Speed controller strategies for distributed motion control via Ethernet

Investigations on adapting Ethernet for distributed control systems is an interesting topic in the motion control industry, due to its commercially off the shelf hardware availability and compatibility at a comparatively lower price. Conversely, the communication through shared media in standard Ethernet is non-deterministic resulting in stochastic delays of data transfer. This paper experiments the solutions, through a control engineering perspective, for the time delay problem encountered in distributing the speed control loop of a Brushless DC motor via an Ethernet network. The mean of the control delay (T) is used in standard controller strategies modified for time delayed systems.