Robust speed control of a stepping motor drive using fuzzy logic

Nowadays, due to advances made in power electronics and in data processing, stepping motors are widely used in robotics and numerical control of machines, where they have to perform high-precision synchronised movements. But the variations of the mechanical configuration of the drive which are common for these two applications can lead to step losses. Moreover, an open loop speed control is insufficient and a closed loop control is required. In this paper, we propose a method of using the fuzzy logic theory to control the speed of a stepping motor drive. An advanced testbed is used in order to test the dynamics properties and the robustness capacities of the fuzzy logic controller when variations of mechanical configuration occur.