DC motor management. (PIC-Tronics).

Often my columns are inspired by real-life experiences. This time, it was a young friend (you might notice I like working with budding hobbyists, both young and old), who was having a problem with his bot. The problem was controlling the speed of the drive motors that give the bot motion. His bot would either stagger like a drunk or go in circles.

Such is the dilemma of the permanent-magnet DC motor often used for propulsion in robotics. While the advent of the PWM (pulse-width modulated) controller has tamed the DC motor considerably, it lacks one thing--speed control. The bot ...

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