Because the sun gear in a hybrid unit is pre-aligned within the gearhead rather than affixed to the motor shaft, these gearheads can be used in contouring applications such as a glue-dispensing nozzle for affixing a windshield to a car. servo motor gear reducers motion of the nozzle since it comes after the seam between a windshield and its window frame must be perfectly smooth; or else a ripple in velocity alters the bead diameter and causes messy glue application.

Smooth motion, this means the absence of torque and velocity variations (ripple), is essential in contouring applications. But, it is difficult to regularly achieve smooth movement where the sun gear is installed on the electric motor shaft. A good slight misalignment in the sun gear (motor shaft runout or coupling inaccuracies) could cause rough operation and noise.

Many servo controllers use software compensation, and their success depends upon knowing the lost motion of the whole system. This information is usually available from the gearhead manufacturer.
Contouring applications usually involve end-effectors or tool-points that adhere to mathematically defined paths. Sealant and bonding devices, water and flame cutters, laser welders and cutters, motion managed cameras, and CNC machine equipment are good examples.

Software compensation is accomplished by commanding the electric motor to go beyond the apparently desired position by an amount equal to the system’s lost movement, thereby bringing the strain to the truly desired position. For example, consider a servomotor, gearhead, and leadscrew mixture in a pick-andplace robot. If 100,000 encoder counts equals 1.0 in. of linear motion and the system has 0.1-in. dropped motion, then the controller tells the electric motor to move 110,000 encoder counts to get 1.0 in. of motion, thus compensating for the 0.1-in. lost motion.

Backlash is the excess space between two adjacent equipment teeth and its own engaging tooth; lost motion is the total looseness or motion at a reducer’s output shaft when the insight shaft is fixed. Dropped motion includes backlash, plus losses from bearing looseness, tolerances and fits, and shaft and equipment tooth compliance.
Servo controllers could be programmed to pay for backlash and lost movement in planetary gearheads. This system compensates for backlash even where an application requires accuracy much better than the minimal backlash of the gearhead.