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ORCA™ Series Smart Linear Motors have five modes of operation: Sleep Mode, Force Mode, Position Mode, Haptic Mode, and Kinematic Mode. Today, we will show you how to get started with Kinematic Mode. ORCA motors are fully integrated. All drivers, controllers, and sensors required to run your motor are located inside the motor’s chassis. Each ORCA motor includes a kinematic controller that allows you to configure, save, and play back motion profiles directly from the device.
What is Kinematic Mode and When Use It?
Kinematic Mode is commonly used in pneumatic replacement, testing and measurement applications, research and development, and in robotics and machine building. It is the simplest way to achieve smooth point-to-point position control. Kinematic Mode is useful when you want to smoothly move the motor between position targets. It also allows complex motion profiles to be saved to the motor’s memory, enabling headless operation of your smart linear motor. Motion profiles may be chained together, with or without configurable delays.
How Is it Different From Position Mode?
Kinematic Mode is different from Position Mode, which is useful when you want to stream continuous position values to the motor. Position Mode allows the motor to perform more complex motions that may be non-periodic or non-repeating.
| Kinematic Mode | Position Mode | |
| Purpose | Smoothly move your ORCA motor to a pre-programmed position value | Stream continuous position values to your ORCA motor |
| Operation | Does not require continuous output | Commands more complex motions |
Follow Along with Written Instructions
To access Kinematic Mode in IrisControls, select the Position/Kinematics page. Next, click Set Kinematic Profile to open the Kinematics Panel. This will display several Motion ID configuration panels. Up to 32 Motion IDs can be configured and stacked, if desired by the user. Additional Motion IDs can be accessed using the page selector.
| Trigger Button | The Trigger button manually triggers a motion ID. |
| Position | Position sets the target position for the shaft in micrometers. |
| Time | Time sets how long the motion will take. |
| Delay | Delay sets the amount of delay after the motion completes before the next motion is triggered IF Autostart next is toggled. |
Select the next motion by entering its ID in the Next ID field. At the top of the Kinematics Panel, the Home Motion ID sets which motion ID will run when Enable is pressed. For example, to run Motion 2 on startup, the Home Motion ID must be set to 2. Save Configuration saves all changes, and Enable begins executing the configured motion ID.
Integrating the IO SmartHub
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The IO Smarthub is a companion product to the ORCA Series Motor. It controls the ORCA motors in Force, Position, and Kinematic modes, configurable through Modbus or the IrisControls GUI. The IO Smarthub is ideal for ORCA motor customers who want to control the motor and receive feedback using digital and analog signals instead of serial messages. You can also use Kinematic Mode with the IO Smarthub. The three digital inputs on the IO Smarthub can be used to trigger up to six different Kinematic motions if both rising and falling edges are used. Here, two separate Kinematic motions are triggered by each button press. Discover the IO SmartHub →