Motion control technology is a fusion of automation technology and electrical braking technology. Using industrial control computers, PLCs, DSPs, and other controllers as controllers, motion control integrates the latest achievements in microelectronics, computer technology, detection technology, automation technology, and servo control technology, and plays an extremely important role in industrial production.
Early motion control primarily developed alongside numerical control (NC) technology, robotics, and factory automation. It is now widely applied across various sectors of the national economy, with diverse application forms. The main application areas are as follows:
1) Metallurgical industry: electric arc furnace motor control, rolling mill roll control, product length control, etc.
2) Machinery industry: machine tool positioning control, machining trajectory control, automated production line and robot control, etc.
3) Information industry: positioning control of disk drive heads, control of printers, etc.
4) Construction industry: control of elevators and elevator groups, etc.
5) Other industries: Control of automated warehouses and automated parking systems, etc.
Motion control originated from early servo mechanisms, making it a technology with a long history. Simply put, motion control involves the real-time control and management of the position, speed, and other parameters of mechanical moving parts, enabling them to move according to a predetermined trajectory and specified motion parameters.
Motion control technology has developed alongside numerical control (CNC), robotics, and factory automation technologies. Consequently, motion control technology has also evolved along with these technologies.
In recent years, with the continuous advancement and improvement of motion control technology, motion control systems, as an independent industrial automation control product, have become a mature technology and occupy a significant position in the automation industry. Furthermore, the integration of production decision-making, integrated manufacturing, human-machine interface, energy-saving and environmentally friendly processing, and globalized production decision-making has made "intelligent manufacturing" a crucial trend in factory automation, with motion control technology playing a key role. As a component of automation, motion control technology has developed rapidly and is widely applied, driven by strong market demand. Almost all "movements" are related to motion control. Now, with more and more technologies being integrated into systems, motion control is no longer just about controlling "movement"; "intelligent control" is playing an increasingly important role in manufacturing and is the core of future advanced "smart manufacturing."
In addition, the rapid development of industrial robots in recent years has brought about a significant qualitative change in motion control technology. How to combine industrial robots with motion control systems to establish a complete production line synchronous integration has also become an emerging issue in online production.
Since the goal of motion control is to complete the production line process to manufacture products, the motion control process in the middle is not the most important thing. Instead, the most important function is to achieve the requirements correctly and in real time. In addition, the precision requirements of various products are getting higher and higher, and the process requirements are becoming more and more stringent. Motion control emphasizes real-time and precision. To achieve optimization, various related technologies must be integrated. Such integration is considered the most difficult control technology.
