Drives in the automation

The substantial developments in power electronics, motor technology and microelectronics has brought about an enormous momentum in the area of drives. In the past, drive technology was dominated by DC-drives and in special cases by BLDC-motors. Many applications in production machines and processes demand intelligent drives with new actuators and sophisticated control strategies. Departing from the different industrial applications the main electrical and mechanical requirements and design criteria for drives are explained. Further, the different technical solutions and their components are discussed: power electronics, machines, sensors, actuators, control strategies and communication. For each subsystem the special requirements of drives in the field of industrial automation and the corresponding technologies are explained considering the state of the art and the ongoing developments. Motion control, multi-axis systems and communication between the control levels and the intelligent drives are considered as well. Digital communications systems are presented as a necessary interface for this kind of drive. In a system comparison the capabilities and drawbacks of each system in the different practical applications are explained. The tutorial is intended as a complete survey on the topic and is addressed to engineers involved in the practical design of industrial drives in the application of drives for new high demanding machines and processes