Frequency-Tracking Clock Servo for Time Synchronization in Networked Motion Control Systems

• Main Authors: Xin Chen, Di Li, Shiyong Wang, Hao Tang, Chengliang Liu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 2017-01-01
• Series: IEEE Access
• Subjects: Clock synchronization; EtherCAT master; networked motion control
• Online Access: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7949001/

With the application of internet in manufacturing, motion control system is tend to networking. Clock synchronization is a basic requirement to guarantee capability of coordination in networked motion control systems. In this paper, we propose a frequency-tracking clock servo (FTCS) to adjust the local clock to synchronize with the reference clock. The frequency of FTCS can rapidly lock onto the reference frequency and the offset can be fully compensated within a single synchronizing cycle. Simulations and experiments are performed to validate the feasibility and superiority of FTCS. Compared with the proportional-integral clock servo, FTCS can achieve the rapid synchronized speed and better precision with low frequency of sending synchronization messages.