Servo motors have been around for years. Because of their small size, they are widely used by hobbyists and collectors to operate remote-controlled or radio-controlled toy cars and robots and even airplanes. Servo motors can also be found in one form or another in industrial devices where robotics are necessary. Servo motors can be found across a number of industries, from pharmaceutics to food services. This article will provide some background about servo motors, including what they are, how they work and how they are used

What is a Servo Motor?
A servo is a small device with circuitry built right in. It has a positionable shaft that can be arranged in a number of angled positions via a coded signal. The position of the shaft changes as it receives different signals. Despite their small size, servo motors are powerful but don't consume much energy.

How does a Servo Motor Work?
A servo motor operates on the principal of "proportional control." This means the motor will only run as hard as necessary to accomplish the task at hand. If the shaft needs to turn a great deal, the motor will run at full speed. If the movement is small, the motor will run more slowly.

A control wire sends coded signals to the shaft using "pulse coded modulation." With pulse-coded modulation, the shaft knows to move to achieve a certain angle, based on the duration of the pulse sent via the control wire. A 1.5 millisecond pulse will make the motor turn to the 90-degree position. Shorter than 1.5 moves it to 0 degrees, and longer will turn it to 180 degrees.