INRODUCTION

A stepper motor is a brushless, synchronous electric motor that converts digital pulses into
mechanical shaft rotation. Every revolution of the stepper motor is divided into a discrete number
of steps, in many cases 200 steps, and the motor must be sent a separate pulse for each step. The
stepper motor can only take one step at a time and each step is the same size. Since each pulse
causes the motor to rotate a precise angle, typically 1.8°, the motor's position can be controlled
without any feedback mechanism. As the digital pulses increase in frequency, the step movement
changes into continuous rotation, with the speed of rotation directly proportional to the frequency
of the pulses. Step motors are used every day in both industrial and commercial applications
because of their low cost, high reliability, high torque at low speeds and a simple, rugged
construction that operates in almost any environment.

Figure 1: Example of stepper motor

A stepper motor moves in increments, or steps, rather than turning smoothly as a conventional
motor. The size of the increment is measured in mechanical degrees and can vary depending on
the application. A stepper motor is a constant output power transducer and its torque is inversely
proportional to the motor speed.
 Stepper motors are used in a wide variety of applications in industry, including computer
peripherals, business machines, solar array tracking system, motion control and robotics which are
included in process control and machine tool applications.

Stepper motors are classified according to their rotor design and stator winding type. There are
three basic types of stepping motors according to the rotor design, namely variable reluctance
Stepper motors (VR), permanent magnet stepper motors (PM) and permanent magnet hybrid
(PMH) stepper motors. Permanent magnet motors have a permanent magnet rotor, while variable
reluctance motors have salient pole soft-iron rotors. Hybrid stepping motors combine features of
both permanent magnet and variable reluctance motors technology. Both permanent magnet and
hybrid stepper motors are classified according to their stator winding as unipolar winding motors,
bipolar windings motors and bifilar winding motors.

How does a stepper motor work? The stepper motor rotor is a permanent magnet, when the
current flows through the stator winding, the stator winding to produce a vector magnetic field.
The magnetic field drives the rotor to rotate by an angle so that the pair of magnetic fields of the
rotor and the magnetic field direction of the stator are consistent. When the stator's vector magnetic
field is rotated by an angle, the rotor also rotates with the magnetic field at an angle.
Each time an electrical pulse is input, the motor rotates one degree further. The angular
displacement it outputs is proportional to the number of pulses input and the speed is proportional
to the pulse frequency. Change the order of winding power, the motor will reverse. Therefore, it
can control the rotation of the stepping motor by controlling the number of pulses, the frequency
and the electrical sequence of each phase winding of the motor.
The amplifier converts un-phased command information such as pulse and direction signals
into a set of correctly sequenced voltage commands for each coil of the motor. There are several
possible phasing techniques used by the amplifiers, including full step, half step and micro step
control.
THEORY
Open-loop Control System.

It is a conventional system (manual) that controls the stepper motor by a pulse sequence with
definite time interval, feedback to the sensor and the corresponding electronic circuit in the control
system. The circuit is relatively simple and with very few automatic control or feedback features
built in to regulate the process variable so as to maintain the desired output level or value. The
block diagram of the open loop system of stepper motor is illustrated in figure below.

Figure 2: Main control of basic stepper block diagram.

Open-loop control involves operating a motor without benefit of positional sensing or feedback.
In most applications, this is the desired method of control, due to the simplicity of drive electronics
[1]
and hence lower cost. It is a type of continuous control system in which the output has no
influence or effect on the control action of the input signal. In other words, in an open-loop control
system the output is neither measured nor feedback for comparison with the input. Therefore, an
open-loop system is expected to faithfully follow its input command or set point regardless of the
final result. [2] The block diagram od stepper position control is shown as below.

Output,
Desired Angle
Controller Stepper Stepper Actual Angle
(MyRIO) Driver Motor

Figure 3: Block diagram of stepper position control.

The block diagram of an open-loop system shows that the signal path from input to output
represents a linear path with no feedback loop and for any type of control system the input is
given the designation 𝜃𝑖 and the output 𝜃𝑜 where can be explained in block diagram.

Figure 4: Simple block diagram to explained the open loop system performance.

Further calculation to support the theory of open-loop system can be shown in transfer function
concept of the control system where;

The Transfer Function of each block is therefore: [2]

𝜃1 2 𝜃𝑜
𝐺1 = , 𝐺2 = , 𝐺3 =
𝜃𝑖 𝜃1 𝜃2

The overall transfer function is given as:

𝜃1 𝜃2 𝜃𝑜 𝜃𝑜
𝐺1 𝑥 𝐺2 𝑥 𝐺3 = 𝑥 𝑥 =
𝜃𝑖 𝜃1 𝜃2 𝜃𝑖

Then the Open-loop Gain is given simply as:

𝜃𝑜 (𝑠)
𝐺𝑎𝑖𝑛, (𝐺) =
𝜃𝑖 (𝑠)

And when G represents the transfer function of the system or subsystem, it can be rewritten as:

𝜃𝑜 (𝑠)
𝐺(𝑠) =
𝜃𝑖 (𝑠)

However, the open-loop control of the stepper motor cannot avoid the disadvantages of the stepper
motor itself, that is, resonance, oscillation, step loss and difficult to achieve high speed. On the
other hand, it is difficult for the accuracy of open-loop control stepper motor system to be higher
than the classification and its positioning accuracy is low. [3] Open - loop stepping techniques have
several shortcomings including; large overshoot, oscillatory response, large settling time, accuracy
and reliability, difficult to remove disturbance (vibration), and motor give response to every phase
change. [1] This is where the closed-loop is being a second option in the stepper motor application.
The closed-loop control of stepper motor can determine the phase transition with the rotor position
by using position feedback and/or speed feedback, which can greatly improve the performance of
stepper motor. [3] In some instances, torque required by the driven system exceeds pull-in or pull-
out torque generated by the motor. In these cases, positional steps may be lost, thereby degrading
positional accuracy. The only way to guarantee accurate positioning is with a closed-loop system,
however, any discussion of closed-loop control should include the open-loop dynamics for
comparison. [2]

EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES

RESULTS

DISCUSSION

CONCLUSIONS