Self-commissioning electronic motor controller determination

A method for calculating a derivative term in a closed-loop controller that receives position error information at each servo processing interval, the method comprising computer-implemented steps of:

• performing a self-commissioning process to compute a motor model that relates a motor control signal applied by a first controller to a motor to a motion of the motor, where the self-commissioning process is automatically performed in response to receipt of a first user input and the motor model is computed without requiring second user input, and the self-commissioning process includes:
• determining a number of position error readings to be supplied to the closed-loop controller for use in computing a derivative term;
• and
• supplying the determined number of position error reading to the closed-loop controller;
• computing a derivative term in the closed-loop controller, where the computer-implemented steps of calculating the derivative term includes computer-implemented code for the computer-implemented steps stored on a computer-readable medium for:
• recording three or more position error readings at different servo processing intervals;
• computing a derivative estimate by:
• summing two or more of the position error readings;
• and
• subtracting an equal number of different position error readings than used in the summing step;
• and then
• computing the derivative term based on the derivative estimate;
• and
• generating a motor control signal based in part on the computed derivative term.