Patent US 5,167,002

An apparatus and method for reducing synchronous speed variations in an electric motor having a rotating shaft, comprises a speed transducer for generating a continuous analog speed signal corresponding to the speed of the motor shaft including its synchronous and asynchronous speed variations. A trigger signal is generated each time the shaft rotates through a reference position and is used in conjunction with the speed signal in a fast Fourier transform analyzer to resolve the analog signal into a synchronous time averaged signal which varies with the synchronous speed variations but which eliminates the asynchronous speed variations. An arbitrary function generator is connected to the analyzer for generating an antiwave pattern having a frequency phase and amplitude relative to the waveform from the analyzer. The function generator is connected to a motor controller and superimposes the antiwave pattern onto a control signal internal to the controller which is thereafter applied to the motor. This reduces or eliminates the synchronous speed variations in the rotation of the motor shaft.