The electric motor is the fundamental building block of almost all robotic projects but, without some form of feedback, it lacks the precise positional control required for the task. Small servos from ...

Position encoders are sensors that, when used in industrial settings, produce critical motor information such as speed and position. The encoder delivers data for display or data that may serve as ...

It isn’t hard to imagine a scenario where you are stuck at home all day with nothing to do and certain items are in short supply. Sure, bathroom tissue gets all the press, but try buying some flour or ...

An absolute rotary encoder determines the angular position of a shaft on the basis of a static reference point. They are sensors that generate digital signals that correspond to the position in ...

Encoders are widely used in the motion control and automation industry to monitor the position and speed of motors. This information can be used by the motion control electronics to detect if the ...

Alignment of optical encoder commutation signals to a Brushless DC (BLDC) motor could be thought of as being comparable to timing the distributor on a car engine. The distributor tells the spark plugs ...

An interesting trend in industrial motion control has been the replacement of self-contained encoders (rotation sensors with their own housing, bearings and shaft) with modular or “kit” encoders.

For any designs that deal with large motors, isolation is a desired characteristic for both control and sense loops. Turn on, turn off, changes in load, changes in power, and unexpected events can ...

Engineers use rotary encoders to measure the angular position of an attached device, such as a motor shaft, or to measure distance indirectly when used with a linear belt drive, for example. Rotary ...

Optical encoders have been used to measure position, speed, acceleration and motion direction for decades, but now they are finding new applications where high performance and miniaturization are ...

Last year, Automation World examined the differences between accuracy, resolution, and precision in the encoder world. And while understanding the differences among these terms is important to ...