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Application Note, Motion Control Platforms
Application Note

Automation1 Drives Demonstrate Significantly Improved Stop and Settle Performance

Aerotech continues to build on 50+ years of motion control expertise and push the limits of drive hardware performance. To demonstrate how Automation1 outperforms Aerotech’s previous generation of drive hardware products, the Automation1 XC2, XC2e PWM  and XL2e drives were compared to the Ensemble ML linear drive. 

For this test, the system included a disabled rotary axis mounted on top of an ABL1500 air-bearing linear stage. These axes are part of a customer machine that performs a high-end inspection process. This test was performed at the customer’s facility. All of the drives were tuned with EasyTune, using the “Normal” performance target setting. The test included executing 1 mm moves at a velocity of 5 mm/s on the ABL1500 stage and measuring the ABL1500 settling time. Results are shown in Table 1 below.

ControllerDriveSettling TimeIn-Position Jitter
Automation1-iSMCAutomation1-XL2e14 msec+/-5 nm
Automation1-iSMCAutomation1-XC234 msec+/-30 nm
Automation1-iSMCAutomation1-XC2e30 msec+/-15 nm
Ensemble ControllerEnsembleML56 msec+/-25 nm
Table 1. Results of a test comparing Automation1 PWM drives to legacy Ensemble linear drives to highlight Automation1 performance improvements.

Despite the technical advantages of linear amplifier design, the Automation1 XC2 and the XC2e PWM drives both outperform the legacy EnsembleML linear drive’s settling time performance.

The Automation1 XL2e – Aerotech’s highest-performing linear drive – shows a notable improvement over the legacy EnsembleML Linear drive.  This is due to superior amplifier and signal processing designs and components used in the Automation1 product line.

In summary, the Automation1 motion control platform delivers the following when compared to the Ensemble controller system with EnsembleML drive:

  • When using an Automation1 XL2e, experience up to a 75% reduction of settling time and up to an 80% reduction of in-position jitter. 
  • When using an Automation1 XC2e, experience up to a 46% reduction of settling time and up to an 40% reduction of in-position jitter. 
  • When using an Automation1 XC2, experience up to a 40% reduction of settling time.