BB50 Ball and Beam

Ball and Beam, Motor, Sensors

By a DC-motor, a toothed wheel and a toothed belt a beam is driven around its centre point. Changing the angle of the beam will change the position of a ball rolling upon the beam. The sensors are one rotary incremental encoder for the beam angle and one CCD camera to measure the ball position. Two lamps can be switched on to support the camera. The system is built on aluminium profiles and covered with transparent plexiglass mounted on the front and rear side of the system. The electrical signals are connected through a multi-pin plug.

Dimension Sizes and
Weight of the System:

• Length: 1105 mm
• Depth: 215 mm
• Height: 1025 mm
• Weight: 18 kg
  

Output:

• 2 limit switches (max. angle left/right)
• angle (incremental encoder: 0.018°/incr)
• position (video signal from CCD camera)

Inputs:

• armature voltage (24 V, nom. 2 A,
  nominal torque 9,6 Ncm)
• +24 V lighting supply voltage
• +15 V limit switch supply voltage
• +5 V incremental encoder supply voltage

Actuator
A 19"-case (length 471 mm x depth 340 mm x height 152 mm, weight 11 kg) contains a servo amplifier, two power supplies, a sensor module and a user control unit. The servo amplifier operates on the DC motor driven by an analog control signal. The power supplies provide the neccessary voltages for all actuator units. The corresponding front panel sections indicate the availability of the voltages, the system status (plant is connected to actuator, system is ready to operate) the controller type (manual, PC, extern). One of the panel sections contains a key to stop any controller. The monitor unit provides an analog signal and binary signals (11 bit parallel) according to the video signal. Its front panel section contains measurement outputs for the ball position, the beam angle and the control signal. The user control section provides the control and enable signal for the servo amplifier. Its front panel section contains two keys ( start manual or external controller), one potentiometer (manual control signal), one signal input (external control signal for servo amplifier) and a switch for the lighting.
Actuator mains supply (220 V, 50 Hz, 140 W, on request 110 V, 60 Hz).

Inputs servo amplifier:

• control signal -10 ... +10 V
• servo amplifier enabled/disabled
  

Output servo amplifier:

• armature voltage for the motor
  

Outputs monitor unit:

• ball position -10 V ... +10 V
• beam angle channel A (TTL)
• beam angle channel B (TTL)
• control signal -10 ... +10 V