Operation control system and operation control method

Abstract

Provided are an operation control system and an operation control method for a movable member, which allow the movable range of the movable member to be utilized to the maximum while deformation of a mechanical element is prevented or reduced. An operation control system 1 includes: a movable member 26 having first mechanical elements 261, 262; an actuator 25 which moves the movable member 26 at a variable velocity; and a second mechanical element 27 which is fixed at a position so as to be capable of making contact with the first mechanical elements 261, 262. When the position and the velocity of the first mechanical element 261 or 262 depart from a predetermined allowable range in a two-dimensional coordinate system expressed by a position and a velocity, a stop instruction is outputted to the actuator 25.

Claims

1. An operation control system comprising: a movable member having a first mechanical element; an actuator which moves the movable member at a variable velocity; a second mechanical element which is configured separately from the movable member and which is fixed at a position so as to be capable of making contact with the first mechanical element; an operation state recognizing unit which recognizes an operation state including a position and a velocity of the first mechanical element; and an actuator control unit that outputs, to the actuator, a stop instruction for stopping an operation of the actuator in a case where the position and the velocity of the first mechanical element recognized by the operation state recognizing unit depart from a predetermined allowable range in a two-dimensional coordinate system, the two-dimensional coordinate system expressed by a position and a velocity, wherein in a case where a predetermined conditional expression is established which uses a position and a velocity of the first mechanical element, a collision time, a component indicating an allowable force which is allowable for the first mechanical element or the second mechanical element, a component indicating a resistance force applied to the movable member by the actuator, and a component indicating an inertia force applied to the first mechanical element, the actuator control unit determines that the position and the velocity of the first mechanical element are within the allowable range.

2. The operation control system according to claim 1, wherein in a case where: a contact position of the first mechanical element at which the first mechanical element is in contact with the second mechanical element fixed at a position so as to be capable of making contact with the first mechanical element, is zero; a position of the first mechanical element at which the first mechanical element is spaced from the second mechanical element, is positive; and a velocity at which the first mechanical element moves toward the second mechanical element is a negative velocity, actuator control unit forms at least a part of a boundary of the allowable range by a function providing a negative value range and a negative primary differential in a certain definite domain in which a position is zero or not less than a predetermined positive value, and a velocity equal to or lower than the value of the function in the domain falls outside the allowable range.

3. The operation control system according to claim 1, wherein the actuator is configured to rotate the movable member about a predetermined axis, and the actuator control unit determines that the position and the velocity of the first mechanical element are within the allowable range in a case where an expression (1) as the predetermined conditional expression is established: $\begin{array}{cc}{}_{\mathrm{diff}}>\frac{I}{2{}_{\mathrm{brake}}}\left(d{}_{\mathrm{diff}}^2-{\left(\frac{{}_{\lim }*t}{I}\right)}^2\right)& \left(1\right)\end{array}$ wherein t represents a collision time; .sub.lim represents, as the component indicating the allowable force, a torque which is the smaller of a torque allowable for the first mechanical element and a torque allowable for the second mechanical element; .sub.diff represents, as the position of the first mechanical element, an angle, about the predetermined axis, formed by a surface of the first mechanical element facing the second mechanical element and a surface of the second mechanical element facing the first mechanical element; d.sub.diff represents, as the velocity of the first mechanical element, an angular velocity of the first mechanical element relative to the second mechanical element; .sub.brake represents, as the component indicating the resistance force, a resistance torque applied to the movable member by the actuator after the actuator is stopped; and I represents, as the component indicating the inertia force, an inertia of the first mechanical element.

4. The operation control system according to claim 3, wherein .sub.lim is a value less than both a shearing load of the first mechanical element and a shearing load of the second mechanical element.

5. The operation control system according to claim 1, wherein the actuator is configured to cause translation motion of the movable member, and the actuator control unit determines that the position and the velocity of the first mechanical element are within the allowable range in a case where an expression (2) as the predetermined conditional expression is established: $\begin{array}{cc}{D}_{\mathrm{diff}}>\frac{m}{2F_{\mathrm{brake}}}\left(V_{\mathrm{diff}}^2-{\left(\frac{F_{\lim }*t}{m}\right)}^2\right)& \left(2\right)\end{array}$ wherein t represents a collision time; F.sub.lim represents, as the component indicating the allowable force, a force which is the smaller of a force allowable for the first mechanical element and a force allowable for the second mechanical element; D.sub.diff represents, as the position of the first mechanical element, a distance between a surface of the first mechanical element facing the second mechanical element and a surface of the second mechanical element facing the first mechanical element; V.sub.diff represents, as the velocity of the first mechanical element, a velocity of the first mechanical element relative to the second mechanical element; F.sub.brake represents, as the component indicating the resistance force, a resistance force applied to the movable member by the actuator after the actuator is stopped; and m represents a mass of the first mechanical element.

6. An operation control method which is performed by a system including a movable member having a first mechanical element, an actuator which moves the movable member at a variable velocity, and a second mechanical element configured separately from the movable member and fixed at a position so as to be capable of making contact with the first mechanical element, the method comprising: an operation state recognition step of recognizing an operation state including a position and a velocity of the first mechanical element; and an actuator stop control step of outputting, to the actuator, a stop instruction for stopping the operation of the actuator in a case where the position and the velocity of the first mechanical element recognized in the operation state recognition step depart from a predetermined allowable range in a two-dimensional coordinate system, the two-dimensional coordinate system expressed by a position and a velocity, wherein in a case where a predetermined conditional expression is established which uses a position and a velocity of the first mechanical element, a collision time, a component indicating an allowable force which is allowable for the first mechanical element or the second mechanical element, a component indicating a resistance force applied to the movable member by the actuator, and a component indicating an inertia force applied to the first mechanical element, in the actuator stop control step the position and the velocity of the first mechanical element are determined to be within the allowable range.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an entire configuration of an operation control system of the present embodiment:

(2) FIG. 2A to FIG. 2C are diagrams in which FIG. 2A relate to a state where none of arm-side mechanical stoppers is in contact with a robot-side mechanical stopper, FIG. 2B relates to a state where a first arm-side mechanical stopper is in contact with the robot-side mechanical stopper, and FIG. 2C relates to a state where a second arm-side mechanical stopper is in contact with the robot-side mechanical stopper;

(3) FIG. 3 is a flowchart of driving control processing;

(4) FIG. 4 is a graph showing an allowable range, with the abscissa representing an angle and the ordinate representing an angular velocity and

(5) FIG. 5A and FIG. 5B are diagrams in which FIG. 5A relates to the state of an arm in a case where the first arm-side mechanical stopper is moving toward the robot-side mechanical stopper and FIG. 5B relates to a force generated in a case where the first arm-side mechanical stopper makes contact with the robot-side mechanical stopper.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE REFERRED EMBODIMENTS

(6) An embodiment of the present invention is described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 5.

(7) An operation control system 1, which is mounted on, for example, a robot (not illustrated), outputs an instruction to an actuator 25 provided in the robot thereby moving an arm 26 (see FIG. 2), as a movable member, of the robot. The operation control system 1 does not need to be actually mounted on the robot. For example, the operation control system 1 may output an instruction to the actuator 25 through wireless or wired communication.

(8) The operation control system 1 of the present invention is applicable to, in addition to robots, machines including industrial machines in which movable members such as arms thereof are moved by actuators and the movable ranges of the movable members are limited by mechanical elements such as mechanical stoppers.

(9) As illustrated in FIG. 1, the operation control system 1 includes a control unit 11, a storage unit 12, an angle sensor 21, a driver 24, and an actuator 25.

(10) The control unit 11 is configured of a processor, such as a central processing unit (CPU), a physics processing unit (PPU), or the like.

(11) The control unit 11 reads a predetermined program from the storage unit 12 and executes the program to function as an operation state recognizing unit 111 and an actuator control unit 112.

(12) The operation state recognizing unit 111 recognizes a time series angle on the basis of a signal inputted from the angle sensor 21, and recognizes (calculates) a latest angle and a latest angular velocity from the time series angle. Alternatively, the operation state recognizing unit 111 may recognize the angle and angular velocity of the arm 26, for example, on the basis of a signal inputted from the angle sensor 21 and an angular velocity sensor which are provided at the robot.

(13) The actuator control unit 112 outputs, to the actuator 25, an instruction for driving or stopping the actuator 25, via the driver 24 provided at the robot.

(14) For example, when the actuator 25 is a servomotor, an instruction for driving the actuator 25 may be an instruction for indicating an electric power amount to be supplied to the actuator, or may be an instruction for indicating a torque instruction value. For example, when the actuator 25 is a servomotor, an instruction for stopping the actuator 25 may be an instruction for stopping power supply to the actuator, or may be an instruction for setting the torque instruction value to zero.

(15) The storage unit 12 is composed of a storage device such as an HDD and a memory (e.g., a RAM and a ROM), and is configured to store various types of information. The storage unit 12 is configured to be capable of storing and reading data to be used for operation processing executed by the control unit 11.

(16) The angle sensor 21 is configured to output, to the control unit 11, a signal indicating the rotational angle of the arm 26.

(17) The driver 24 is configured to supply, to the actuator 25, electric power corresponding to an instruction from the actuator control unit 112.

(18) The actuator 25 is composed of a servomotor, a solenoid, a power cylinder, a linear actuator, a rubber actuator, etc. The actuator 25 is configured to rotate the arm 26 at a variable angular velocity, about an axis AX illustrated in FIGS. 2A to 2C.

(19) Next, the configuration of the arm 26 as the movable member driven by the actuator 25 is described with reference to FIGS. 2A to 2C.

(20) The arm 26 includes a first arm-side mechanical stopper 261 and a second arm-side mechanical stopper 262. The first arm-side mechanical stopper 261 and the second arm-side mechanical stopper 262 correspond to the first mechanical element of the present invention.

(21) The arm 26 is rotatably attached to the robot. In the robot, a robot-side mechanical stopper 27 is fixed at a position so as to be capable of making contact with the first arm-side mechanical stopper 261 and the second arm-side mechanical stopper 262.

(22) The actuator 25 is configured to rotate the arm 26 about the axis AX at a variable angular velocity from a first contact angle .sub.lim1 (see FIG. 4) at which the first arm-side mechanical stopper 261 is in contact with the robot-side mechanical stopper 27 as illustrated in FIG. 2B to a second contact angle .sub.lim2 (.sub.lim2>.sub.lim1, see FIG. 4) at which the second arm-side mechanical stopper 262 is in contact with the robot-side mechanical stopper 27 as illustrated in FIG. 2C. The first contact angle .sub.lim1 and the second contact angle .sub.lim2 correspond to the contact position of the present invention.

(23) (Driving Control Processing)

(24) Next, driving control processing performed by the control unit 11 is described with reference to FIGS. 3 to 5B.

(25) The operation state recognizing unit 111 recognizes the angle and the angular velocity of the arm 26 on the basis of a signal inputted from the angle sensor 21 (Step 110 in FIG. 3). The angle and the angular velocity of the arm 26 can be recognized to be same as the angle and the angular velocity of the first arm-side mechanical stopper 261 (or the second arm-side mechanical stopper 262). The angle of the arm 26 corresponds to the position of the first mechanical element of the present invention, and the angular velocity of the arm 26 corresponds to the velocity of the first mechanical element of the present invention. The actuator control unit 112 determines whether the angle and the angular velocity of the arm 26 depart from an allowable range (Step 120 in FIG. 3).

(26) Here, the allowable range is expressed by following expressions (3) and (4).

(27) $\begin{array}{cc}\mathrm{When}d<0,\text{:}& \\ >\frac{1}{2{}_{\mathrm{brake}}}\left(d{}^2-{\left(\frac{{}_{\lim }*t}{I}\right)}^2\right)+{}_{\lim 1}& \left(3\right)\\ \mathrm{When}d>0,\text{:}& \\ <\frac{1}{2{}_{\mathrm{brake}}}\left(-d{}^2+{\left(\frac{{}_{\lim }*t}{I}\right)}^2\right)+{}_{\lim 2}& \left(4\right)\end{array}$

(28) wherein: t represents a collision time; .sub.lim represents a force smaller than both the shearing load of the first arm-side mechanical stopper 261 and the shearing load of the robot-side mechanical stopper 27; .sub.brake represents a resistance torque applied to the movable member by the actuator when the actuator is stopped; I represents an inertia; represents the angle of the arm 26 (see FIG. 5A); d represents the angular velocity of the arm 26 (see FIG. 5A); and .sub.lim1 represents the first contact angle.

(29) The collision time t is obtained by analyzing data imaged by a high speed camera in an experiment.

(30) The resistance torque .sub.brake is obtained from the properties of the actuator.

(31) A part of the boundary of the allowable range in this case is expressed by the following functions.

(32) $\begin{array}{cc}\mathrm{When}d<0,\text{:}& \\ d=-\sqrt{2{}_{\mathrm{brake}}(-{}_{\lim 1})+{\left(\frac{{}_{\lim }*t}{I}\right)}^2}& \left(5\right)\\ \mathrm{When}d>0,\text{:}& \\ d=\sqrt{{\left(\frac{{}_{\lim }*t}{I}\right)}^2-2{}_{\mathrm{brake}}\left(-{}_{\lim 2}\right)}& \left(6\right)\end{array}$

(33) The function expressed by expression (5) in which .sub.lim1 and d are variables corresponds to an example of the function of the present invention. The function expressed by expression (6) in which (.sub.lim2) and d are variables corresponds to another example of the function of the present invention.

(34) More specifically, the actuator control unit 112 determines that the angle and the angular velocity of the arm 26 fall within the allowable range when the angle and the angular velocity of the arm 26 satisfy expression (3) or (4), and determines that the angle and the angular velocity of the arm 26 are outside the allowable range when the angle and the angular velocity of the arm 26 do not satisfy expressions (3) or (4).

(35) For example, it is assumed that the angular acceleration of the arm 26 is zero, that is, that the first arm-side mechanical stopper 261 (or the second arm-side mechanical stopper 262) of the arm 26 is driven toward the robot-side mechanical stopper 27 at a uniform velocity.

(36) Here, when the first arm-side mechanical stopper 261 moves toward the robot-side mechanical stopper 27, the angular velocity d of the arm 26 is negative.

(37) In this case, for example, the angle and the angular velocity of the arm 26 follow a locus represented by an arrow V1 in FIG. 4. Even in a case where the angle and the angular velocity of the arm 26 satisfy expression (3) at a certain time point, the angle and the angular velocity of the arm 26 reach, with lapse of time, the boundary of the allowable range represented by the dashed lines in FIG. 4 to dissatisfy expression (3).

(38) When the second arm-side mechanical stopper 262 is moving toward the robot-side mechanical stopper 27, the angular velocity d of the arm 26 is positive.

(39) In this case, for example, the angle and the angular velocity of the arm 26 follow a locus represented by an arrow V2 in FIG. 4. Even in a case where the angle and the angular velocity of the arm 26 satisfy expression (4) at a certain time point, the angle and the angular velocity of the arm 26 reach, with lapse of time, the boundary of the allowable range represented by the dashed lines in FIG. 4 to dissatisfy expression (4).

(40) When the angle and the angular velocity of the arm 26 dissatisfy expression (3) or expression (4) as described above, the actuator control unit 112 determines that the angle and the angular velocity of the arm 26 are outside the allowable range.

(41) When the determination result at Step 120 in FIG. 3 is negative (No at Step 120 in FIG. 3), the control unit 11 performs the processes of Step 110 and later in FIG. 3, again.

(42) When the determination result at Step 120 in FIG. 3 is positive (Yes at Step 120 in FIG. 3), the actuator control unit 112 outputs, to the driver 24, an instruction for stopping the operation of the actuator 25 (Step 130 in FIG. 3).

(43) (Effects of Driving Control Processing)

(44) According to the present embodiment, when the angle and the angular velocity of the arm 26 depart from the allowable range, an instruction for stopping the operation of the actuator 25 is outputted and the operation of the actuator 25 is stopped. As a result, the arm 26 is decelerated by the resistance force from the actuator 25.

(45) A force generated against the arm-side mechanical stopper (first arm-side mechanical stopper 261 or second arm-side mechanical stopper 262) when the arm-side mechanical stopper makes contact with the robot-side mechanical stopper 27, is approximately .sub.lim, as illustrated in FIG. 5B. This force is smaller than both the shearing load of the arm-side mechanical stopper and the shearing load of the robot-side mechanical stopper 27 so that damage to the arm-side mechanical stoppers and the robot-side mechanical stopper 27 is prevented. On the other hand, the movable range of the arm 26 can be made maximum because the arm 26 can move until the arm-side mechanical stopper makes contact with the robot-side mechanical stopper 27.

(46) (Modification)

(47) In the present embodiment, the actuator control unit 112 controls the operation of the actuator 25 in the case where the actuator 25 rotates the arm 26 as the movable member. Additionally, or alternatively, the actuator control unit may control the operation of the actuator in a case where the actuator causes translation motion of the movable member.

(48) In this case, it is preferable that the actuator control unit determines that the position and the velocity of the arm-side mechanical stopper are within the allowable range when expression (11) as the predetermined conditional expression is established, and the actuator control unit determines that the position and the velocity of the arm-side mechanical stopper are outside the allowable range when expression (11) as the predetermined conditional expression is not established.

(49) $\begin{array}{cc}{D}_{\mathrm{diff}}>\frac{m}{2F_{\mathrm{brake}}}\left(V_{\mathrm{diff}}^2-{\left(\frac{F_{\lim }*t}{m}\right)}^2\right)& \left(11\right)\end{array}$

(50) wherein: t represents a collision time; F.sub.lim represents a force which is the smaller of an allowable force for the arm-side mechanical stopper and an allowable force for the robot-side mechanical stopper; D.sub.diff represents a distance between the surface of the arm-side mechanical stopper facing the robot-side mechanical stopper and the surface of the robot-side mechanical stopper facing the arm-side mechanical stopper. V.sub.diff represents the velocity of the arm-side mechanical stopper relative to the robot-side mechanical stopper; F.sub.brake represents a resistance force applied to the movable member by the actuator after the actuator is stopped; and m represents the mass of the arm-side mechanical stopper.