Dept. Of Electrical Engineering/ College of engineering/ Misan University Dr. Sadeq D.

Al-Majidi

Control Engineering / Lecture 1

DC Servo Motor :

One of the most common device for actuating a control system is DC Servo
Motors shown in Figure1 and can be operation under either armature or field
control.

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Dept. Of Electrical Engineering/ College of engineering/ Misan University Dr. Sadeq D. Al-Majidi

Figure 1. schematic diagram of DC servo motor

DC Servo Motor Theory

A DC servo system mainly consists of three basic components - a controlled
device, a output sensor, a feedback system. The motors which are utilized as DC
servo motors, generally have separate DC source for field winding and armature
winding. The control can be achieved either by controlling the field current or
armature current. Field control has some specific advantages over armature
control and on the other hand armature control has also some specific advantages
over field control

Armature control : The schematic diagram of this arrangement is shown in

Figure 2. Here the armature is energized by amplified error signal and field is
excited by a constant current source. The field is operated at well beyond the knee
point of magnetizing saturation curve. In this portion of the curve, for huge
change in magnetizing current, there is very small change in emf in the motor
field. This makes the servo motor is less sensitive to change in field current.
Actually for armature controlled DC servo motor, we do not want that, the motor
should response to any change of field current.
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Dept. Of Electrical Engineering/ College of engineering/ Misan University Dr. Sadeq D. Al-Majidi

Figure 2. DC servo motor under armature control

Figure 3. The knee point of armature controlled DC servo.

Now , the air gap flux Ф is proportional to field current if as given in Eq.(1):

Ф = 𝐾𝑓𝑑 𝑖𝑓 … … … … … … . . (1)
Where Kfd is the field coil constant.
Also the torque is proportional to the air gap flux and armature current ia as
given in Equation (2):

𝑇𝑚 (𝑡) = Ф𝐾𝑎𝑚 𝑖𝑎 (𝑡) … … … … … … … . . … (2)

Where Kam is armature coil constant.

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Dept. Of Electrical Engineering/ College of engineering/ Misan University Dr. Sadeq D. Al-Majidi

Now sub substituting Eq.(1) in (2):

𝑇𝑚 (𝑡) = (𝐾𝑎𝑚 𝐾𝑓𝑑 𝑖𝑓 )𝑖𝑎 (𝑡) … … … … … … … (3)

Since If is constant :

𝑇𝑚 (𝑡) = 𝐾𝑎 𝑖𝑎 (𝑡) … … … … . … … … … … … . … (4)

The back emf is proportional to the speed of the motor as given in Equation (5):
𝑑∅
𝑒𝑏 = 𝑘𝑏 = 𝑘𝑏 𝑤(𝑡) … … … … … … … … … . . (5)
𝑑𝑡
where Kb is the back emf constant.
The potential difference across the armature winding is given by Equation (6):
𝑑𝑖
𝑒𝑎 − 𝑒𝑏 = 𝑅𝑎 𝑖𝑎 + 𝐿𝑎 … … … … . … … … … (6)
𝑑𝑡
where ea is the armature voltage.

Now, taking Laplace transforms of equation (6) with zero initial conditions:

𝐸𝑎 (𝑆) − 𝐸𝑏 (𝑆) = (𝑅𝑎 + 𝐿𝑎 (𝑠))𝑖𝑎 (𝑆) … … … (7)

Regarding to Equations (4),(5) and (7), The block diagram of armature controlled
DC servo motor is designed, as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4. The block diagram of armature controlled DC servo motor

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Dept. Of Electrical Engineering/ College of engineering/ Misan University Dr. Sadeq D. Al-Majidi

Field control: This arrangement is shown in schematic form in Figure 5,

with the exception that the armature current is held at a constant value. In
this arrangement the field of DC motor is excited be the amplified error
signal and armature winding is energized by a constant current source. The
field is controlled below the knee point of magnetizing saturation curve. At
that portion of the curve the emf linearly varies with excitation current. That
means torque developed in the DC motor is directly proportional to the field
current below the knee point of magnetizing saturation curve, as shown in
Figure 6.

Figure 5. DC servo motor under field control

Figure 6. The knee point of field controlled DC servo.

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Dept. Of Electrical Engineering/ College of engineering/ Misan University Dr. Sadeq D. Al-Majidi

according to this concept, the torque is written as Equation (8) :

𝑇𝑚 (𝑡) = (𝐾𝑎𝑚 𝐾𝑓𝑑 𝑖𝑎 )𝑖𝑓 (𝑡) … … … … … … … (8)

and since ia is a constant, then:

𝑇𝑚 (𝑡) = 𝐾𝑓 𝑖𝑓 (𝑡) … … … … … … … . . … … … (9)

Where Kf is the overall field constant.

In this instance, the back emf eb does not play a part in the torque equation,
but it can produce difficulties in maintaining a constant armature current ia.
The potential difference across the field coil is given :

𝑑𝑖𝑓
𝑒𝑓 (𝑡) = 𝑅𝑓 𝑖𝑓 + 𝐿𝑓 … … … … … … … (10)
𝑑𝑡
Now , take Laplace transformer with Zero initial:

𝐸𝑓 (𝑆) = (𝑅𝑓 + 𝐿𝑓 (𝑠))𝑖𝑓 (𝑆) … … … … . … (11)

Regarding to Equations (9) and (11), The block diagram of field controlled DC
servo motor is designed, as shown in Figure 7.

Figure 7 . The block diagram of field controlled DC servo motor.

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Dept. Of Electrical Engineering/ College of engineering/ Misan University Dr. Sadeq D. Al-Majidi

Table 1 . The overview of armature control and field control.

Armature control Field control

Closed loop Open loop
Time constant less Energy used less
Back emf makes the damping Friction is making the damping

H.W: How to make the armature controlled DC servo works as ideal

integrator?