Positioning systems employing velocity and position control loops with

Abstract

A position servo system has a position loop and a velocity loop. The position loop controls the stop-lock condition and provides for movement control within a range about the stop-lock position. The velocity circuit is employed for movements outside of the range of the position servo circuit. When the velocity servo's loop is being used, a compare circuit compares the servo drive signal from the velocity circuit with a signal generated by the position servo loop which is tracking the velocity servo loop. When the compare circuit finds that the servo drive signals have equal amplitudes, then the velocity servo loop is disconnected from an actuator with the position servo loop then connected to the activation for completing the movement to a desired or target stop-lock position. The above-indicated servo system controls a topping or fine actuator carried on a carriage moved by a coarse actuator. The fine and coarse actuators move along the same axis and transverse to movement of any work element, such as a record storage disk. The coarse actuator is continuously slaved to the positioning of the topping or fine actuator. A relative position sensor disposed intermediate the fine and coarse actuators supplies a position error signal for enabling the coarse actuator to continuously follow the fine actuator. Feed forward signals are supplied from the fine actuator to the coarse actuator. A preferred embodiment is shown using an optical disk environment.