JPH09196006A - Actuator control device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To correlatively control a plurality of actuators with energization so as to be able to move an object rapidly and positively by performing position- speed detection and control locally to individual actuators. SOLUTION: A detecting device 56 detects piston speed, fluid pressure, and the like through sensors and supplies them to an arithmetic unit 60 through an input-output circuit 54. A communication interface 75 in the arithmetic unit 60 takes in data signals from optical fibers 32 on the basis of the own address and sends them to a CPU 74. The communication interface 75 also sends a data signal, concerned with an actuator in action, to a main computer, along with an address signal, or transmits a control signal for the other actuator in the case of correlatively controlling one object with energization in cooperation with the other actuator. In this case, the input-output circuit 54 makes a contol data signal, fed from the other actuator, its own control signal, and extracts a control signal for the other actuator from a memory 72 to send it.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention transmits the displacement of a piston member to another device by correlating and urging a plurality of actuators in a correlated manner so that one object cooperates with another plurality of actuators. The present invention relates to an actuator control device for moving the actuator.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Various actuators have been conventionally adopted for converting fluid energy into mechanical energy and are widely used. As is well known, actuators can be roughly divided into reciprocating type and rotating type, but each actuator has a pressure supply system for receiving and discharging a fluid pressure and an opening degree adjustment of a valve body or the like. It is common to attach the power supply system of Therefore, the pressure supply system and the power supply system are connected to the respective actuators via the pipe and the conductor.

[0003]

Therefore, since the control box and the actuator are connected to each other by the tube and the conductor, the mechanism becomes large and complicated, and the control system including the sequencer cannot be downsized. Inconveniences such as have been confirmed.

For example, FIG. 1 shows an example of a conventional actuator utilizing air pressure. In this conventional example, a pair of conductors for sending drive electric signals from the plurality of drivers 4a to 4f constituting the controller 2 to the individual solenoid valves 6a to 6f of the manifold type are connected, Further, the air pressure supply system 8 includes the solenoid valves 6a to 6f.
To reach the air cylinders 10a to 10f. On the other hand, in order to detect the operating position of a piston (not shown) in each of the air cylinders 10a to 10f, each air cylinder 1
A pair of limit switches (not shown) for 0a to 10f
Is provided, and in order to feed back the signals detected by these limit switches to the controller 2, a wiring for transmitting a detection signal is separately provided.
Actually, it is connected to a to 12f. That is, controller 2-solenoid valves 6a-6f, solenoid valves 6a-
6f-air cylinders 10a to 10f, air cylinder 10
a to 10f-A pair of conducting wires or pipes are arranged between the controllers 2 so that the structure is very complicated and downsizing is difficult. Moreover, since the conducting wire and the pipe for coupling are long, the external It was not uncommon for the system to be easily affected by the signal system and to cause malfunctions.

In addition, the controller 2 or the CPU that controls the controller 2 as a whole cannot promptly respond or instruct the increase in the number of actuators. Therefore, there are inconveniences such as restrictions on the operating time of the actuator.

Further, conventionally, there has been no such position control system which controls via a network means, and each actuator control device has a CPU and an intelligent storage system, and However, there is no one that detects and controls the power state.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an actuator control device capable of correlatively biasing and controlling a plurality of actuators to move an object quickly and reliably.

[0008]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention controls the displacement of a piston member to another device by correlating and controlling a plurality of actuators including a rotary type actuator. An actuator control device for transmitting and moving one object in cooperation with a plurality of other actuators, wherein a local controller that locally controls the actuators is integrally formed with each of the actuators. A local controller is connected to the main control device by network means, and the main control device integrally controls the local controllers via the network means, and the local controllers are integrated with the local controller. Signal including the position signal of the actuator A communication means for transmitting to another local controller through the network means, a CPU, a storage memory, and a detection means for detecting a local position and speed of the actuator while detecting a local power state and the like. According to the detection signal detected by the detection means, the actuator is locally controlled independently of the main control command from the main controller.

[0009]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION A preferred embodiment of an actuator control device according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

In FIG. 2, reference numerals 20a to 20f are used.
Indicates actuators arranged in relation to each other,
These actuators 20a to 20f are connected to each other by a common air supply pipe line, preferably an air supply pipe line 22 extending in a loop. Air supply sources 24a to 24c are connected to the pipe line 22 at a predetermined distance from each other and are configured to supply pressurized air as a drive source to the individual actuators 20a to 20f at substantially equal pressure.

On the other hand, the actuators 20a to 20f are connected to a conductor wire 26 for connecting them in parallel in order to energize an electromagnetic valve which will be described later, and the conductor wire 26 is connected to a power source 28. Furthermore, the actuator 20a
An optical fiber 32 is connected to 20f for receiving the address signal and the data signal from the computer 30 serially or in parallel. In this case, the optical fiber 32 can be replaced with a coaxial cable. As a result, noise resistance can be improved.

Next, the internal structure of the actuators 20a to 20f configured as described above will be described with reference to FIG.

The individual actuators 20a-20f are
It basically comprises a cylinder section 34 and a control section 36. The cylinder portion 34 has a piston 40 movably disposed inside a cylinder 38, and one end of a piston rod 42 connected to the piston 40 extends outside the cylinder 38 to reciprocate the piston 40. It is transmitted to another device (not shown). In addition, the first port 4 for supplying and discharging air to both ends of the cylinder 38, respectively.
4 and the second port 46, and the cylinder 3
A sensor 48 for detecting the position, speed, acceleration of the piston 40, fluid pressure in the cylinder, etc. is attached to the sensor 8.

Next, the control unit 36 will be described. The control unit 36 includes a housing 50 connected to the cylinder 38, and a valve mechanism 52, an input / output circuit 54, and
The detection device 56, the drive device 58, and the arithmetic device 60 are included. The valve mechanism 52 includes a solenoid valve (not shown), and the first valve is provided via the air supply pipelines 62 and 64 while adjusting the opening degree of the solenoid valve.
The port 44 and the second port 46 are configured to send air at a predetermined pressure. The conduit 22 is connected to the valve mechanism 52.

The input / output circuit 54 includes, on the one hand, the sensor 4
8 via the conductors 66 and 68, and on the other hand is connected to the arithmetic unit 60 via the bus line 70 (see FIG. 4).

The detection device 56 detects the speed and acceleration of the piston 40, the fluid pressure in the cylinder portion 34, etc.
8 and the result is supplied to the arithmetic unit 60 via the input / output circuit 54. That is, the arithmetic unit 60 has a storage memory 72 and a CPU 74 therein.
And a communication interface 75.
The communication interface 75 takes in a data signal of the communication module or the like sent from the optical fiber 32 based on the address it has and sends it to the CPU 74 built in itself. In addition, the data signal relating to the operation of the actuator 20a to 20f is sent to the computer 30 together with the address signal, or
It is possible to transmit the control signal of the other actuators 20a to 20f when the biasing control is performed in a correlated manner so that one object moves in cooperation with the other actuators 20a to 20f. In this case, the input / output circuit 54 takes in the control data signal sent from the other actuators 20a to 20f based on its own address signal and uses it as the control signal for the actuators 20a to 20f, and also the other actuators 20a. The control signals for .about.20f are called from the storage memory 72 and sent.

Therefore, a concrete connecting method by the network bus bundle 100 consisting of the optical fiber 32, the air supply pipe line 22 and the conducting wire 26 which are connected to each of the actuators 20a to 20f configured as described above in a loop shape is illustrated. 5 and FIG. That is, the first socket 76 and the second socket 78 are provided on the upper surface of the housing 50, and the air supply tube pipe joints 80a and 80b and the exhaust tube pipe joints 82a and 82 are provided in the sockets 76 and 78, respectively.
b, connectors 84a, 84b, 86a, 8 for the conductor 26
6b and a pair of optical fiber connectors 88a, 88
b, 90a, 90b are formed. As shown by the broken line, the air supply tube pipe joint 80a is connected to the air supply tube pipe joint 80b of the second socket 78 inside the housing 50,
The exhaust tube pipe joint 82a is also connected in the same manner as the pipe joint 82b. Conductor connectors 84a, 84b,
86a, 86b and optical fiber connectors 88a, 8
The same applies to 8b, 90a, and 90b. With this configuration, the air supply system, the power supply system and the control system are substantially looped.

Next, the operation and effect of the actuators 20a to 20f configured as described above will be described.

When air of a predetermined pressure is supplied from the air supply sources 24a to 24c through the air supply pipe line 22, this air is introduced into the valve mechanism 52 through the pipe joint 80a of the actuator 20a, while As described above, this air reaches the next-stage actuator 20b at the same pressure via the pipe joint 80b. Since the actuators 20a to 20f are connected in parallel, the actuators 20a to 20f are supplied at the same pressure one after another to reach the final pipe joints 82a and 82b, and this time, the air supply source is supplied via the exhaust tube pipe joints 82a and 82b. Be returned to.
When the power supply 28 is energized, the predetermined voltage and current supplied from the power supply 28 are sent via the lead wire 26, and the connectors 84a and 84b of the individual actuators 20a to 20f are supplied.
And is supplied to the drive device 58 and the like.

On the other hand, the address signals and data signals of the individual optical actuators 20a to 20f sent from the optical fiber 32 are converted into optical signals, and the communication interface 7 of the control unit 36 is supplied via the connectors 88a and 88b.
5, only the data signal related to the specific address signal is introduced into the predetermined arithmetic unit 60. These signals are
It returns to the computer 30 via the optical fiber 32 and the connectors 90a and 90b.

Therefore, the signal taken in by the control unit 36 is processed by the arithmetic unit 60, and is processed together with the data of the position, velocity, acceleration, fluid pressure, etc. of the piston 40 stored in the storage memory 72. The processed signal is sent to the drive device 58 to control the valve mechanism 52 and the like for energization and deenergization. The detection device 56 sends a piston position signal or the like detected by the sensor 48 or the like to the input / output circuit 54,
This input / output circuit 54 sends this again to the arithmetic unit 60,
The latest data is stored in the storage memory 72 and is also sent to the computer 30 via the communication interface 75. With such a control system, the individual actuators 20a to 20f are controlled respectively.

A plurality of actuators 20a-2
In the case where 0f is controlled to be correlatively biased, etc., as described above, the calculation device 60 causes the other actuators 20a ...
It is possible to send the address signal and the data signal of 20f, and to control the actuators 20a to 20f based on this. That is, the actuators 20a-
Communication regarding control is possible between the 20f, and quicker and more reliable correlation operation can be achieved than the centralized control performed by the CPU 74.

FIG. 7 shows another embodiment of the actuator control apparatus according to the present invention.

In this case, the control system composed of the optical fiber 32 or the coaxial cable is looped, and the optical fiber 3 is connected to each of the actuators 20a to 20f.
2 is provided with a branching device 88 for deriving a signal by the address of each of the actuators 20a to 20f. The optical fiber 32 and the computer 30 are connected via another connecting device 90.

[0025]

According to the present invention, since the control signals are transmitted and received between the actuators, it is possible to perform the urging and deenergizing control extremely quickly even if the number of actuators is large. . Therefore, it is also possible to control the actuators in relation to each other.

Further, according to the present invention, since the arithmetic unit is incorporated in each actuator as described above and the fluid supply system, the electric system and the control system are shared, the wiring for each actuator is unnecessary. Moreover, the sequencer manifold can be eliminated. Moreover, if the fluid supply system, the electric system, and the control system are formed into a loop, the expansion and contraction of the actuator can be left unchanged. As a result, the actuator wiring and piping system can be simplified and the actuator can be operated reliably, and the area occupied by wiring is reduced, which promotes structural downsizing and reduces the cost and reliability of the overall equipment. Various effects such as improvement are achieved.

Further, in the case of an advanced and complicated movement control system,
Usually, high-speed overall arithmetic control is required, and when controlling by communication using communication means, a considerable burden is imposed on communication of command signals and status signals of actuators. A CPU, a storage memory, and a detection means are provided locally to the actuator of No. 1, and the position and speed can be detected and controlled locally, and the power state can be detected and controlled locally, so that a complicated system can be used. Even if there is, there is almost no time lag in controlling the actuators, the plurality of actuators can be integrally controlled via the communication means, and the object can be controlled extremely efficiently and highly accurately.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a connection relationship between an actuator according to a conventional technique, a piping system, and a control system.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a relationship between actuators arranged side by side and a looped fluid pressure supply system, an electric system, and a control system that interconnect them.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an internal structure of an actuator.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a control unit of the actuator.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a state in which a fluid pressure supply system, an electric system, and a control system are connected to a control unit of the actuator.

FIG. 6 is a perspective explanatory view showing a state in which a fluid pressure supply system in which actuators are connected in a loop shape, an electric system, and a control system are integrated.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of an actuator connected to a loop-shaped control system via a branching device. 2 ... Controller 4a-4f ... Driver 6a-6f ... Solenoid valve 8 ... Air pressure supply system 10a-10f ... Air cylinder 20a-20f ...
Actuator 22 ... Air supply pipeline 24a-24c ...
Air supply source 26 ... Conductive wire 28 ... Power source 30 ... Computer 32 ... Optical fiber 34 ... Cylinder part 36 ... Control part 38 ... Cylinder 40 ... Piston 42 ... Piston rod 44 ... First port 46 ... Second port 48 ... Sensor 50 ... Casing Body 52 ... Valve mechanism 54 ... Input / output circuit 56 ... Detecting device 58 ... Driving device 60 ... Arithmetic device 62, 64 ... Air supply pipeline 66, 68 ... Conducting wire 70 ... Bus wire 72 ... Storage memory 74 ... CPU 76 ... First Socket 75 ... Communication interface 78 ... Second socket 88 ... Branching device 80a, 80b, 82a, 82b ... Pipe fitting 84a, 84b, 86a, 86b ... Connector 90 ... Connection device

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A displacement of a piston member is transmitted to another device by correlating and controlling a plurality of actuators including a rotary type actuator, and one object cooperates with other actuators. An actuator control device for moving, wherein each of the actuators is integrally formed with a local controller for locally controlling the actuator, and each of the local controllers is connected to a main control device by a network means. The control device centrally controls each of the local controllers via the network means, and each of the local controllers sends a status signal including a position signal of the actuator integrated with the local controller to the network means. Via other local contro Communication means for transmitting to the controller, a CPU, a storage memory, and a detection means for detecting the local position and speed of the actuator while detecting the local power state and the like. An actuator control device, which locally controls the actuator independently of a main control command from the main control device according to a detection signal. 2. The actuator control device according to claim 1, wherein the power state is acceleration. 3. The actuator control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the power state is pressure.