Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.

Panasonic Corporation

Hiroshi Kohso

Toshio Inaji

Makoto Kuwamoto

Keizo Miyata

Tatsuhiko Inagaki

Michiro Tanaka

Makoto Umeda

Yuji Yagi

Hideki Kuwajima

Tatsuaki Ishida

Yoshio Umeda

Toshiyuki Wada

Masahiro Kawai

Makoto Kimura

Junichi Nawama

Yuji Ozeki

Hiroshi Horibata

Yasunori Matsunari

Shinji Suematsu

Masataka Kitajima

A clothes separating device and a clothes processing apparatus including the clothes separating device according to this disclosure are provided with a separator that operates to grip clothes in a washing tub and to separate, from the gripped clothes, another item of clothes entwined with the gripped clothes. In this manner, a user does not need to separate a plurality of individual items of clothes before folding the clothes. Hence, it is possible to provide the clothes separating device that contributes to reducing a burden of work related to laundry and a clothes processing apparatus including the clothes separating device.

Clothing item separating device and clothing item processing device comprising same

A disk storage apparatus including a position detection section for producing position error information corresponding to the current position of a head from servo information which has been previously recorded on a disk and is detected by the head, a position control section for producing position control information corresponding to the position error information, a voltage detection section for detecting a voltage generated in driving an actuator for positioning the head with respect to the disk, and for outputting a voltage signal, a disturbance estimation section for estimating the magnitude of a disturbance exerted on the head from the voltage signal by the voltage detection section and from a drive signal by a drive section of the actuator, and producing disturbance estimation information, a correction section for correcting the position control information by the position control section with the disturbance estimation information and producing the drive signal, and a disturbance monitor section for monitoring the disturbance estimation information, and prohibiting a record by the head if the disturbance estimation information exceeds an allowable range, wherein even if the head is largely dislocated from a target track due to a large shock or vibration at data recording, an erroneous erasing of the adjacent track can be prohibited.

Disk storage apparatus

A self-servo reference signal including a timing pattern and an oblique phase pattern is transferred in advance on a magnetic diskby magnetic printing. A phase difference detection sectiondetects a phase difference between the two patterns to detect the position of a magnetic head. A burst signal generated by a record signal generation sectionis recorded in a region of the magnetic diskwhere no self-servo reference signal is recorded. A track pitch calculation sectiondetermines a relationship between the reproduction output of the burst signal detected by a reproduction signal processing sectionand the phase difference detected by the phase difference detection section, thus calculating an optimum data track pitch.

Magnetic disk apparatus, method for determining data track pitch, and self-servo write method

In a disk storage apparatus having an actuator for loading/unloading a magnetic head with respect to a magnetic disk, a voltage signal generated when the actuator is driven is detected by a voltage detector, a speed load estimator estimates moving speed of the head and level of load disturbance added to the magnetic head from a driving signal in a driver of the actuator and the voltage signal, and outputs a speed estimating signal and a load estimating signal, a speed controller generates and outputs a speed control signal based on a speed command signal and the speed estimating signal, a synthesizer generates a driving signal from the load estimating signal and a speed control signal, and the apparatus loads and unloads the head at a stable speed against the load disturbance caused by friction or the like on a ramp block.

A head positioning apparatus capable of positioning a head at high speed and with high accuracy is provided. The head positioning apparatus includes a magnetic head, a head supporting mechanism, a coarse actuator, a fine actuator, a head position detection part, a fine movement control system for controlling the fine actuator based on the head position detected by the head position detection part, a head moving distance estimation part estimating the head moving distance representing the distance the magnetic head moves, and the coarse movement control system for controlling the coarse actuator based on the head moving distance estimated by the head moving distance estimation part.

Head positioning apparatus

A head positioner has a configuration employing a dual-stage actuator method, wherein positioning control is performed for a write/read according to cooperative operations of a coarse actuator and a fine actuator, and the fine actuator is configured using a piezoelectric device. A positioning control unit for controlling the coarse actuator and the fine actuator is configured to include a coarse control system including a coarse drive unit for driving the coarse actuator and coarse control unit for controlling the coarse drive unit, a fine control system including a fine drive unit for driving the fine actuator and a fine control unit for controlling the fine drive unit. In addition, a driving-signal limiting unit is provided. The piezoelectric device is prone to property deterioration because of erosion due to an electrochemical reaction. The driving-signal limiting unit limits the level of a fine control signal fed from the fine control unit to the fine drive unit to be below a threshold at which property deterioration of the piezoelectric device is caused by an electrochemical reaction. Further, as a median-value signal, a relative displacement signal ranked in the center of a plurality of relative displacement signals sent from a plurality of the individual fine actuators is selected. The coarse actuator is controlled according to the selected median-value signal.

Head positioner and information recording/replaying apparatus

A first estimatorestimates the position of a head based on a VCM driving signal uand a voltage signal Va output from a VCMto output a first head position estimation signal x. The first estimatorestimates the disturbance acting on a head supporting mechanismto output a disturbance estimation signal &#x3c4;. A second estimatorestimates the displacement of the head based on a control signal cfor a fine adjustment actuatorto output a displacement estimation signal x. The first head position estimation signal xand the displacement estimation signal xare added together to obtain a second head position estimation signal x. A position error signal e is generated using a head position signal x obtained by detecting the servo information and the second head position estimation signal x. A disturbance compensatorsynthesizes a VCM control signal cwith the disturbance estimation signal &#x3c4;to generate the VCM driving signal u.

Head positioning method, and disk apparatus using the same

A head positioning system includes: a positioning mechanism sectionfor positioning a head; a position controllerfor detecting a head position signal x to output a position control signal U; a velocity detectorfor detecting the relative velocity of the headwith respect to a diskbased on the head position signal x; a counter electromotive voltage detectorfor outputting an estimated head velocity signal Vthat is obtained by estimating the absolute velocity of the headbased on a counter electromotive voltage signal Vof an actuator; an estimated velocity correctorfor correcting an estimation error of the estimated head velocity signal Vbased on a velocity signal detected from the head position signal x so as to output a corrected estimated velocity signal V'; and an estimation controllerfor outputting a velocity control signal Ubased on the corrected estimated velocity signal V&#x2032;, wherein the actuatoris controlled by a control amount signal U that is obtained by adding at least the velocity control signal Uto the position control signal U.

Head positioning system, disk drive apparatus using the same, and head positioning method

A disk apparatus includes: an actuator; a driver; a voltage detectorfor outputting first voltage signal Ed which is produced in a driving coilof the actuator; a voltage signal adjusterfor outputting pseudo disturbance signal ur and generating second voltage signal Edfrom pseudo disturbance signal ur, driving signal u, first voltage signal Ed, and disturbance estimation signal &#x3c4;d; a disturbance estimatorfor estimating the magnitude of disturbance load &#x3c4;d applied to a magnetic headfrom driving signal u and second voltage signal Edto output disturbance estimation signal &#x3c4;d; a position detectorfor generating position error signal e which corresponds to a current position of the magnetic head; a position controllerfor generating control signal c from position error signal e; and a correctorfor generating driving signal u from disturbance estimation signal &#x3c4;dand position control signal c.

Disk apparatus and head positioning method

A position detector generates a position error signal corresponding to a current position of a head, a position controller generates a position control signal from the position error signal, a voltage detector detects a voltage signal generated when driving an actuator by a driver, a disturbance estimator generates a disturbance estimation signal from a driving signal and the voltage signal, and a corrector outputs the driving signal from the disturbance estimation signal and the position control signal. The disturbance estimator includes a comparator which compares the disturbance estimation signal with a voltage signal and which outputs a deviation signal, and an adder which adds a signal obtained by multiplying an integral signal, which is obtained by integrating the deviation signal, by a first coefficient and a signal obtained by multiplying a proportional signal proportional to the deviation signal by a second coefficient, and which generates the disturbance estimation signal. The disturbance estimation signal suppresses a tracking deviation of the head due to a disturbance such as an inertial force applied to the head actuator and stabilizes head positioning control.

Disk drive and disk drive control method

A disk storage apparatus includes: an actuator positioning a head with respect to a disk; a drive device driving the actuator; a voltage detection device detecting a voltage signal induced in driving the actuator; a disturbance estimation unit estimating the magnitude of load disturbance exerted on the head from a drive signal and the voltage signal, and outputting a disturbance estimation signal; a filter unit cutting off a high frequency component of the disturbance estimation signal, and outputting a filter signal; a position detection unit producing a position error signal corresponding to a current position of the head; a position control unit producing a position control signal based on the position error signal; and a correction unit outputting the drive signal based on the filter signal and the position control signal, and the apparatus controls stable positioning of the head against a resistance value fluctuation of a drive coil of the actuator and a resistance value change.

Disk storage apparatus and disk storage apparatus control method

Information recording/reproducing apparatus and method

A magnetic recording and reproducing apparatus comprising: a magnetic recording and reproducing medium; a spindle motor for effecting rotational drive of the magnetic recording and reproducing medium; a transducer for recording and reproducing information on one face of the magnetic recording and reproducing medium; a displacement member for displacing the transducer to an arbitrary radial position on the face of the magnetic recording and reproducing medium; an electric circuit board for processing the information and controlling the spindle motor and the displacement member; and a casing in which the magnetic recording and reproducing medium, the spindle motor, the transducer, the displacement member and the electric circuit board are mounted; the casing having a bottom wall such that a boxlike space is defined below the bottom wall; the electric circuit board being disposed in the boxlike space.

Casing of a magnetic recording and reproducing apparatus having rails

A recording and reproducing medium includes: at least one recording and reproducing layer; and a heating layer which receives light for writing data, converts a part of energy of the light into heat, and selectively heats a desired portion of the recording and reproducing layer, thereby changing optical characteristics of the desired portion, wherein the heating layer converts the part of energy of the light into the heat by a surface plasmon resonance phenomenon.

Recording and reproducing medium and a recording and reproducing

The information recording and reproducing apparatus includes: a recording medium including a plurality of concavo-convex pits; a light source for emitting laser light; a section for changing an optical characteristic value of the laser light, using interaction between the laser light and the recording medium; and a light detector for detecting the optical characteristic value of the laser light after the interaction occurs, and then outputting a signal in response to the detected optical characteristic value. The section for changing the optical characteristic value includes an evanescent wave generating section for generating an evanescent wave from the laser light. The evanescent wave generating section changes the optical characteristic value in accordance with how much the concavo-convex pits of the recording medium influences the evanescent wave. Multivalued data is reproduced on the basis of the signal from the light detector. The multivalued data corresponds to the dimension of the concavo-convex pits measured along the direction normal to the recording medium.

Growing community of inventors

Osaka, Japan

Hiroshi Kohso