Kawasaki Jukogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

The University of Tokyo

Kabushiki Kobe Seiko Sho

Hideki Tanaka

Mariko Ogata

Tetsuya Kubota

Koki Maruyama

Chang-Kyu Rheem

Hidetaka Kobayashi

Tadashi Anada

Naoki Kuribayashi

Isamu Yoshimura

Shinji Narita

Masahide Tsuji

Hideki Watanabe

Tomohide Hattori

Akihiro Kondo

Hiroaki Shimizu

Hideyasu Muraoka

Masahiro Yamada

Tetsuya Nakanishi

Hiroaki Kitatsuji

Kazuto Fujiyama

Hiroaki Fujimoto

Tsuyoshi Maehara

Shinji Kajihara

Seiji Aoki

Takamasa Ogata

Yukito Imamura

Takeshi Kurihara

Keita Morikawa

Shinya Sasaki

Kazuya Matsumoto

Kazuhiko Kojima

Kenjirou Hara

An input device of a surgical manipulator includes an arm unit, a wrist unit including a follower link having a base end rotatably connected to a distal end of the arm unit around a follower rotation axis, a first gimbal link rotatably connected to the follower link, a second gimbal link rotatably connected to the first gimbal link, and an operation unit as a third gimbal link rotatably connected to the second gimbal link, a motor that rotates the base end of the follower link around the follower rotation axis, and a controller configured to perform feedback control of a rotation position of the follower link using a rotation position deviation of a rotation position of the second gimbal link with respect to a second reference rotation position as a rotation position deviation of the follower link by controlling an operation of the motor.

Input device of surgical manipulator, robot-assisted surgical system, and controller

A spool valve device includes: a housing with channels; a spool moving to change channel connection statuses; an electric actuator including an electric motor and linear-motion conversion mechanism, the motor rotating an output shaft by torque corresponding to a drive current supplied to the motor, the mechanism converting rotational output shaft movement into straight movement and applying thrust corresponding to the torque to the spool to change position; a biasing member applying biasing force to the spool against the actuator thrust; an angle detector detecting an motor output shaft angular position; a driving portion driving the motor by controlling drive current flow supplied to the motor based on a position command input and the angular position detected by the angle detector; and an abnormality determining portion calculating the spool position based on the detected angular position and determine presence or absence of operation spool abnormality.

Spool valve device and spool valve

A wave power generation system includes: a hydraulic pump device configured to operate by force of a wave to discharge an operating liquid to a main passage; a hydraulic motor device configured to be rotated by the operating liquid flowing through the main passage; a power generator configured to be driven by the hydraulic motor to generate electric power; and a heat exchanger device configured to perform heat exchange of the operating liquid. The heat exchanger device includes a heat exchange motor device connected to the main passage through a sub passage and configured to be operated by the operating liquid introduced through the sub passage, a refrigerant pump device driven by the heat exchange motor device and configured to suck and discharge a refrigerant liquid, and a heat exchanger to which the refrigerant liquid discharged from the heat exchange pump device and the operating liquid are introduced.

Wave power generation system

A poppet-type flow control valve includes: a valve housing including an inlet passage, an outlet passage, a valve chamber provided between the inlet passage and the outlet passage, and a valve seat provided in the valve chamber; a valve body accommodated in the valve housing and configured to advance and retract relative to the valve seat; a piston configured to move integrally with the valve body in an advancing and retracting direction, in which the valve body advances and retracts; a movable member movable in the advancing and retracting direction, in which the valve body advances and retracts, the movable member being configured to move integrally with the valve body at least when the movable member moves in a retracting direction of the advancing and retracting direction; an electric motor; a position detector configured to detect a rotational angle of an output shaft of the electric motor; a linear motion conversion mechanism configured to convert a rotation amount of the output shaft of the electric motor into a linear motion displacement of the piston in the advancing and retracting direction; and a controller configured to perform feedback control of the electric motor, such that the rotational angle of the output shaft, which is detected by the position detector, is adjusted to a rotational angle corresponding to a predetermined target distance between the valve seat and the valve body.

Poppet-type flow control valve

A spool valve capable of suppressing deterioration of position controllability of a spool due to misalignment includes: a housing including a spool hole; a spool inserted into the spool hole of the housing so as to be movable in an axial direction; and an electric actuator configured to move the spool in the axial direction. The electric actuator includes: an electric motor configured to rotate an output shaft; a linear-motion converting mechanism including a linear-motion member configured to be linearly movable, the linear-motion converting mechanism being configured to convert a rotational motion of the output shaft into a linear motion of the linear-motion member; and a coupling member coupling the linear-motion member and the spool moves in accordance with the linear motion of the linear-motion member. The coupling member allows one of tilt and eccentricity of an axis of the spool relative to an axis of the linear-motion member.

Spool valve

A spool valve includes: a housing including a spool hole; a spool inserted into the spool hole of the housing so as to be movable in an axial direction; a screw shaft arranged coaxially with the spool; an electric motor configured to rotate the screw shaft; a nut threadedly engaged with the screw shaft and configured to move in the axial direction when the screw shaft is rotated; a coupler through which the nut and the spool are coupled to each other; and a coil spring configured to apply biasing force to the spool, the biasing force acting so as to maintain the spool at a neutral position, the coil spring being arranged so as to overlap the nut when viewed from a radial direction of the screw shaft.

A hydraulic forceps system includes: robotic forceps whose gripper is opened and closed by utilizing hydraulic pressure of a hydraulic fluid; a pressure sensor that detects a pressure of the hydraulic fluid; and a control device that calculates a current gripping force of the gripper based on the pressure of the hydraulic fluid detected by the pressure sensor; and a monitor that displays the current gripping force.

Hydraulic forceps system

A hydraulic drive apparatus includes: an electric motor; a variable displacement pump driven by the electric motor, the pump including a pair of pump ports whose delivery side and suction side are switched with each other in accordance with a rotation direction of the electric motor; a hydraulic actuator connected to the pair of pump ports by a first supply/discharge line and a second supply/discharge line; and a control device that controls the electric motor based on an actuator position command value for the hydraulic actuator. The pump is configured such that a volume of the pump decreases in accordance with increase in a pressure difference between the first supply/discharge line and the second supply/discharge line.

Hydraulic drive apparatus

A hydraulic forceps system includes: robotic forceps including: a gripper, first piston coupled to the gripper, first cylinder forming first pressure chamber, filled with a hydraulic fluid, together with the first piston, second piston, second cylinder forming a second pressure chamber, filled with hydraulic fluid, together with the second piston, communication passage through which the chambers communicate, motor that drives the second piston via a linear motion mechanism; control device that controls the motor based on a command position for the first piston; and position sensor used for detecting a position of the second piston. The control device includes: an observer that derives an estimated position of the first piston based on the position of the second detected by the sensor; and a position controller that derives a target rotational speed of the motor based on a deviation between the estimated position of the first piston and the command position.

A wave power generation system includes a wave receiving member, ram cylinder hydraulic pump device, change value sensor, accumulator device, hydraulic motor, power generator, and controller. The member is arranged near a virtual reflection surface that reflects a coming incident wave. The controller sets a torque command used when the generator generates electric power. Based on a differential value of a change value detected by the sensor and changes in accordance with a swing amount of the member, the controller determines whether the member is swinging toward a first or second side in a swing direction. When the controller determines the member is swinging toward the second side by receiving force of a reflected wave reflected by the virtual reflection surface, the controller changes the torque command from the command set when the controller determines the member is swinging toward the first side by receiving force of the incident wave.

A flow control valve apparatus includes: a housing including two pump ports, two tank ports, a first supply/discharge port, a second supply/discharge port, and a spool hole; a first spool configured to switch a connection status among one of the pump ports, one of the tank ports, and the first supply/discharge port depending on a position of the first spool; a first actuator configured to move the first spool to each of a first supply position and a first discharge position; a second spool configured to switch a connection status among the other pump port, the other tank port, and the second supply/discharge port depending on a position of the second spool; and a second actuator configured to move the second spool to each of a second supply position and a second discharge position. The first spool and second spool are inserted in the spool hole so as to reciprocate.

Flow control valve apparatus

A piston accommodated in an internal space of a cylinder and forming a pair of pressure chambers together with the cylinder, the piston being configured to move relative to the cylinder; a first actuator connected to one pair of pressure chambers; a second actuator connected to the other of the pair of pressure chambers; a position detector configured to detect a position of the piston relative to the cylinder; a pressure detector configured to detect a pressure of one pair of pressure chambers; and a controller configured to control the first actuator and the second actuator. The controller controls one of the first actuator and the second actuator that the position detected by the position detector is made close to a target position and controls the other of the first actuator and the second actuator that the pressure detected by the pressure detector is made close to a target pressure.

Actuator device and control method

An imaging inspection apparatus includes a storage unit configured to store a predetermined position between a first position and a second position as a signal output position, the predetermined position being set by using a distance from a reference position that is based on at least one of the first position and the second position; an image-capturing command signal generator configured to determine, when causing a distal end portion of a robot to move from the first position to the second position, whether or not the distal end portion of the robot is located at the signal output position, and if it is determined that the distal end portion of the robot is located at the signal output position, the image-capturing command signal generator transmits, to the image-capturing device, an image-capturing command signal for capturing an image of the inspection object by using the image-capturing device.

Imaging inspection apparatus for setting one or more image-capturing positions on a line that connects two taught positions, control device thereof, and method of controlling imaging inspection apparatus

Provided is a method of controlling a seven-axis articulated robot including seven joints sequentially arranged from a proximal end of the robot to a distal end of the robot, the seven joints including rotational axes each causing a next joint to turn and rotational axes each causing a next joint to pivot, such that the rotational axes causing turning and the rotational axes causing pivoting are arranged alternately, the seven-axis articulated robot being configured such that rotational axes of three proximal end side joints of the robot do not intersect with each other at one point. The method includes performing inverse transformation using, as a constraint condition, such a joint angle of a middle joint among the three joints as to cause an assumed elbow angle to be constant in a case where a rotational axis of the middle joint is assumed as a shoulder.

Method of controlling seven-axis articulated robot, control program, and robot control device

A desired q-axis current is determined based on a desired torque, and a desired d-axis current is determined based on the rotating speed of a synchronous motor when the terminal voltage of the synchronous motor coincides with a predetermined maximum permissible voltage to weaken a magnetic field created by the synchronous motor equivalently and to prevent the drop of the output torque of the synchronous motor. The desired d-axis current is determined based on the desired torque and the rotating speed. Therefore, the desired d-axis current can be reduced when a high torque is not necessary and undesired increase of the desired d-axis current can be prevented. Thus the synchronous motor operates efficiently, heat generation of the synchronous motor is prevented and power factor is improved.

Growing community of inventors

Nishinomiya, Japan

Hideki Tanaka