The Initial Situation
Depending on their design and application, electric drives need the following information from corresponding signal transducers in the control loop:
- Commutation information
- Rotational speed information
- Incremental position information
- Absolute position information over several revolutions
Up until the end of the nineteen-eighties a large number of different solutions were used to achieve these objectives (see overview below).
The introduction of digital rotational speed control had a significant influence on signal transducers. More and more functions were being consolidated in only one signal transducer whenever possible. The Resolver, which contains virtually all the functions in one instrument, appeared to be functionally ideal. The exception here was when multi-turn absolute positional information was required.
The low accuracy of the Resolver and its systembound I-behavior in the control loop are, however, precisely those criteria which stand in the way of the features which can be achieved by means of digital speed control, such as highly synchronized operation and high dynamics or load stiffness. For this reason, in turn, a multiplicity of the most diverse signal transducer designs was produced. This led to an incomprehensible number of interfaces.