🚀 Revolution in Industrial Automation: Distributed Drive Architectures!

[Semih Asil]

💡 Why Distributed Drives?​

In industrial automation, traditional motion control systems imposed limitations in terms of both space and cost. Kollmorgen's distributed drive systems, such as MKD and AKD-N, offer innovative solutions to these problems. Wiring complexity and control cabinet footprint are now a thing of the past!

🛠️ Technical Solution Details​

Kollmorgen combines power, feedback, and brake control in a single connection using hybrid cable technology with its AKD2G drive. This eliminates the need for separate encoder cables required for standard brushless servo motors. For multi-axis applications, the MKD modular system provides a common DC bus as a central power supply. AKD-N drives, instead of being grouped in a central control cabinet, are distributed directly onto the machine architecture, close to their respective motors.

⚙️ Ease of Application and Integration​

The distributed units are connected to the central power supply with a single daisy-chain cable. This cable transmits both DC bus power and fieldbus control signals. This network topology allows the control infrastructure to hop sequentially from one drive to the next. When the capacity of a machine needs to be expanded, technicians can integrate an additional axis by making a single connection from the last drive in the existing chain. This method minimizes production downtime by eliminating the need to physically open the central control cabinet, return to the power supply, or reconfigure primary wiring paths.

🎯 Use Cases and Benefits​

This distributed motion control infrastructure is used in industrial automation environments that require multi-axis machines where floor space, maintenance access, and expansion flexibility are critical. The distributed approach allows control cabinets to often shrink enough to be mounted directly onto the machine frame. Digital position sensors and single-connector architectures accelerate the commissioning process by minimizing the number of termination, labeling, and routing paths required during initial machine assembly.

📈 Expected Impact and Results​

The transition from a centralized, dual-cable structure to a distributed, daisy-chain topology provides significant material reductions. In a standard machine with ten motors, a traditional setup requires approximately 200 meters of cabling, whereas the distributed drive architecture reduces the total cable requirement to about 30 meters. This reduction directly lowers material costs associated with copper cabling, limits potential mechanical failure points along complex cable routes, and offers a scalable framework for future machine adaptations.