What is a Servo Motor?

Servo motors are classified into different types based on their application, such as AC servo motor, DC servo motor, brushless DC servo motor, positional rotation, continuous rotation and linear servo motor etc. Typical servo motors comprise of three wires namely, power control and ground. The shape and size of these motors depend on their applications. RC servo motor is the most common type of servo motor used in hobby applications, robotics due to their simplicity, affordability and reliability of control by microprocessors.

Inside of the Servo
To fully understand how the servo works, you need to take a look under the hood. Inside there is a pretty simple set-up: a small DC motor, potentiometer, and a control circuit. Gears to the control wheel attach the motor. As the motor rotates, the potentiometer's resistance changes, so the control circuit can precisely regulate how much movement there is and in which direction.When the shaft of the motor is at the desired position, power supplied to the motor is stopped. If not, the motor is turned in the appropriate direction. The desired position is sent via electrical pulses through the signal wire. The motor's speed is proportional to the difference between its actual position and desired position. So if the motor is near the desired position, it will turn slowly, otherwise it will turn fast. This is called proportional control. This means the motor will only run as hard as necessary to accomplish the task at hand, a very efficient little guy.
Working of a Servo Motor
The DC motors get powered from a battery and run at high speed and low torque. The Gear and shaft assembly connected to the DC motors lower this speed into sufficient speed and higher torque. The position sensor senses the position of the shaft from its definite position and feeds the information to the control circuit. The control circuit accordingly decodes the signals from the position sensor, compares the actual position of the motors with the desired position, and accordingly controls the direction of rotation of the DC motor to get the required position. The Servo Motor generally requires DC supply of 4.8V to 6 V.
Controlling a Servo Motor
Servos are controlled by sending an electrical pulse of variable width, or pulse width modulation (PWM), through the control wire. There is a minimum pulse, a maximum pulse, and a repetition rate. A servo motor can usually only turn 90° in either direction for a total of 180° movement. The motor's neutral position is defined as the position where the servo has the same amount of potential rotation in the both the clockwise or counter-clockwise direction. The PWM sent to the motor determines position of the shaft, and based on the duration of the pulse sent via the control wire; the rotor will turn to the desired position. The servo motor expects to see a pulse every 20 milliseconds (ms) and the length of the pulse will determine how far the motor turns. For example, a 1.5ms pulse will make the motor turn to the 90° position. Shorter than 1.5ms moves it in the counter clockwise direction toward the 0° position, and any longer than 1.5ms will turn the servo in a clockwise direction toward the 180° position.
When these servos are commanded to move, they will move to the position and hold that position. If an external force pushes against the servo while the servo is holding a position, the servo will resist from moving out of that position. The maximum amount of force the servo can exert is called the torque rating of the servo. Servos will not hold their position forever though  the position pulse must be repeated to instruct the servo to stay in position.