Introduction There are times when it is necessary to limit the range of motion of particular moving parts on a robot.

For example, limiting how far the leg assemblies of a BEAM walker can swing from one side to the other. Another example would be restricting how far up or down a two degree of freedom (2DOF) power smart head can pivot. Preventing motor driven mechanisms like these from traveling beyond a set of fixed limits can be accomplished relatively easily by integrating limit switches into the motor control scheme. This involves more than simply putting a normally closed switch (or two) in series with the motor wiring. Although doing so would cause the motor to be deenergized (disconnected from the power supply) any time one of the limit switches was engaged (its contacts are made to open or closed) by the mechanism being limited. And this would cause the motor to stop turning thereby causing the motion of the mechanism to cease. The problem is that with a limit switch engaged, one side of the motor would be completely isolated from the power source. Therefore the motor would not be able to turn in response to any incoming command. As a result, human intervention becomes neccesary. To be more specific, someone would have to manually moved the

mechanism away from the limit switch so that the switch contacts would close and power would again be able to get to the motor. At best this would be a nuisance. Consideration must therefore be given to how power can get to the motor after a limit switch has been engaged. That is to say, how to make the motor able to turn in the opposite direction, so that the mechanism can move away from the engaged limit switch without needing to rely on human assistance. There are actually a variety of ways this can be done. Some of them are relatively obvious, while others are less so. The method to be used will in some cases be a simple matter of personal preference, while in other cases the options will be limited by the type of motor control circuit that is being used. This later situation is especially true with certain BEAM circuits as will become clear later. [edit] In a Motor's Power Leads If for some reason it is desirable to make the limit switches an integral part of the wiring from the motor to its power source, then the following two configurations are good examples of just how to do so.

Figure 1 Conventional Limit Switch configuration

Figure 2 Alterate Conventional Limit Switch configuration to its regular incoming power source, the motor can still be made to operated in the opposite direction by simply reversing the positive and negative power connections made to inputs In1 and In2. There is another benefit to using this configuration. If a Permanent Magnet (PM) type of DC motor is being used, this arrangement also provides dynamic braking. You see, when the limit switch opens, the motor will want to coast to a stop. As it coasts, a Permanent Magnet Motor will act like a generator producing a potential across its leads. With the motor leads connected together as a result of the normally open limit switch contacts now being closed in this way, the resulting dead short will cause heavy loading of the resulting current This heavy loading in turn causes the motor to brake to a quick halt. NOTE: dynamic braking may not be very effective with some small PM motors. For more on this, see the Dynamic Braking section of the BEAM Wiki article "Putting On The Brakes".

Figure 1 shows a relatively simple method that uses a pair of Single Pole-Double Throw (SPDT) switches. Each switch is wired into the motor circuit with the common terminal of the switch connected to one side of the motor or the other, the normally closed terminal connected to the incoming power line on the same side, and the normally open terminal connected to the ground (typically the negative side of the power supply). The limit switches are then mounted in such a way that when the mechanism driven by the motor reaches one of the limit positions, it will engage the limit switch at that position. This will cause the normally closed contacts of that switch to open, and its normally open contacts to close. As a result, the motor lead that was connected to the positive side of the incoming power is instead connected to the ground. The motor is therefore de-energized, and as long as the incoming power on the inputs (labeled In1 and In2) remains unchanges, each sides of the motor will be connected the other side through the power supply ground. This arrangement insures that even though one side of the motor is no longer connected through the limit switch
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Figure 2 shows an alternative limit switch configuration. This time diodes are placed in parallel with a pair of Single Pole-Single Throw (SPST) switches. As a result, even if one of the limit switches has been engaged by the motor driven mechanism (causing its contacts to be opened) there is still a path available (through the diode) for current to flow between the motor and the negative side of the power supply. This insures that the motor can be made to turn in the opposite direction (as with the previous configuration) by simply reversing the positive and negative power connections to the inputs. The biggest problem with using either of the two configurations described here, is that the limit switches (and the diodes if they are used) must be able to handle the highest probable motor current. This is usually the motor's stall current which is higher than the current that the motor would normally draw under typical load conditions. It is in fact a good idea to use limit switches and diodes that are rated well above the highest expected motor current. This means that if a larger motor (such as a wheel chair motor) is being used, some fairly heavyduty, and probably expensive components might need to be purchased. [edit] With a Motor Driver

Figure 3 Motor Driver with alternate Limit Switchconfiguration

Figure 4 Motor Driver with alternate Limit Switch configuration On the other hand, if a motor driver is used, then almost any light duty switch can be used as the limit switches. These would be wired in, between the motor driver and the motor control circuit. Three simple examples can be seen in Figures 3, 4 and 5. The resistors are used to limit current and protect the source of the incoming motor command signals. Without them, inputs In1 and/or In2 would be short circuited to each other, or to ground every time one of the limit switches was engaged by the mechanism. Values between 10K and 100K work well here. If the configuration seen in Figures 3 is used, then whenever the contacts of one of the limit switches were closed, the motor driver input that was being held high by the incoming motor command would be pulled low. As a result both of the motor driver inputs would be low, meaning that both of the motor driver outputs would be at the same potential. Since both sides of the motor connected to the motor driver outputs would be at the same potential the motor would stop turning.

Figure 5 Motor Driver with alternate Limit Switch configuration If on the other hand the configuration seen in Figure 4 was used, any time one of the limit switches was engaged, rather than directly grounding one of the motor driver inputs, that input would instead be cross coupled (through the limit switch and diode) to the command signal on the opposite side, and therefore be pulled low. The diodes are absolutely neccesary because without them any time a limit switch was engaged by the mechanism, both inputs (and therefore both outputs) of the motor driver would be forced into the identical state. Reversing the command signal would only invert the state that the motor driver inputs would hold in common. Either way, both sides of the motor would be at the same potential and it would therefore not turn. In order for the motor to again be enegized, it would be neccesary for someone to manually back the mechanism away from the limt switch. Once again, the nuisance factor raises its ugly head. But with the diodes in place, the closed contacts of a limit switch can only pull a motor driver input low. So as soon as the command signal calls for the motor to turn in the opposite direction, the motor will be free to do so. By turning one of the diodes around (as shown in Figure 5) one less resistor would be needed, to accomplish the same basic effect. The only significant difference would be that when one of the limit switches is engaged, the motor driver inputs would both be pulled low, (either by the incoming command signal, or as a result of the closed limit switch contacts) and if the other limit switch was engaged both of the inputs would be pulled high instead. In some cases, it makes sense to integrate the limit [switch]]es directly into the motor control circuit itself. The rest of this article will describe some of the ways this can be done.