Stepping motor technology is well established and used for motion control, notably for computer peripherals but wherever digital control is employed. This reference on stepping motors has been revised to bring the reader up to date with trends that have emerged since the third edition was published. It offers an introduction to the essential characteristics of stepping motor systems, and an understanding of how these characteristics are being exploited in the continuing development of new motors, drives and controllers.
Paul Acarnley is Professor of Electric Drives at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. His interest in stepping motors started at Leeds University, with a Ph.D. on the torque-producing capabilities of variable-reluctance stepping motors, and continued at Cambridge University, with work on new closed-loop and microprocessor-based control techniques. Besides stepping motors, Paul Acarnley's research interests include the application in electric drives of methods for estimating and controlling speed, rotor position, flux, torque and temperature. He is a Fellow of the IET.