A Simple Speed Feedback System for Low Speed DC Motor Control in Robotic Applications

Robots often tend to swerve in an arc when one wants it to move forward or backward in a straight line. This is because the wheels do not rotate at the same speed. This research describes the design of a PIC microcontroller-based speed feedback system for low speed DC motor control to be used for robotic applications. Such a system, integrated with an appropriate motor control circuitry, is expected to dramatically enhance the performance of a DC motor. A feature of this design is that it uses basic principles of speed measurement. The experimental results show that the speeds measured by the PIC-microcontroller are reasonably close to the values measured by the tachometer.