Abstract

An anti-backlash gearing system which includes first and second drive gears hich mesh with a driven gear to provide torque and rotational motion to the driven gear. The drive gears are each driven by a motor, while the driven gear drives a load. The anti-backlash gearing system uses a microprocessor to control the command voltage R to each of the drive motors. The command voltage R provided to each drive motor also includes an offset δ which may be positive for one motor and negative for the other motor. The torque provided by one motor and its associated drive gear to the driven gear may be in the positive direction (clockwise direction), while the torque provided by the other motor and its associated drive gear to the driven gear is in the negative direction (counterclockwise direction). The motors are driven in opposite directions to control the backlash on the gears. As a sign change in torque is about to occur for one of the motors, there is a correction made to the torque curves for each motor so that the commanded torque for each individual motor and its associated drive gear adds up to the total commanded torque for the two motors. This substantially reduces backlash and the resultant impact loading on the gear teeth of the drive gears and the driven gear of the gear train.