How to Control a Servo Motor with Arduino: A Beginner's Guide to Robotics and Mechatronics

Introduction:

Arduino is a popular microcontroller platform that can be used to control various components like sensors, actuators, and motors. Among them, servo motors are widely used in robotics, automation, and mechatronics systems. In this blog post, we will explore how to control a servo motor using an Arduino board.

What is a Servo Motor?

A servo motor is a type of motor that can rotate to a specific angle with high precision. It consists of a motor, gears, and a feedback control system. The feedback control system uses a potentiometer to detect the position of the motor shaft and adjusts the motor speed and direction to reach the desired angle.

Connecting Servo Motor to Arduino:

To connect a servo motor to an Arduino board, you need to have a servo motor, an Arduino board, a breadboard, and some jumper wires. The servo motor has three wires: power, ground, and signal. You need to connect the power wire to the 5V pin of the Arduino board, the ground wire to the GND pin, and the signal wire to one of the digital pins, such as pin 9.

Power à 5V

Gnd à Gnd

Signal à Pin9

Programming the Arduino for Servo Control:

To program the Arduino board for servo control, you need to use the Servo library. The Servo library provides an easy-to-use interface for controlling a servo motor. 

Code

#include <Servo.h>

Servo myservo;  // create servo object

void setup() {

  myservo.attach(9);  // attach servo to pin 9

}

void loop() {

  myservo.write(90);  // set servo position to 90 degrees

  delay(1000);        // wait for 1 second

  myservo.write(0);   // set servo position to 0 degrees

  delay(1000);        // wait for 1 second

}

Explain:

In this example, we create a Servo object called myservo and attach it to pin 9 using the attach() method in the setup() function. In the loop() function, we use the write() method to set the servo position to 90 degrees and then 0 degrees with a delay of 1 second between each position change.

Conclusion:

In this blog post, we have learned how to control a servo motor using an Arduino board. By connecting the servo motor to an Arduino board and using the Servo library, you can easily control the position and speed of the motor. This opens up a wide range of possibilities for building robots, automation systems, and other mechatronics projects. With a bit of creativity and experimentation, you can create all sorts of interesting servo-based projects using Arduino.

Video :)