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Stepper Motor Instabilities in an Aerospace ApplicationStepper motors are frequently used in positioning mechanisms because they have several advantages over ordinary DC motors. However, there is frequently no feedback loop and the motor may exhibit instabilities under some conditions. A stepper motor in an aerospace positioning mechanism was investigated. During testing, the motor exhibited unstable behavior, such as backrunning and forward running. The instability was dependent on voltage pulse characteristics, temperature, positioning angle, step rate, and interaction between the two motors in the system. Both testing and analysis results verified the instability. A special purpose FORTRAN code was written to simulate the system. This code was combined with another simpler code to show the performance of the system in the phase plane so that instability boundaries could be displayed along with the motor performance. The analysis was performed to verify that proposed modifications would produce stable performance before implementation in the hardware. Subsequent testing verified the analytic stability predictions.
Document ID
19920015836
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Russell Kackley
(Lockheed Missiles and Space Co. Sunnyvale, CA, United States)
Sean Mccully
(Lockheed Missiles and Space Co. Sunnyvale, CA, United States)
Date Acquired
September 6, 2013
Publication Date
May 1, 1992
Publication Information
Publication: The 26th Aerospace Mechanisms Symposium
Publisher: National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Subject Category
Electronics And Electrical Engineering
Meeting Information
Meeting: Proceedings of a Symposium
Location: Greenbelt, MD
Country: US
Start Date: May 13, 1992
End Date: May 15, 1992
Sponsors: National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Accession Number
92N25079
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.
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