- August 25, 2017
- Elmo Motion Control
August 25, 2017 – Elmo Motion Control (Elmo), a provider of advanced motion solutions designed to make intelligent machines smarter, announced an Inertial Platform Stabilization (IPS) solution. Elmo’s motion controllers, miniature servo drives, embedded Software-in-the-loop (SIL) control capability and Elmo Application Studio II (EASII) software tool combine to create a solution that designed to enable quick implementation.
Elmo’s motion controller supports any feedback characteristic, including inertial measurement units (IMUs) and gyros, eliminating the necessity to receive gyroscope or IMU signals from the servo drives. Instead, the IMU signal (digital or analog) is received at the motion controller and processed using the customer’s specific position and velocity compensation algorithms. Communicating via EtherCAT (between 100 µs to 250 μs), the motion controller transmits calculated, synchronized corrective actions to the servo drives and motors, streamlining communication and resulting in precise, reliable and deterministic motion vital for highly sensitive inertial stabilization. Elmo’s IPS solution provides stabilization to withstand environmental conditions with temperatures ranging from -40° C to +70° C (-40° F to 158° F), altitudes up to 40,000 feet and high mechanical shocks or intense vibrations up to 14 GRMS.
The complete solution includes the following components:
- Platinum Lion (P-Lion) Multi-axes Motion Controller: Advanced multi-axes motion controller designed for enhanced connectivity, the P-Lion operates in any extreme, extended environment. Its features include EtherCAT cycle times for multiple axes; digital and analog inputs and outputs for fast, responsive, direct controller-level interfacing with accelerometers, encoders, serial devices, IMUs and gyroscopes; and a development environment. The P-Lion can manage inputs of up to four inertially stabilized platforms at less than 250 μs cycle times, with precise synchronization and jitter of less than 5 µs.
- Gold Servo Drives: Any Elmo Gold servo drive can be used in the IPS solution, allowing flexibility in selecting the servo drive according to power (10 W - 65 KW), voltage (10 V - 900 V) or current (1 A - 650A). example is the light unit containing two Gold Bee servo drives, each with up to 80A/80V and capable of delivering more than 5 kW of power with use of current, velocity and position loops. The drives comply with Safety, EMC, and Environmental standards and are certified for Safe Torque Off (IEC61800-5-2, STO), Safety Integrity Level 3 (SIL 3) and Performance Level e (PLe).
- Software-in-the-loop (SIL) Control Capability: Since control design, kinematics and/or simulation code are often proprietary and classified, Elmo provides a “black box” environment where users can insert their external code (for example C or MATLAB) and execute it in the real-time kernel of the P-Lion (1.5GHz core). The customer's design is processed to control the motion of the servo axes via the deterministic EtherCAT network.
- Elmo Application Studio II (EASII) Software Tool: Included in an Elmo hardware purchase, the software tool creates and implements motion, enabling end users to configure programs and fully manage Elmo’s servo drives and motion controllers. EASII provides a programming environment with programming in IEC 61131-3 or C/C++ that orchestrates the entire development process and optimizes performance of the system. It provides mechanical plant transfer functions; 1D, 2D and 3D error mapping and corrections; drive feedback emulation; corrective servo tuning and many more features and capabilities.
Used in commercial, industrial, agricultural, law enforcement and harsh environment applications, Elmo’s solutions can stabilize high-resolution cameras, observation systems, communication devices, satellite or ground mobile communication antennas, airplane Sat-Com internet and TV dishes, laser pods, etc. Inertial platforms are commonly found on shipboards, yachts, UAVs, drones, autonomous vehicles, ground mobile vehicles and armored vehicles.
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