Mechanical parameter estimation of motion control systems

Variation of relevant mechanical parameters (i.e. moment of inertia, viscous coefficient) highly influences the performance of servo motor drive systems as it affects the motor´s mechanical dynamics. This paper, on one hand, reviews relevant approaches to the estimation of such parameters of motion control systems, identifying their strengths and weaknesses. On the other hand, an efficient alternative to such an estimation problem is presented. This approach is relatively simple, thus computationally advantageous to implement, yet very robust to external disturbances such as measurement noise, mechanical resonance within the drive system.