Servo drives, motors enable custom motion control system creation

National Instruments showed off new servo drives and servo motors at NIWeek that NI says will make it easier for engineers and scientists to create custom scalable, distributed motion control systems. The new AKD Servo Drives and the brushless AKM Servo Motors are designed to simplify the set up and deployment of motion applications to NI's real-time controllers that support NI EtherCAT.

Also aiding in set up is LabView's 2010 release of NI SoftMotion Module, a graphic development tool for designing custom motion control applications.

The AKM brushless servo motors come in a range of high torque, densities, and speeds, in four frame sizes. Using low-inertia rotors for high-dynamic performance, the motors are a low-cog, low-harmonic distortion magnetic design. They have integrated smart feedback device technology and simplified cabling, which means it's easy to use the motors with AKD Servo Drives. The AKD Servo Drives are high-performance with torque loop updates in 0.67?s, and velocity and position loops at 62.5?s and 125?s. The drives can be used a variety of applications, from basic torque-and-velocity applications to indexing to multi-axis programmable motion. The EtherCAT technology and integration with the LabVIEW project gives the AKD Servo Drives its straightforward setup and configuration.