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5 Commits

Author SHA1 Message Date
Yuval Tassa 2f1843f4a7 Redesign the dcmotor controller: setpoint inputs, torque-space gains.
The dcmotor input block is any subset of the canonical list [pos, vel,
ff, voltage], selected with input="pos vel ff voltage" and recorded as
mjtCtrlInput bits in actuator_ctrlspec like pid. Tokens are required in
canonical order: the attribute denotes a set, the block always packs
canonically, and accepting permutations invites reading the string as a
layout choice. The mode flag in gainprm[8] is retired (reserved,
written 0).

Controller gains are now in torque space, as for pid: the controller
commands tau = kp*(q*-l) + kd*(v*-ldot) + ki*x_I + tau_ff over the
present inputs (absent setpoints frozen at zero) and converts to drive
voltage V = R/K * tau + K*ldot. The second term compensates back-EMF,
as the current loop of a real torque-mode driver does (torque commands
are current commands): commanded torque is delivered exactly until a
limit binds, and the torque-speed envelope emerges from the Vmax clamp.
The map uses the nameplate R: thermal resistance growth is not
compensated, so a hot motor under-delivers by R/R(T). A stateless
setpoint dcmotor now matches <pid> exactly, for any K and R; the old
back-EMF droop remains available as the physical behavior of the raw
voltage path. Voltage-space datasheet gains convert by K/R. Controller
inputs require a positive motor constant (the map divides by K), and
controller gains require a controller input.

ff and voltage are distinct inputs, different in kind: ff is a torque
feedforward added to the controller output, uniform with pid's ff
(feedforward in the actuator's output space), while voltage is the raw
terminal voltage of the physical device, injected downstream of the
controller and its Vmax clamp, unclamped (ctrlrange bounds it if
desired). input="voltage" is the default: the plain voltage-commanded
motor, whose behavior is unchanged by this commit. The integrator
always accumulates position error; the old velocity mode's integral
term, ki*(int(u)dt - theta), which tracked the integral of the velocity
command, is retired without replacement, keeping ki mode-independent --
commanded integrated velocity belongs to an integrator activation
state, not to controller gains. slewmax rate-limits the first controller
input -- position setpoint (rad/s), velocity setpoint (rad/s^2) or torque
feedforward (N*m/s), each a real driver feature (reference ramping,
ramped-velocity and ramped-torque input modes); the raw voltage input
is never rate-limited and slewmax requires a controller input.

input="none" selects the empty signature: the actuator owns no controls
at all (nu = 0 is now legal with actuators present) and is purely
passive -- LuGre friction, cogging and back-EMF braking as passive
joint forces. This exists because auxiliary dynamic states (the LuGre
bristle) attach to actuators, not joints. The terminal voltage is
identically zero, i.e. a shorted motor (dynamic braking); motorconst=0
decouples the electrical branch. mjINPUT_NONE is a distinct enum value
because ctrlspec = 0 means "unset, use the type default". History and
delay require an input; the controller voltage override and input read
in mj_fwdActuation are gated on a nonempty block.

The analytic velocity derivative of the controller becomes
dV/dw = -kd*R/K + K, whose second term cancels the back-EMF bias
exactly: the net damping of an unclipped torque-mode motor is -kd, and
of a voltage-mode or passive motor -K^2/R. Viewers label inputs via
mj_actuatorInputName: pos, vel, ff, voltage.

The dcmotor LaTeX design doc is updated accordingly: torque-space
units, the tau->V map and its saturation-generated envelope, the
input-block pipeline figure, and a Passive Operation section.

PiperOrigin-RevId: 965795351
Change-Id: Ibc308ca21bd6bad014e77f950ee08feaad449b73
2026-08-17 00:43:48 -07:00
Yuval Tassa a5de6506eb Add backlinks from tech note to dcmotor docs.
PiperOrigin-RevId: 910543352
Change-Id: I171c34a793f23b09feeb46ab7b02ebe7900902ba
2026-05-05 02:38:38 -07:00
Yuval Tassa 81720071b8 Changes to dcmotor:
- Remove `lugre:viscous`, should now be added directly to actuator `damping`. Trying to do this for the user was incompatible with default inheritance (compounding instead of overriding).
- Move voltage limiting from the `saturation` to the `controller` attribute.
- Fix indexing issues in default inheritance.

PiperOrigin-RevId: 897087642
Change-Id: I5388c2633e15c7e223992e7eb5d6a28db75a6438
2026-04-09 06:52:45 -07:00
Yuval Tassa 5a2cc6cee3 Improve torque-speed Figure (3b) in dcmotor.pdf
PiperOrigin-RevId: 896453507
Change-Id: I3973b173db9035b71d69bc2c9dea990689d06a1c
2026-04-08 06:04:57 -07:00
Yuval Tassa 70a7647ad9 Add <dcmotor> actuator and related docs and tests.
PiperOrigin-RevId: 892927987
Change-Id: I38ed6412801341ba03ddf5fe7b93a6081df24d37
2026-04-01 07:50:23 -07:00