DC servo motor robotic drive system with test fixture

This thesis presents the design and construction of a test stand and a DC servo motor drive system. The drive system was designed to be compatible with both the hardware and the software of the Superior Engineering Design Program (SEDP) robot developed in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. A key design issues was to make the DC servo motor drive system directly interchangeable with the original stepping motor drive system in that it would accept the same drive commands as applied to the stepping motor driver. A switching amplifier was also designed that will power any DC motor with an average armature current of up to 12 amps operating as a closed-loop servo motor. The amplifier operates with any available supply voltage that is at least 8 volts higher than the nominal motor voltage.