Skip to content
Ingenia Servo Drives Logo Retina
  • Servo Drives
    • DC Servo Drives
    • EtherCAT Servo Drives
    • CANopen Servo Drives
    • SPI Servo Drives
    • Denali Series
    • Capitan Series
    • Everest S Series
    • Everest Series
    • Extended Environment Drives
    • Custom Servo Drives
  • Summit Designer
  • Applications
  • Support
  • About
    • Company
    • Careers
    • News and Events
    • Distributors
    • Contact Us
Menu
  • Servo Drives
    • DC Servo Drives
    • EtherCAT Servo Drives
    • CANopen Servo Drives
    • SPI Servo Drives
    • Denali Series
    • Capitan Series
    • Everest S Series
    • Everest Series
    • Extended Environment Drives
    • Custom Servo Drives
  • Summit Designer
  • Applications
  • Support
  • About
    • Company
    • Careers
    • News and Events
    • Distributors
    • Contact Us
Select Product
€0.00 0 Cart

SUMMIT SUPPORT:

Product documentation has been migrated to drives.novantamotion.com

INGENIA > Servo Drives > Integrating motor control electronics into robot joints

Integrating motor control electronics into robot joints

Robot joints with integrated motor control electronics provide great advantages in terms of ease of use, reducing wiring costs and EMI. Discover how to overcome the most common issues with heat generation, safety and integration.
Find the right servo drive for your application

Robot joints with integrated motor control electronics provide great advantages in terms of ease of use, reducing wiring costs and EMI. However, this environment is also the most demanding for electronics as they have to withstand high temperatures, vibrations and even dust or heavy magnetic fields.

Finding the right motor controller is not always easy

Most off-the-shelf controllers available in the market were designed for industrial applications. The purpose of this type of servo drives is to cover as much feedback types and communication busses as possible so that they can cover most applications but this has drawbacks especially for integrated robot joints.

  • General purpose architectures making use of DSP and FPGAs increases the heat generated by the electronics.
  • Servo drives designed for industrial machines where trajectories are planned in advance do not prioritise communications latency.
  • A small industrial servo drive is still way bigger than what is required when integrating it inside a robotic joint.
  • These drives have a heavy weight compared to servo drives for motor integration.
Integrated Robot Axis Joint with Everest XCR Servo Drive Inside
Figure 1: Integrated Robotic Axis Joint with Everest XCR Servo Drive Inside

Servo drives for integrated robot joints

Ingenia Servo Drives for integrated motors are designed and manufactured with the latest semiconductor technology in order to achieve the lowest standby power dissipation as well as optimised DSP technology for high positioning accuracy. This is the solution shown on Figure 1 where the off-the-shelf Everest servo drive has been integrated inside the robotic joint.

Everest NET with Custom Interface Board integrated on Robot Arm Axis Joint
Figure 2: Everest NET with Custom Interface Board integrated on Robot Arm Axis Joint

Enabling safe robot joints

Most robots implement safety functions based on torque feedback from the robot joint. This torque measurement can be done both with strain gauges or with angle sensors. By monitoring the torque applied by the robotic joint, the force that the robot arm could apply to a patient or user around the machine is controlled so that it may not harm anyone. The most common implementation consists of using a motor controller that can read torque sensors and feed the information back to the master controller through the real-time, deterministic EtherCAT bus. On figure 2 a series of safety mechanisms where implemented using an Everest NET plug-in servo drive and a custom built interface board:

  • Motor controller torque input is fed back to the master controller over the EtherCAT bus.
  • The system includes dual BiSS-C encoders and digital halls for redundancy. If there is a mismatch between the encoders the servo drive notifies the master controller.
  • The motor controller includes Safe Torque Off (STO) functionality, which disables the power stage when activated.

Exceeding the limits of robotics integration

When designing robot axis joints, the main limiting factors that mechanical and electronics engineers find include the complexity of finding components with enough power density, the right form factor and with low heat dissipation.

Power Density

Ingenia provides both off-the-shelf and custom solutions for robotic axis joints with the highest power densities in the market. The use of new, non-silicon based transistors altogether with state-of-the-art gate driver technology allows us to provide power densities up to 0.21 W/mm3 which is 175% higher than our closest competitor and above 700% from other servo drive suppliers. This high power density enables the integration of motor controllers like where it was not possible before like on end of arm effectors for surgical robots or humanoid robot wrists and fingers.

Size and Heat Dissipation

For more than a decade Ingenia has been developing its technology focusing on robotics applications where space is at a premium. Our solutions are the smallest in the world and are used in surgical robots, optronics, robotic joints or humanoid robots to name a few. But size alone is not enough. In order to integrate a motor controller inside a robotic joint, heat must be properly managed. Ingenia flexible architecture allows both for the highest performance and the lowest heat dissipation possible with standby power consumption down to 0.5W.

Learn more about Ingenia servo drives range and custom servo drive solutions.

Are you working on a robotics project and the issues in this article sound familiar? Help us shape the future of servo drives for robotics by filling up the following survey and get first-hand access to our new product introductions.

Join our Survey

Subscribe to our newsletter

Stay up to date with our newsletter.

  • Hidden

INGENIA
C/ ÁVILA 124, 2ºB
08018 BARCELONA
T. +34 932 917 682
[email protected]

 

INGENIA-CAT, S.L., which operates under Novanta’s Celera Motion business unit

Summit Series

Denali Series
Denali XCR EtherCAT
Denali XCR CANopen
Denali NET EtherCAT
Denali NET CANopen

 

Everest S Series
Everest S XCR EtherCAT
Everest S XCR CANopen
Everest S NET EtherCAT
Everest S NET CANopen

 

Capitan Series
Capitan XCR EtherCAT
Capitan XCR CANopen
Capitan NET EtherCAT
Capitan NET CANopen
Capitan CORE

 

Everest Series
Everest XCR Servo Drive
Everest NET Servo Drive
Everest CORE Servo Drive

Servo Drives
DC Servo Drives
EtherCAT Servo Drives
CANopen Servo Drives
SPI Servo Drives

 

Servo Drives by Motor Type
BRUSHLESS MOTOR SERVO DRIVES
BRUSHED MOTOR SERVO DRIVES
DIRECT DRIVE MOTOR SERVO DRIVES
INTEGRATED MOTOR SERVO DRIVES

 

Circular Servo Drives

SERVO DRIVES BY APPLICATION

  • Servo Drives for Service Robotics & Surveillance
  • Servo drives for AGV & Warehouse robotics
  • Servo Drives for Collaborative Robotics
  • Servo Drives for Mobility & Exoskeletons
  • Servo Drives for Surgical Robotics
  • Servo Drives for Satcom and Extended Environment Applications
  • Servo Drives for Optronic Systems
  • Servo Drives for Radar Antennas
  • Servo Drives for UVD robots
  • Servo drives for packaging applications
  • Servo Drives for Subsea and Marine Applications
  • Servo Drives for Motor Integration Applications
  • Servo drives for electric mobility applications
  • Servo Drives for Robotics Applications

© 2023 Ingenia Cat S.L.U.  Legal | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Sales Terms & Conditions | Purchasing Terms & Conditions | CCPA | EEO

We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
.
Cookie Settings Accept
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
CookieDurationDescription
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional11 monthsThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy11 monthsThe cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
SAVE & ACCEPT

Summit drives

Denali Series

Denali XCR EtherCAT

Denali XCR CANopen

Denali NET EtherCAT

Denali NET CANopen

Everest S Series

Everest S XCR EtherCAT

Everest S XCR CANopen

Everest S NET EtherCAT

Everest S NET CANopen

Everest SEries

Everest XCR EtherCAT

Everest XCR CANopen

Everest NET EtherCAT

Everest NET CANopen

Everest CORE

Capitan Series

Capitan XCR EtherCAT

Capitan XCR CANopen

Capitan NET EtherCAT

Capitan NET CANopen

Capitan CORE

Circular Servo Drives

Extended Environment Drives

Base drives

Neptune

Pluto

Triton

Jupiter

Titan

TRY PRODUCT FINDER

Celera Motion - A Novanta Company