These control signals serve as inputs to amplifiers that in turn output higher power signals to the motor. Feedback signals from each motor provide the encoder position to the controller or, in some cases, the controller and the amplifier. These amplifiers then close the servo loop, and typically perform some trajectory generation as well. To gain the benefit of less wiring, the amplifiers should be located near the motors. Hierarchical motion control architecture clusters several motion axes into functional groups.
Architecture means the native organization of the control system.
A printing press incorporating multiple servo-controlled spools is a good example of a flat motion control system. Distributed motion control for such an application requires higher bandwidth with highly deterministic network buses. To distribute the control for an application like this, less synchronized networks with less determinism may be used. When assembling a distributed system, try to anticipate the kinds of sensors required in your application. Depending on the answers to these questions, it may be possible to place some of the system under distributed control, or none of it, or all of it.