Apparatus for automatic calibration of servo response

In a system wherein at least two servos move an object in respective dimensions of movement and are controlled by velocity control signals provided by a servo control, the improvement comprising means for storing calibration signals characterizing the relationship between applied velocity control signals and the actual resulting velocity responses of the servos, and means for modifying the velocity control signals provided to said servos in accordance with said stored calibration signals so as to reduce spurious variations in object velocity which would otherwise be introduced by nonidealities of said servo responses, wherein said means for storing calibration signals comprises addressable memory means for storing a table of modifiers and wherein said means for modifying comprises means for addressing said memory means to select particular ones of said modifiers from said table, and means for multiplying the velocity control signals by the modifiers thus selected to provide the modified velocity control signals.

In a system wherein at least two servos move an object in respective dimensions of movement and are controlled by velocity control signals provided by a servo control, the improvement comprising means for storing calibration signals characterizing the relationship between applied velocity control signals and the actual resulting velocity responses of the servos, means for modifying the velocity control signals provided to said servos in accordance with said stored calibration signals so as to reduce spurious variations in object velocity which would otherwise be introduced by nonidealities of said servo responses, and means for deriving said calibration signals, said deriving means including means for applying predetermined velocity control signals to all of said servos, means for indicating positional changes of said object in the directions controlled by each said servo in response to said velocity control signals, and means for deriving said calibration signals in accordance with the positional changes of said object due to different servos.

In a system wherein at least two servos move an object in respective dimensions of movement and are controlled by velocity control signals provided by a servo control, the improvement comprising means for storing calibration signals characterizing the relationships between applied velocity control signals and the actual resulting velocity responses of the servos, and means for modifying the velocity control signals provided to said servos in accordance with said stored calibration signals so as to reduce spurious varations in object velocity which would otherwise be introduced by nonidealities of said servo responses, wherein said servo control comprises vector control means providing vector commands for each of said servos, said vector commands being normalized so that their vector sum is substantially constant, feed rate control means for providing a feed rate control signal indicative of the desired speed of said object, and multiplier means for multiplying each said vector command by said feed rate control signal to provide product signals serving as said velocity control signals, and wherein said means for modifying said velocity control signals comprises means in said vector control means for modifying said vector commands in accordance with said stored calibration signals and for providing said modified vector commands to said multiplier means.

In a system wherein at least two servos move a flame cutter in respective dimensions of movement and are controlled by velocity control signals whose vector sum is substantially constant, said velocity control signals being provided by a servo control device, the improvement comprising means for storing calibration signals characterizing the manner in which the actual velocity responses of the servos vary with the applied velocity control signals, and means for modifying the velocity control signals provided to said servos in accordance with said stored calibration signals so as to keep said flame cutter moving at a substantial constant velocity despite any nonuniform velocity response characteristics of said servos.