QUADRATURE ENCODER HTTP://ROBU.

IN/QUADRATURE-ENCODER/
1.0 Introduction

A typical rotary incremental encoder consists of a light-emitting diode (LED), a disk, and a light
detector on the opposite side of the disk (see next figure). The disk, which is mounted on the
rotating shaft, has patterns of opaque and transparent sectors coded into the disk. As the disk
rotates, the opaque segments block the light and, where the glass is clear, light is allowed to
pass. This generates square-wave pulses, which can then be interpreted into position or
motion. These pulses can be read by microcontroller as part of a PID feedback control
system to determine translation to distance, rotational velocity, and/or angle of a moving
robot or robot part. For instance, if you have a wheel rotating, and you want to measure the
time it takes to rotate exactly 40 degrees, or if you want to know when you have traveled X
distance, you can use an rotary encoder. The encoder will be fixed on your robot, and the
mechanical part (the encoder wheel) will rotate with the wheel. Since the output of an
encoder is a square wave, you can then count the pulses if you hook up this signal to a digital
counter or microcontroller. Knowing the distance/angle between each pulse, and the time
from start to finish, you can easily determine position or angle or velocity or whatever.
Encoders are necessary for making robot arms, and very useful for acceleration control of
heavier robots. They are also commonly used in robot for maze navigation.

Rotary Incremental Encoder Basic working model

Rotary Encoders usually offer 100 to 6,000 segments per revolution. This means the encoder can provide
3.6 deg of resolution for 100 segments and 0.06 deg of resolution for 6,000 segments. Linear encoders
work under the same principle as rotary encoders except that instead of a rotating disk, there is a
stationary opaque strip with transparent slits along its surface, and the LED-detector assembly is attached
to the moving body.
2.0 Quadrature Encoder

An encoder with one set of pulses is sometime not sufficient because it cannot indicate the direction of
rotation. Using two code tracks with sectors positioned 90 degree out of phase (see next figure); the two
output channels of the quadrature encoder indicate both position and direction of rotation. For example,
if A leads B, the disk is rotating in a clockwise direction. If B leads A, the disk is rotating in a counter-
clockwise direction. Therefore, by monitoring both the number of pulses and the relative phase of signals
A and B, the microcontroller can track both the position and direction of rotation. In addition, some
quadrature encoders include a third output channel called a zero or reference signal which supplies a
single pulse per revolution. This single pulse can be used for precise determination of a reference
position. This signal is called the Z-Terminal or the index in most of encoder. A typical, ideal quadrature
signal looks like this:

Quadrature Encoder Output

With incremental encoders, you can measure only changes in position (from which you can determine
velocity and acceleration), but it is not possible to determine the absolute position of an object. Another
type of encoder, called an absolute encoder, is capable of determining the absolute position of an object.
Its function is similar to position feedback using variable resistor (analog output), the only differences are
that it can be rotated in 360 degree and digital output. This type of encoder has alternating opaque and
transparent segments like the incremental encoder, but the absolute encoder uses multiple groups of
segments that form concentric circles on the encoder wheel like a bulls-eye on a target or dartboard. The
concentric circles start in the middle of the encoder wheel and, as the rings go out toward the outside of
the ring, each of them has doubled the number of segments than the previous inner ring.

To make encoder measurements, you need a basic electronic component called a counter. Based on its
several inputs, a basic counter emits a value that represents the number of edges (low to high or high to
low transitions in the waveform) counted. Most of the Microchip PICs have this peripheral; normally
Timer 0 or Timer 1 is used as external input counter. External interrupt pins (INT) can also be used for
counting the pulse; the rising edge (low to high) or falling edge (high to low) is configurable. Once the
edges are counted, the next thing you need to take care is how those values are converted to position,
further to speed and etc. The process by which edge counts are converted to position depends on the
type of encoding used. There are three basic types of encoding, X1, X2, and X4.

2.1 1X Encoding

You will be able to see the signals shown in the next figure if we are scanning from left to right ; and
reverse the direction or scan from right to left on previous figure. This is a quadrature cycle and the
resulting increments and decrements for X1 encoding. When channel A leads channel B, the increment
occurs on the rising edge of channel A. When channel B leads channel A, the decrement occurs on the
falling edge of channel A.

1X Encoding

2.2 2X Encoding

A shortcoming of the previous method is that the count frequency is the same as the frequency of
channel A. Thus, an encoder is said to have a resolution of 500 pulses per revolution (ppr) does exactly
that. We can do better by using both edges of Channel A. This is not too hard to arrange in hardware but
this uses up valuable board space. The equality test described just now works just as well if we are
detecting falling edges. Thus we can use the same routine for both rising and falling edges and detect
twice as many transitions. With 2X decoding our 500 ppr encoder can generate 1000 pulses per
revolution.

2X Encoding
2.3 4X Encoding

It is possible to do even better if we examine the edges of both channel A and channel B. There
are four edges for each phase of channel A and it is possible to get 2000 pulses per revolution
from our 500 ppr encoder.

4X Encoding

When I cut out the middle part of this signals which shown in the next figure, we can see
clearly that the two bit encoder field (A, B) is Gray Code Encoded. Only one of the two bits
changes for any given state transition.

4X Encoding State Transition

Furthermore, we can tell whether the wheel is turning clockwise or counter-clockwise based
on the state transitions, which are mutually exclusive for the two directions, as shown in the
table below.
4X Encoding State Transition Table

Most engineers will be more comfortable with the table above representing a state transition
diagram, as shown in figure below.

4X Encoding State Transition Diagram

If you have a microcontroller with the ability to generate interrupt form external source, it is
pretty simple to get the count we want. But at least it must has two external interrupt pins for
4X encoding, lets say we use PIC18F4520 (3 external interrupt pins). Channel A is connected to
the INT1/RB1 pin and channel B is connected to the INT0/RB0 pin. The sense of the interrupt is
changed after each interrupt so that the routine responds alternately to rising and falling
edges. On each interrupt, after determining the current state, we can get the direction by
checking back the previous state and Count Value will be increased or decreased. Listing below
is the example interrupt routine for PIC18F4520 and the sequence is based on the previous
state transition diagram.
4X Encoding Interrupt Routine Listing

Angle of rotation (degree) = (CountValue/XN) x 360 where N = number of pulses generated by

the encoder per shaft revolution, X is the encoding type. Lets say Rotary Encoder B-106-23983
(available from robu.in) is used, N=500ppr and we use 4X encoding, so our angle of rotation
(degree) = CountValue x 0.18. This encoder outputs capable to produce up to 100 kHz pulse, it
is good enough for a normal mobile robot. Your microcontroller speed might limit the
maximum angular speed of your encoder due to the time for serving interrupt routine. Some
of the 8-bit Microchip PIC has Quadrature Encoder Interface (QEI) feature with noise filters like
PIC18F2331, PIC18F2431, PIC18F4331 and PIC18F4431. With this model of microcontroller,
configure some of the related registers is sufficient; position and velocity of your encoder can
be obtained directly without serving the interrupt routine.