Implementation of High Performance Microstepping Driver Using FPGA with the Aim of Realizing Accurate Control on a Linear Motion System

Farid Alidoust Aghdam,Siamak Saeidi Haghi

doi:10.1155/2013/425093

Abstract

This paper presents an FPGA-based microstepping driver which drives a linear motion system with a smooth and precise way. Proposed driver built on a Spartan3 FPGA (XC3S400 core) development board from Xilinx. Implementation of driver realized by an FPGA and using Verilog hardware description language in the Xilinx ISE environment. The driver’s control behavior can be adapted just by altering Verilog scripts. In addition, a linear motion system developed (with 4 mm movement per motor revolution) and coupled it to the stepper motor. The performance of the driver is tested by measuring the distance traveled on linear motion system. The experimental results verified using hardware-in-loop Matlab and Xilinx cosimulation method. This driver accomplishes a firm and accurate control and is responsive.

Highlights

Stepper motors are increasingly used in motion control because of their low price and the ability to position well a connected electromechanical system
Stepper motors are used in an extensive range of position controlling devices such as robots, printers, plotters, and CNCs
Microstepping is a drive procedure for the stepper motors that allows the smooth movement of the rotor in a fraction of the motor’s full step angle

Summary

Introduction

Stepper motors are increasingly used in motion control because of their low price and the ability to position well a connected electromechanical system. When the closed-loop driver is employed with a DSP via C language, the coding and debugging are straightforward. For such uses it is possible to use FPGAs, where we can unite software and hardware solutions to get better performances because of the parallel computing architecture of the FPGA [1,2,3]. By means of this technique, the programming and debugging are more challenging. With low power FPGA devices, it is conceivable to have less power dissipation than in a microcontroller [4,5,6,7,8]

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Conclusion