Resolver (electrical)

A resolver is a type of rotary electrical transformer used for measuring degrees of rotation. It is considered an analog device, and has
digital counterparts such as the digital resolver, rotary (or pulse) encoder.

Contents
Description
Types
See also
External links

Description
The most common type of resolver is the brushless transmitter resolver (other types are
described at the end). On the outside, this type of resolver may look like a small electrical
motor having a stator and rotor. On the inside, the configuration of the wire windings
makes it different. The stator portion of the resolver houses three windings: an exciter
winding and two two-phase windings (usually labeled "x" and "y") (case of a brushless
resolver). The exciter winding is located on the top; it is in fact a coil of a turning (rotary)
transformer. This transformer induces current in the rotor without a direct electrical
connection, thus there are no wires to the rotor limiting its rotation and no need for
brushes. The two other windings are on the bottom, wound on a lamination. They are
configured at 90 degrees from each other. The rotor houses a coil, which is the secondary
winding of the turning transformer, and a separate primary winding in a lamination,
Concept of rotor excited resolver
exciting the two two-phase windings on the stator.

The primary winding of the transformer, fixed to the stator, is excited by a sinusoidal
electric current, which by electromagnetic induction induces current in the rotor. As these
windings are arranged on the axis of the resolver, the same current is induced no matter
what its position. This current then flows through the other winding on the rotor, in turn
inducing current in its secondary windings, the two-phase windings back on the stator. The
two two-phase windings, fixed at right (90°) angles to each other on the stator, produce a
sine and cosine feedback current. The relative magnitudes of the two-phase voltages are
measured and used to determine the angle of the rotor relative to the stator. Upon one full
revolution, the feedback signals repeat their waveforms. This device may also appear in
non-brushless type, i.e., only consisting in two lamination stacks, rotor and stator.

Resolvers can perform very accurate analog conversion from polar to rectangular
coordinates. Shaft angle is the polar angle, and excitation voltage is the magnitude. The
outputs are the [x] and [y] components. Resolvers with four-lead rotors can rotate [x] and
[y] coordinates, with the shaft position giving the desired rotation angle. Rotor excitation and response

Resolvers with four output leads are general sine/cosine computational devices. When used
with electronic driver amplifiers and feedback windings tightly coupled to the input windings, their accuracy is enhanced, and they can
be cascaded ("resolver chains") to compute functions with several terms, perhaps of several angles, such as gun (position) orders
corrected for ship's roll and pitch.
For the position evaluation, Resolver-to-Digital Converters are commonly used. They convert sine and cosine signal to binary signal (10
to 16 bit wide) that can more easily be used by the controller.

Types
Basic resolvers are two-pole resolvers, meaning that the angular information is the mechanical angle of the stator. These devices can
deliver the absolute angle position. Other types of resolver are multipole resolvers. They have 2p poles (p pole pairs), and thus can
deliver p cycles in one rotation of the rotor: the electrical angle is p times the mechanical angle. Some types of resolvers include both
types, with the 2-pole windings used for absolute position and the multipole windings for accurate position. Two-pole resolvers can
usually reach angular accuracy up to about ±5′, whereas a multipole resolver can provide better accuracy, up to 10′′ for 16-pole
resolvers, to even 1′′ for 128-pole resolvers.

Multipole resolvers may also be used for monitoring multipole electrical motors. This device can be used in any application in which
the exact rotation of an object relative to another object is needed, such as in a rotary antenna platform or a robot. In practice, the
resolver is usually directly mounted to an electric motor. The resolver feedback signals are usually monitored for multiple revolutions
by another device. This allows for geared reduction of assemblies being rotated and improved accuracy from the resolver system.

Because the power supplied to the resolvers produces no actual work, the voltages used are usually low (<24 VAC) for all resolvers.
Resolvers designed for terrestrial use tend to be driven at 50–60 Hz (utility frequency), while those for marine or aviation use tend to
operate at 400 Hz (the frequency of the on-board generator driven by the engines). Aerospace applications utilize 2,930 Hz to 10 kHz
at voltages ranging from 4 VRMS to 10 VRMS. Many of the aerospace applications are used to determine the position of an actuator or
torque motor position. Control systems tend to use higher frequencies (5 kHz).

Other types of resolver include:

Receiver resolvers
These resolvers are used in the opposite way to transmitter resolvers (the type described above). The two
diphased windings are energized, the ratio between the sine and the cosine representing the electrical
angle. The system turns the rotor to obtain a zero voltage in the rotor winding. At this position, the
mechanical angle of the rotor equals the electrical angle applied to the stator.
Differential resolvers
These types combine two diphased primary windings in one of the stacks of sheets, as with the receiver,
and two diphased secondary windings in the other. The relation of the electrical angle delivered by the two
secondary windings and the other angles is secondary electrical angle, mechanical angle, and primary
electrical angle. These types were used, for instance, as analog trigonometric-function calculators.

A related type is also the transolver, combining a two-phase winding like the resolver and a triphased winding like the synchro.

See also
CORDIC, an algorithm used to calculate hyperbolic and trigonometric functions
Incremental encoder
LVDT
RVDT
Synchro

External links
AMCI Resolver Tutorial (http://www.amci.com/tutorials/tutorials-what-is-resolver.asp)
Synchro/Resolver Conversion Handbook (http://www.ddc-web.com/Documents/synhdbk.pdf)

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This page was last edited on 9 October 2018, at 13:13 (UTC).

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