Question

Do you need stepper motors in robotics? Why use stepper motors for robot design? What are the commonly used motors for industrial robots? DC motor, servo motor, stepper motor? Does the robot need a reducer?

Answer 1

Through-shaft lead screw stepper motor

All ST robots have encoder feedback which is relative to software motor counting.

In the event that no errors can be corrected, the system stops. Therefore, the integrity of the system is much higher.

Therefore, the advantages of using stepper motors in robot design are as follows:

1 Cheaper for stepper motors with the same performance.

2. Stepper motor is brushless motor, etc., has a longer life.

3. As a digital motor, it can be accurately positioned without hunting or overshooting.

4. The driver module is not a linear amplifier, which means fewer heat sinks, higher efficiency, higher reliability.

5. Drive modules are cheaper than linear amplifiers.

6 There are no expensive servo-controlled electronic components because the signal originates directly from the MPU.

7. Software fail-safe. Main control board problem step pulse. If the software does not work or crashes, the motor stops.

8. Electronic drives are fail-safe. In the event of a motor lock up that drives a faulty amplifier, it will not operate. When the servo drive fails, the motor can still run, possibly at full speed.

9. Speed control, precise and repeatable (crystal control).

10 If required, stepper motors run extremely slowly.

Answer 2

Why use stepper motors for robot design?

Stepper motor low-speed high-torque equipment, making transmission shorter which means higher reliability, higher efficiency, smaller clearance and lower cost.

It is this characteristic that makes stepping ideal for robots, because most robot movements are short distances requiring high accelerations to reach low cycles.

The power-to-weight ratio is lower than that of DC motors. Electric engineers believe that most robot movements are not long-distance high-speed (and therefore high-power), but usually include short stops and starts.

At low rpm and high torque, they are ideal robots.