Random Nerd moment

I work at a digital print shop for Harvey Norman that prints all of the lovely high-quality photobooks and canvases you order from Harvey Norman Photocenters around Australia. So if you've got one of these recently there's a good chance I've either bound it, trimmed it, printed it, covered it, stapled it or packed it.
So one of the machines I operate at work is a Horizen HT-30 Robotic Trimmer. It cuts the photobooks to fit nicely in their hard or soft covers. It's like a huge machine from Willy Wonka's chocolate factory O.o




<------ It makes very cool 'whirr', 'phoosh' and 'cha-bang!' sounds XD



I was using it yesterday and one of the guys was with me, showing me the finer details of operating it, when we started to talk about how it works. Yeah hydraulics to power the 1kg blade etc etc... but what caught my attention was the tiny tiny motors it uses to make the precise measurements and cuts. I mean it can cut to like a 1/4 of a mm accurately! It uses these funky little motors called 'Servo Motors'.



This is what it looks like when u rip it apart. ---------------->



They turn particular angles according to the length of electrical pulses they get.
So to keep it in a 'neutral' position requires a pulse of 1.50 milliseconds. Anything less than this will turn it accordingly counter clockwise (I think, or I might have it back to front) and anything more will turn it clockwise.

So you can program pulses to turn them in whatever degree u like, maybe attach a robotic arm to the end and you have... well a funny-looking thing that can pick things up and drop them a little bit away.
So you program software to release timed pulses - like a macro in WoW - one pulse to activate the robotic 'clamp' (I think it'd work by completing the circuit... I haven't done electronics since primary school -.-) to pick up ... a coffee cup or something. Then a pulse of 1.75ms to turn the motor from 12 o'clock to 3 o'clock and another pulse to release the 'clamp' and a 1.5ms pulse to return it to neutral. (Most servo motors, I've read, only work within 180 degrees.)
These little things are the same type of motor in remote-controlled cars! Very cool :) I dunno why I found this so interesting... maybe cause I had a light-bulb moment where I suddenly understood exactly how a little part of something worked.
At least in my head I get it :s


Oh and I discovered the trimmer is technically classed as a 'Robot', though I doubt it will be plotting any plans for world domination soon...