# Is it possible to plot Jerk?

**URL:** <https://forum.deltamotion.com/t/is-it-possible-to-plot-jerk/434>\
**Category:** RMCTools\
**Created:** [November 2, 2017, 11:25am UTC](https://forum.deltamotion.com/t/is-it-possible-to-plot-jerk/434 "2017-11-02T11:25:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Peter\_K](https://forum.deltamotion.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/9f8e36/32.png) [@Peter\_K](https://forum.deltamotion.com/u/Peter_K)\
**Post date:** [November 2, 2017, 11:25am UTC](https://forum.deltamotion.com/t/is-it-possible-to-plot-jerk/434/1 "2017-11-02T11:25:34Z")

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I have an EMA application with a linear axis where a servo motor is directly driving a ball screw to lift a load. During the predominate portion of this machine’s life, it will be oscillating a load in a sinusoidal fashion.

For purposes of ensuring that I am not exceeding the limits of my ball screw, I’d like to plot the Jerk of the system. Would I accurately represent Jerk by using the Plotting\>Advanced\>Rate of Change formula on Acceleration?

Thanks,  
Peter K

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**Author:** ![Jacob\_Paso](https://forum.deltamotion.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/439d5e/32.png) [@Jacob\_Paso](https://forum.deltamotion.com/u/Jacob_Paso)\
**Post date:** [November 2, 2017, 4:33pm UTC](https://forum.deltamotion.com/t/is-it-possible-to-plot-jerk/434/2 "2017-11-02T16:33:20Z")

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Yes, Jerk is accurately represented by using the Plotting\>Advanced\>Rate of Change formula on Acceleration. This works very well for the Target. It doesn’t work so well on the Actual, due to the extreme quantization error.

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**Author:** ![Peter\_K](https://forum.deltamotion.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/9f8e36/32.png) [@Peter\_K](https://forum.deltamotion.com/u/Peter_K)\
**Post date:** [November 2, 2017, 6:07pm UTC](https://forum.deltamotion.com/t/is-it-possible-to-plot-jerk/434/3 "2017-11-02T18:07:28Z")

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Jacob-

Thanks for the tip about using target acceleration! I hadn’t considered this and it makes a big difference on the result (attached)  
[Jerk Tar Vs ACT.rmcplots](https://forum.deltamotion.com/uploads/default/original/1X/ccb1e24e848de78c220e3c011e42e24b4eee1dab.rmcplots) (2.03 MB)

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**Author:** ![Jacob\_Paso](https://forum.deltamotion.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/439d5e/32.png) [@Jacob\_Paso](https://forum.deltamotion.com/u/Jacob_Paso)\
**Post date:** [November 2, 2017, 6:20pm UTC](https://forum.deltamotion.com/t/is-it-possible-to-plot-jerk/434/4 "2017-11-02T18:20:59Z")

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That looks good! I am surprised the actual jerk shows up so cleanly, but looks like the filtering on the actual acceleration is pretty good, which helps a lot.