Unit 3: Electrical and Electronics Elements - Practice Quiz

ECE244 — Elements Of Robotics 60 Questions
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1 What type of electrical energy does a DC motor convert into mechanical energy?

DC motors Easy
A. Light energy
B. Alternating current
C. Stored chemical energy
D. Direct current

2 What usually happens to the speed of a DC motor when its supply voltage is increased?

DC motors Easy
A. The speed usually increases
B. The speed always becomes zero
C. The direction always reverses
D. The motor becomes a sensor

3 What is a common feature of a servo motor?

Servo motors Easy
A. It operates without moving parts
B. It produces only electrical signals
C. It uses feedback for control
D. It stores energy like a battery

4 Which quantity is commonly controlled by a position servo motor?

Servo motors Easy
A. Ambient brightness
B. Battery chemistry
C. Angular position
D. Wire resistance

5 How does a stepper motor normally move?

Stepper motors Easy
A. Only in one continuous speed
B. Only when manually turned
C. In random jumps
D. In discrete steps

6 What determines the rotation of a stepper motor?

Stepper motors Easy
A. The color of the motor
B. The size of its mounting screws
C. The sequence of coil pulses
D. The length of its shaft

7 What component replaces mechanical brushes in a BLDC motor?

Brushless DC motors (BLDC) Easy
A. A mechanical gearbox
B. Electronic commutation
C. A hydraulic pump
D. A light-sensitive resistor

8 Which is a typical advantage of a BLDC motor?

Brushless DC motors (BLDC) Easy
A. No need for magnetic fields
B. Permanent operation at zero speed
C. Operation without a power source
D. Low brush maintenance

9 What is the main purpose of a motor driver?

Motor drivers Easy
A. To detect visible light
B. To control motor power
C. To measure room temperature
D. To store program files

10 Which circuit is commonly used to control the direction of a DC motor?

Motor drivers Easy
A. A full-wave antenna
B. An H-bridge
C. A voltage divider
D. A crystal oscillator

11 What does an encoder commonly measure on a robot motor?

Encoders Easy
A. Battery color
B. Rotation or position
C. Circuit board temperature only
D. Air pressure only

12 What kind of output can an incremental encoder produce?

Encoders Easy
A. A chemical reaction
B. A permanent magnet
C. A sequence of pulses
D. A mechanical spring force

13 What is the main function of a power supply system in a robot?

Power supply systems Easy
A. To detect object color
B. To measure wheel distance
C. To create the robot's software
D. To provide required electrical power

14 What does the voltage rating of a battery indicate?

Batteries Easy
A. Its physical color
B. Its electrical potential
C. Its wheel diameter
D. Its communication speed

15 What does battery capacity commonly describe?

Batteries Easy
A. Controller clock frequency
B. Sensor viewing angle
C. Stored electrical charge
D. Motor shaft length

16 What is the basic purpose of a sensor in a robot?

Basic sensors Easy
A. To replace every motor
B. To hold mechanical parts
C. To increase tire size
D. To detect physical conditions

17 What does a proximity sensor detect?

Proximity sensors Easy
A. Nearby objects
B. Motor winding color
C. Battery manufacturing date
D. Program indentation

18 What does a position sensor measure?

Position sensors Easy
A. The chemical formula of a battery
B. The location of an object
C. The sound of a motor
D. The color of a cable

19 What quantity does a force sensor measure?

Force sensors Easy
A. Electrical frequency only
B. Object color only
C. Applied force
D. Motor rotation direction only

20 Why is signal conditioning used with sensors?

Signal conditioning Easy
A. To increase the robot's weight
B. To replace the power supply
C. To prepare signals for processing
D. To remove all sensor information

21 A DC motor is connected to a constant voltage supply, but its mechanical load suddenly increases. What is the most likely immediate response?

DC motors Medium
A. The motor current and speed both increase
B. The motor current decreases and speed increases
C. The motor current and speed both remain constant
D. The motor current increases and speed decreases

22 A servo motor is commanded to rotate to a target angle but stops slightly before reaching it. Which adjustment is most appropriate initially?

Servo motors Medium
A. Disconnect the feedback signal from the controller
B. Replace the position sensor with a fuse
C. Reduce the motor supply voltage to zero
D. Increase the control signal feedback gain

23 A stepper motor misses steps when accelerating a robotic joint. Which change is most likely to solve the problem?

Stepper motors Medium
A. Remove the motor driver
B. Use a slower acceleration profile
C. Disconnect the motor windings during motion
D. Increase the commanded step frequency immediately

24 Why does a BLDC motor require electronic commutation?

Brushless DC motors (BLDC) Medium
A. Its supply voltage must be converted into mechanical power
B. Its rotor has no permanent magnetic field
C. Its bearings generate the rotating magnetic field
D. Its stator windings must be switched according to rotor position

25 A robot must drive a DC motor forward and reverse using a microcontroller. Which circuit is normally required?

Motor drivers Medium
A. A passive low-pass filter
B. An H-bridge motor driver
C. A unidirectional diode circuit
D. A single resistor divider

26 An incremental encoder produces 500 pulses per revolution. If a controller counts 250 pulses, what angular movement has occurred, assuming one count per pulse?

Encoders Medium
A.
B.
C.
D.

27 A robotic system contains a 24 V motor circuit and a 5 V logic circuit. What is the best power-supply arrangement?

Power supply systems Medium
A. Connect the 5 V and 24 V rails in series
B. Power both circuits directly from 5 V
C. Power both circuits directly from 24 V
D. Use a 24 V source with a regulated 5 V converter

28 A robot draws an average current of 2 A from a battery rated at 10 Ah. Ignoring losses, approximately how long can it operate?

Batteries Medium
A. 10 hours
B. 5 hours
C. 2 hours
D. 20 hours

29 A sensor produces an analog voltage that increases with temperature. Which component is most directly needed to read it with a digital controller?

Basic sensors Medium
A. A mechanical relay
B. An analog-to-digital converter
C. A voltage isolation transformer
D. A motor gearbox

30 A robot must detect metal objects without physical contact in a dusty industrial environment. Which sensor is most suitable?

Proximity sensors Medium
A. Inductive proximity sensor
B. Optical encoder
C. Resistive force sensor
D. Mechanical limit switch

31 A robotic joint must measure its absolute shaft angle immediately after power-up. Which sensor is the best choice?

Position sensors Medium
A. Incremental encoder
B. Thermistor
C. Ultrasonic transmitter
D. Absolute encoder

32 A gripper must detect whether it is applying excessive force to a fragile object. Which sensor is most appropriate?

Force sensors Medium
A. Hall-effect sensor
B. Rotary encoder
C. Load cell
D. Light-dependent resistor

33 A force sensor output contains high-frequency electrical noise. Which signal-conditioning method is most appropriate before sampling?

Signal conditioning Medium
A. Use a high-pass filter only
B. Use a low-pass filter
C. Increase the noise bandwidth
D. Short the sensor output to ground

34 A microcontroller must read a sensor every 10 ms and update a motor command at the same interval. Which feature best supports this requirement?

Introduction to embedded controllers Medium
A. A longer power cable
B. A larger mechanical gear
C. A passive voltage divider
D. A hardware timer interrupt

35 For a permanent-magnet DC motor, the back electromotive force generally increases when motor speed increases. What happens to armature current at a fixed supply voltage?

DC motors Medium
A. It changes independently of speed
B. It generally increases
C. It generally decreases
D. It becomes exactly zero

36 A servo system oscillates around its commanded position after a sudden movement. Which adjustment is commonly used to reduce this behavior?

Servo motors Medium
A. Increase the target position error
B. Remove the position feedback
C. Reduce the proportional gain
D. Increase the motor shaft friction deliberately

37 A motor driver becomes very hot while operating a motor near its rated current. Which protection feature is most useful for preventing damage?

Motor drivers Medium
A. Thermal shutdown
B. A position calibration table
C. Higher encoder resolution
D. A larger sensor pull-up resistor

38 A quadrature encoder provides two phase-shifted signals. What additional information can this arrangement provide compared with a single-channel encoder?

Encoders Medium
A. Motor winding resistance
B. Ambient air pressure
C. Battery chemical composition
D. Direction of rotation

39 A motor causes a controller to reset whenever it starts. Which power-system improvement is most likely to address the problem?

Power supply systems Medium
A. Separate regulated logic and motor supplies
B. Use thinner wires for the motor circuit
C. Remove all filtering from the supply
D. Connect the controller directly across the motor terminals

40 A battery pack is rated at 12 V and 4 Ah. Approximately how much energy does it store under ideal conditions?

Batteries Medium
A. 96 Wh
B. 3 Wh
C. 48 Wh
D. 16 Wh

41 A DC motor drives a constant-torque load. If the armature resistance is , the torque constant is , and the motor current is , what happens to the steady-state speed when the supply voltage is reduced while the load torque remains unchanged?

DC motors Hard
A. The speed increases because the armature current becomes smaller
B. The speed remains unchanged because torque is independent of voltage
C. The motor reverses because the back EMF changes polarity
D. The speed decreases because the required torque current is unchanged while back EMF falls

42 A position servo exhibits oscillation when commanded to hold a load with significant backlash. Which change most directly improves stability without sacrificing the servo's low-speed holding capability?

Servo motors Hard
A. Increase proportional gain and remove damping
B. Reduce supply voltage and increase deadband
C. Reduce loop gain and add velocity feedback
D. Increase command resolution and disable feedback

43 A stepper motor loses synchronism only during rapid acceleration, although it operates correctly at constant speed. Which redesign is most appropriate?

Stepper motors Hard
A. Reduce the holding torque by lowering phase current
B. Replace microstepping with random step timing
C. Use an acceleration ramp that remains within the motor's pull-in limits
D. Increase the commanded step frequency instantaneously

44 A BLDC motor produces substantial torque ripple under six-step commutation. The motor has trapezoidal back EMF, but the controller's Hall transitions are electrically misaligned. Which action is most likely to reduce the ripple?

Brushless DC motors (BLDC) Hard
A. Increase PWM frequency without changing commutation timing
B. Replace Hall sensors with a larger DC-link capacitor
C. Reduce phase current while keeping the timing unchanged
D. Advance or retard commutation to align phase current with back EMF

45 A half-bridge motor driver uses complementary MOSFET PWM control. Which failure is most directly prevented by inserting dead time between turning one MOSFET off and the other on?

Motor drivers Hard
A. Motor cogging caused by magnetic detent torque
B. Shoot-through current caused by simultaneous conduction
C. Encoder quantization caused by finite resolution
D. Battery aging caused by repeated discharge cycles

46 A quadrature encoder has signals and . The observed sequence is . If the controller defines this sequence as positive rotation, what is the decoded direction when the sequence reverses?

Encoders Hard
A. Zero rotation because quadrature signals cannot indicate direction
B. Invalid rotation because four-state decoding requires an index pulse
C. Positive rotation because each transition still contains one bit change
D. Negative rotation because the valid state transitions occur in reverse order

47 A robot controller requires a regulated rail at from a battery. Which supply architecture minimizes heat dissipation in the regulator while maintaining the required output?

Power supply systems Hard
A. A resistor divider followed by a large electrolytic capacitor
B. A linear regulator dropping the entire voltage difference
C. A Zener shunt regulator sized for the nominal load current
D. A switching buck converter with adequate filtering and current margin

48 A lithium battery pack is rated at , and a robot draws continuously. The battery's effective capacity at this discharge rate is only of its rating. Ignoring conversion losses, what is the most realistic operating time?

Batteries Hard
A.
B.
C.
D.

49 A robot uses an analog sensor whose output is affected by both supply variation and ambient temperature. Which design best separates actual measured changes from these systematic disturbances?

Basic sensors Hard
A. Use ratiometric measurement and temperature compensation
B. Add a digital filter while leaving supply variation unmeasured
C. Sample more slowly and assume temperature effects average out
D. Increase ADC resolution without calibrating the sensor

50 An inductive proximity sensor reliably detects steel but fails to detect an aluminum target at the same distance. Which explanation is most accurate?

Proximity sensors Hard
A. Steel cannot generate eddy currents, unlike nonmetals
B. The target's conductivity and magnetic properties produce different sensing amplitudes
C. The sensor detects only targets that contain permanent magnets
D. Aluminum always blocks the sensor's electromagnetic field completely

51 A potentiometric joint sensor becomes noisy near one end of its mechanical travel because the wiper approaches the resistive track boundary. Which change most directly improves measurement reliability?

Position sensors Hard
A. Limit operation to the linear travel region and calibrate endpoint behavior
B. Increase the excitation voltage until the wiper reaches saturation
C. Connect the wiper directly to a motor-driver output
D. Replace the ADC with a lower-resolution converter

52 A strain-gauge load cell is connected as a Wheatstone bridge. The measured output changes significantly when the cable temperature changes, even though the applied force is constant. Which remedy is most appropriate?

Force sensors Hard
A. Use a single-ended amplifier and leave the bridge unbalanced
B. Use bridge completion and temperature compensation with differential amplification
C. Apply a low-pass filter and interpret drift as force
D. Increase the excitation voltage without changing the measurement circuit

53 A sensor signal contains useful frequencies up to and interference near . The ADC samples at . Which conditioning strategy is technically necessary?

Signal conditioning Hard
A. Use an analog high-pass filter to preserve all measured components
B. Increase the sensor gain without changing the sampling frequency
C. Apply only a digital filter after sampling the interference
D. Apply an analog low-pass filter below the Nyquist limit before sampling

54 A motor-control task must execute every , but a communication routine occasionally blocks for . Which architecture best preserves deterministic motor timing?

Introduction to embedded controllers Hard
A. Run motor control from a timer interrupt and defer communication processing
B. Disable timer interrupts whenever communication begins
C. Increase communication packet size so blocking occurs less often
D. Execute both routines in one polling loop without priorities

55 A DC motor's armature current is controlled by PWM. At low duty cycles, the motor produces uneven motion because current falls to zero during part of each PWM period. Which modification most directly addresses this condition?

DC motors Hard
A. Remove the flyback path so current decays immediately
B. Reduce the motor's back EMF by increasing mechanical load
C. Lower PWM frequency so each current pulse becomes shorter
D. Raise PWM frequency or add inductance to maintain continuous current

56 A servo uses an incremental encoder and is powered on after its joint has been moved manually. The controller must establish an absolute joint reference before motion. Which method is required?

Servo motors Hard
A. Use PWM duty cycle as a substitute for position feedback
B. Increase proportional gain until the position becomes absolute
C. Assume the first encoder count represents the mechanical zero
D. Perform a homing sequence using a limit or reference switch

57 A stepper motor is operated with microstepping, but the load requires accurate absolute positioning after power is removed. Which statement is correct?

Stepper motors Hard
A. Microstepping guarantees absolute position through its current ratios
B. Microstepping converts the motor into a closed-loop servo
C. Microstepping eliminates the need for a mechanical reference
D. Microstepping improves smoothness but does not preserve absolute position

58 A sensorless BLDC controller fails to start reliably from rest but runs correctly once spinning. Which design change addresses the fundamental startup problem?

Brushless DC motors (BLDC) Hard
A. Use a lower DC-link voltage so the rotor position becomes observable
B. Increase back-EMF detection gain while the rotor is stationary
C. Use an open-loop alignment and acceleration sequence before back-EMF commutation
D. Disable phase excitation until a zero crossing is detected

59 A motor driver is rated for continuous current but repeatedly overheats when delivering RMS with a high peak-current waveform. Which factor best explains the overheating?

Motor drivers Hard
A. The driver dissipates power only according to the average current
B. The motor's mechanical power directly equals the driver's heat loss
C. Conduction loss depends strongly on RMS current, while switching adds extra loss
D. Peak current produces no heating if the average current is below rating

60 An incremental encoder produces 1024 pulses per revolution on channel A, and the controller decodes both edges of both channels. What nominal count resolution is obtained per revolution?

Encoders Hard
A. 2048 counts per revolution
B. 4096 counts per revolution
C. 1024 counts per revolution
D. 512 counts per revolution