necessary any more to differ between feed drives and spindle drives. Depending on the type of motor connected to the inverter, Processor Board the microcomputer activates some software- CAN Profibus analogue subroutines. A hardware or software change is not necessary. Even the power supply unit may be considered as a big synchronous machine and can be controlled by the same control algorithm (see paragraph 5 EMC/EMI ). The communication and diagnostic features of drives with digital control are overwhelming in comparison to drives with analogue control. Digital interfaces (SERCOS interface [2], CAN,...) allow access to all data inside the drive and enable to initialize any operation without using additional wires or cables. Furthermore the feedback can easily be given as more or less detailed text messages to the supervisor's screen instead of LED signals inside the cabinet. Cost reductions have been achieved by shortening the time necessary for set-up operations of servo drives. Besides the significantly reduced number of wiring and cables and consequently minimized installation effort the optimization procedure of digital servo drives was simplified by the use of data tables containing control parameters or - what is even more progressive - an "electronic name plate". A memory is integrated in the servo motor (or its encoder). When switching on the power, the drive's microcontroller polls all information to adjust the drive control to that specific motor from the "electronic name plate" without any additional action from the operating staff. Last not least PC-based diagnostic and service equipment was developed allowing the operators to communicate directly with the drive. Menu guided access to the drive parameters reduces the time of diagnostic and restart in the case of failures or unexpected situations. In difficult cases the diagnostic equipment might be connected to the manufacturer s service hotline by telephone line providing more exact information and more successful action.

3 3. SYNCHRONIZATION As mentioned above, there are some disadvantages when using servo drives with microcomputer control. Control algorithm, cycle time, microcomputer, sensors and interface have to be perfectly combined to achieve better performance than it is known by servo drives with analogue control. The application of digital current control has to consider the effects of control cycle time, inverter switching frequency and recovery time of the inverter switches. It is necessary to implement internal synchronization of all control parts. Fig. 2 shows the current/torque few processors are able to do this within acceptable cycle times. The drive presented in this contribution performs: - position control in 25 µs cycle time - speed control in 4 µs cycle time - current control in 4 µs cycle time There is enough performance left to calculate models of the electrical machine to support the drive s behaviour in safe operation conditions (see paragraph 6 Safe Operation ). -1A stator current1a 2 4 µs 4. HIGH RESOLUTION The recent improvement concerning accuracy and resolution of optical sensors provided a dramatic increase of positioning accuracy. High resolution position encoders enable to detect even very small deviations. In combination with high resolution microcontrollers or -processors (> 32 bit) very smooth speed operation as well as accurate positioning can be achieved. -1A stator current1a 2 4 Fig. 2 Current Ripple without (upper diagram) and with (lower diagram) Synchronisation of Control Loops µs ripple of a synchronous servo drive with identical control hardware and control algorithm with and without control synchronization [7]. Today s servo drives provide internal cycle synchronization to improve the drives behaviour and to avoid any drawback like additional torque or current ripple. When using several servo drives as a whole system for multidimensional motion control, it is necessary to synchronize not only the components within each drive but also the drives taking part in the coordinated motion with each other. This is possible by using a special synchronization interface or what is more sophisticated by using a digital interface with integrated synchronization procedure (e.g. SERCOS interface [2]). The servo drive s microcomputer must be able to handle at least 32-bit-operations to achieve results better than servo drives with analogue control. Only Fig. 3 Comparison of Position Accuracies when using Magnetic or Optical Sensors in Servo Drives The detection of several sequential positions from the encoder is now possible even in low speed operation. Fig. 3 shows the comparison between a modern optical encoder and a well-known resolver concerning accuracy of position angle. The deviation of the position error is a measure for the servo drive s ability of smooth operation at very low speeds. To operate a servo drive with the speed of a clock s hour hand which is not unusual an encoder resolution of several million positions per revolution is necessary to guarantee really smooth operation. These devices are available on market today. Therefore the smooth operation behaviour of servo drives with digital control has improved significantly in spite of some drawbacks in comparison with analogue tachogenerators. Fig. 4 compares the smooth operation of the servo drive; one is equipped with a brushless tachogenerator and analogue control, the other one with a

4 high resolution encoder and digital control. The commutation of the brushless tachogenerator produces significant speed deviations which cannot be compensated by the drive control, because the tachogenerator is a component of the feedback loop. difference angle,5 -,5 a.) difference angle,5 -,5 b.) Fig position angle brushless DC tacho position angle high resolution optical encoder Position Error in Low Speed Operation (3 rpm) An optical encoder improves the smooth operation by more than 1 in comparison to brushless tachogenerators, which are commonly used with analogue drive control. 5. DC LINK VOLTAGE CONTROL and EMC/EMI The new servo drive generation shows an improved EMC behaviour concerning the power supply, an improved drive efficiency by controlling the DC link voltage and an improved torque-speedcharacteristic especially of asynchronous motors in the field weakening range. The basic idea leading to these improvements was to transfer control principles from the inverter supplying the electrical machine to the inverter of power supply [3]. The electrical mains can be viewn as a very big and very special synchronous machine controlled by the power supply. If the servo drive needs power, the power supply intends to decelerate the electrical network hopefully without success. If the servo drive regenerates power, the power supply tries not successfully, of course to accelerate the synchronous machine behind the electrical network. Therefore the same control strategy can be used for both the electrical machine and the power supply of a servo drive system. The current control on both sides takes care of low power pulsations. This means low torque ripple and low harmonic losses on the motor side and low harmonics on the line side. The application of fieldoriented control algorithms even in power supplies gives a significant improvement of EMC behaviour. All ideas aiming to a reduction of ripple currents in inverter supplied electrical machines can also be used for line currents. The result is a significant reduction of line harmonics. The 5 th harmonic can be easily reduced by a factor 8 to 1 [3]. Therefore it is possible to meet the regulations of the European EMC directive (EN 618-3) even with high power servo drives. A further improvement of using field-oriented control in power supplies is the control of the DC link voltage. The voltage control on the line side providing a constant DC link voltage is superimposed on the current control like the speed control on the motor side. Even when the line voltage has tolerances of 2% and more, the DC link voltage is controlled with much higher accuracy (e.g. 1%). This provides an improved torque-speed-characteristic of servo drives especially of asynchronous motors in the field weakening range. Furthermore the efficiency of servo drives is increased in a whole by reduced tolerances of the motor voltages. The tolerances of the DC link voltages can be limited so far that the rated values of the servo motors do not need to consider voltage variations any more. The design of the electrical machines can be adjusted much closer to the rated values, (e.g. ± 1% instead of ± 1%) saving weight and cost. 6. SAFE OPERATION The most interesting highlight of the new servo drive generation is the possibility to realize safe operation (i.e. safe standstill or safe motion) in robots or machine tools with opened housing. The people may work under direct access to a machinery without danger even when the electrical power is still active. The digital drive system provides safe

5 power switch off power switch off Fig. 5 mains connecting equipment power supply inverter M µc HW drive inverter µc HW E servo motor speed / position sensor Double Channel Signal Processing mains mains status process status e.g. "open door" drive status operation by internal redundant channels with different hardware. Based on a new generation of position/speed sensors in combination with a processor independent encoder hardware, safe operation of servo drives is possible. The servo motor itself is used as a speed/position sensor by the microprocessor without considering any information from the encoder. (For control purposes accuracy etc. of course, the encoder s information is used by the processor as well.) When using a processor independent encoder hardware to define the drive s position and/or speed, this second (redundant) channel is used for supervising safe operation of the servo drive (Fig. 5). Both channels the encoder hardware as well as the microcomputer compare the real speeds/positions with each other. In the case of a difference, both channels switch off the drive this type of emergency action is also performed in two independent channels: the encoder hardware as well as the microcomputer block the drive s inverter and via a second (redundant) channel switch off the main switch of the drive system. This procedure provides sufficient safety even when staff is operating directly at the machine tool. In spite of using only one encoder per drive, the whole system is completely redundant concerning speed/position supervision, power switch off, door control and emergency switch off interface. Therefore the system was certified by a Swiss safety agency as a safety related component (according to the machinery directive of EU). This means that using this system a manufacturer of machine tools or similar safety critical machinery has much less problems than in the past. To avoid any danger during standard operation (which is not a safe operation condition), it is advantageous to integrate the locking mechanism of the machinery into the drive s equipment. The drive only releases the door to be opened when safe operation condition is required and achieved, or the power of the drive system is switched off completely. Without closing the door the safe operation condition cannot be left by the drive. All information necessary is provided in more than one channel to meet the safety standards. Similar influence is provided by connecting the machine tool s emergency switch off as a double channel signal to the servo drive. If there is a separate power supply with microcomputer control in a multi-axis servo drive system, it is not too difficult to deal with emergency and safety supervision and switch off in a double way in the power supply s control equipment and in each drive s control equipment. The information exchange between the different microcomputers takes place by active and dynamic signals indicating each interruption immediately to each controller. This allows to operate the drive even with open doors of the machine tool, because the drive guarantees a safe speed limit or standstill even under torque by its double channel supervision and emergency switch-off structure (patent pending). 7. SUMMARY Today s servo drives fulfil nearly all requirements in the market therefore the servo drives development has decreased its speed and is not a very big issue in industry s research at the moment. Some years later, when further progress in servo drive performance will be required, the resolution of the encoders will appear as the technical narrow-gap in servo drives. After reaching a rather high standard in servo drive performance, issues like EMC and torque ripple get more to the foreground. To reduce the drive s torque ripples, it is not sufficient any more to design a proper magnetic circuit of the electrical machine control synchronization to the inverter s switching and the encoder characteristic as well as the variations of DC link voltage get more and more important. The drive internal processing performance is used for additional features. The example of safe opera-

6 tion (described in this paper) shows how to use the distributed processing performance more efficient than a central processor. Servo drives of the newest generation are now a good basis to make further development in control techniques. Processing power is big enough to implement self optimization and self adjustment schemes for drive controls the main requirement when replacing the well-known cascade control by more modern control schemes (e.g. [1]). Even for university laboratories it is advantageous to perform their research work in drive control based on one of the industrial servo drives, as these provide all features necessary for that. 8. REFERENCES [1] G. Kobs, R. Kennel, P. Zimmermann, Fully Digital Controlled Induction Motors for Machine Tool Applications, 2nd European Conference on Power Electronics and Applications (EPE), Grenoble, Vol. 2, 1987, Pre-prints, pp [2] R. Kennel, R. Weber, Datenkommunikation über das Bussystem SERCOS interface, Automatisierungstechnische Praxis (atp), Vol. 7, 1991, pp , and Vol. 8, pp [3] Michael Link, Erkki Niemi, Vesa Manninen, Vier-Quadranten-Umrichter mit geregeltem Netzwechselrichter, Antriebstechnik 38, Nr. 3, 1999, pp [4] N.N., Höhere Produktivität beim Schleifen, maschine + werkzeuge 6, [5] Michael Reichenbach, Verpackungstechnik mit digital geregelten Servoantrieben, Antriebstechnik 37, Nr. 7, [6] Peter Ernst, Open CNC Control with Digital Drive Interface, AMD&C, Issue 4, 1998, pp [7] NC-Fertigung, Nr. 2, 1993, p. 55. [8] G. Kobs, Redundante Sicherheitsüberwachung im Antrieb integriert, A&D Kompendium, 1999, pp [9] R. Kennel, G. Kobs, R. Weber, Digital Control of Industrial Servo Drives for Machine Tools, 8th European Conference on Power Electronics and Applications (EPE), Lausanne, 1999, Proceedings, CD-ROM EPE '99, paper no [1] R. Kennel, A. Linder, Predictive Control of Inverter Supplied Electrical Drives, 31st Annual IEEE Power Electronics Specialists Conference PESC, Galway/Ireland, June AUTHORS Ralph Kennel was born in Kaiserslautern, Germany, in He received the diploma in Electrical Engineering and the Dr.-Ing. degree from the University of Kaiserlautern in 1979 and 1984, respectively. From he was Development Engineer for servo drives with Robert BOSCH GmbH and later Department Manager with the same company. In 1997 he changed to the Automotive Division of the same company at Bühlertal, Germany, as Department Manager for Advanced Development. Since 1994 he is Visiting Professor at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne/UK and since 1999 Professor and Head of the Electrical Machines and Drives Laboratory at Wuppertal University. Gerhard Kobs received his diploma degree from the Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany. From 1985 he developed microcomputer controlled drives with Robert BOSCH GmbH at Erbach, Germany. Later he became group manager for main spindle drives in machine tools. In 1994 he took over responsibility as a product manager for servo drives. In this position he introduced the new servo drive generation SERVODYN-D with digital control to the market. Rupert Weber received his diploma degree in electrotechnics in From 1977 to 198 he worked in developing industrial power supplies and battery chargers. In 198 he joined Robert BOSCH GmbH at Erbach for developing electrical drives. He was project manager for the development of the digital drives family SERVODYN-D. Since 1998 he is head of the servo drives development at Robert BOSCH GmbH, Erbach, Germany.