DAX-3S/6S motion controller boards stack up to control 48 axes

Citation

(1999), "DAX-3S/6S motion controller boards stack up to control 48 axes", Industrial Robot, Vol. 26 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ir.1999.04926aad.005

DAX-3S/6S motion controller boards stack up to control 48 axes

DAX-3S/6S motion controller boards stack up to control 48 axes

Keywords Controller, Nyquist, Robotics

Key facts:

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  Each board provides complex ultra fast motion control of up to three or six servo axes.

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  Performs advanced real-time calculations to compensate for mechanical resonance.

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  Boards stack up on VMEbus to control 48 servo axes.

A series of intelligent digital motion controller boards can provide complex, ultra-fast motion control of up to three or six servo axes. Both multiprocessor controllers ­ the DAX-3S and DAX-6S from Nyquist Industrial Control ­ are suitable for applications such as robotics, packaging machines, textile and paper printing machines, and semiconductor manufacturing equipment. They can perform the advanced real-time calculations, for example, needed to compensate for mechanical resonance. Both controllers can be stacked on the VMEbus to control a maximum of 48 servo axes for the most complicated synchronisation tasks (see Plate 4).

Plate 4 DAX-6 intelligent digital motion controller board

The DAX processors are very fast and versatile. A powerful, 32-bit digital signal processor (DSP) samples at up to 60MHz, relieving the application processor from the time critical control of position loops. Other I/O interfaces can be added directly to the DSP servo loop using the 12 optically isolated inputs/outputs. Both controllers support industry-standard M-modules, which extend the interface with any combination of I/Os.

The new controllers implement a complete range of motion features, including homing, point-to-point motion, jogging, electronic camming and gearing, contouring and S-curve motion. Cubic and parabolic setpoint profiles are available for most functions. All DAX controllers can compensate for mechanical resonance by using an advanced on-board PID servo control loop with notch filter and feed forward of velocity and acceleration. Software routines can tune the resonant frequencies to be removed.

A 128-KB dual-ported RAM connects to the VMEbus for downloading the motion control software, holding the on-the-fly command communication cam/spline table memory, and uploading status information. The main processor also has direct access to important motion parameters (like actual position, velocity and acceleration), which are stored in dual-port RAM.

DAX-3S/6S controllers run under a choice of operating systems, including OS/2, OS/9, PSOS+ and Windows NT. Application software for both DAX controllers is written in C/C++, and can be most conveniently developed with Nyquist's Axes Services Package (ASP). ASP provides a complete range of C-function calls that can directly retrieve actual values of important control parameters such as position, speed, acceleration and jerk.

For further information contact Ida Heerkens, Nyquist Industrial Control, PO Box 80027, 5600 JZ Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Tel: +31 40 278 3943; Fax: +31 40 278 5600; E-mail: heerkens@nyquist.com Internet: http://www.nyquist.com