Omron Corporation

Hitoshi Oba

Masahiro Kawachi

Hiroyuki Inoue

Koji Shimada

Hirotaka Nakashima

Takeshi Yoshiura

Naoya Nakashita

Nobuharu Ishikawa

Masaya Kudo

Hajime Takegawa

Yoshihiro Yamashita

Kenji Horie

Akira Matsui

Yusuke Iida

Kohei Tomita

Takahiro Suga

Toyoo Iida

Naoki Nishimori

Kosuke Sugiyama

Toru Hosoda

Tatsuya Matsunaga

Yoshinori Kawai

Kizuku Fujita

Hiroki Miyake

Mai Miyawaki

Michitoshi Okada

Masanori Sato

Tomoki Ishizawa

Minoru Takahashi

Tokiko Inoue

Satoshi Yoneda

In order to save on costs and space when processing analogue signals and pulse signals, a signal measurement unit () comprises: an input unit () which inputs an electrical signal from a device and selects whether to transmit the signal to an analogue measurement unit () or a counting measurement unit (); the analogue measurement unit which measures voltage as an analogue value; and the counting measurement unit which counts the number of times that the voltage value has equaled or exceeded a first threshold value or the number of times that the voltage value has equaled or fallen below a second threshold value.

Signal measurement unit

Provided is an evaluation system including: an analog-to-digital converting section comprised of a programmable circuit and configured to convert an analog signal, the analog signal being acquired by a physical quantity acquiring section and indicative of a time-series change of at least one of (i) welding current, welding voltage, or load applied to pieces to be welded and (ii) a displacement, during welding, of a welding head; and an evaluating section configured to determine, based on a digital signal, whether or not the time-series change satisfies a predetermined condition, wherein configuration data for configuring the programmable circuit is arranged to be changeable by a user.

Evaluation system and evaluation method

Provided is a counter unit capable of supporting any output apparatus of single-phase output, two-phase output, or three-phase output without waste. A counter unit () is provided with: a plurality of signal input terminals to which pulse signals outputted from a plurality of external output apparatuses () are respectively inputted; input circuits (to) respectively connected to the plurality of signal input terminals; a single-phase counter () that performs count on the basis of a single-phase pulse signal, and a multi-phase counter () that performs count on the basis of a multi-phase pulse signal; and a switching part () that switches whether the input circuits (to) are connected to the single-phase counter () or the multi-phase counter ().

Counter unit

In the embodiments of the disclosure, a target signal which is a signal of a part used for subsequent processing is acquired from signals output from a device with higher accuracy. A control apparatus includes a first acquisition part which acquires a first signal of a time series output from a first device, a recording part which records a part of the first signal acquired by the first acquisition part, and a determination part which determines a timing at which the recording part records the first signal based on a preset predetermined condition.

Control apparatus and control method

A load cell input unit capable of determining whether load cell connection cables have a broken line is provided. When the load cell input unit () is in a broken line detection mode, a voltage applying element () applies a voltage to distribution lines of an amplifying element (), and a broken line determination element () determines whether the load cell connection cables () have a broken line based on a voltage measured by a load measuring element ().

Load cell input unit

To provide a method for manufacturing a plurality of types of illuminating devices having different specifications while reducing cost. A substrate includes a common flexible portion and a plurality of units bendable with respect to the common portion, where the common portion includes a pad that is extended in the horizontal direction in the plane of the drawing and that is arranged for every predefined interval. In the present manufacturing method, a substrate piece is created by cutting the substrate mounted with the light emitting element in a first direction, the common portion in the substrate piece is formed according to the illuminating device to be manufactured, the relative position of the individual portion with respect to the formed common portion is respectively positioned, and the wiring for supplying power to the pad in the substrate piece is formed.

Illuminating device and method for manufacturing thereof

An image taken by an imaging device is displayed on a display unit. When a confirmation instruction is inputted through an input unit, image teaching is performed while the image displayed on the display unit is set to a setting object image. A measurement item which is of a candidate of a measurement process including specification of a reference position is displayed as the measurement process to accept selection. Specification of cutout area which constitutes one measurement target region is accepted, a measurement point including a local region or a feature point which is used for the measurement is automatically set in the measurement target region based on pieces of information on the set measurement process and reference position.

Displacement sensor

To enables realization of an image data collection function, a bank switch function and the like at low cost in a juxtaposedly placed type sensor system for handling an image, such as a visual sensor or a displacement sensor, by introduction of the minimum required number of new units into an existing system. A first operation of storing image data acquired by a sensor controller from a sensor head and/or measurement data obtained by processing the image data, into a non-volatile record medium of a data storage unit, and/or a second operation of writing the setting data having been stored into the non-volatile record medium of the data storage unit, on a bank memory inside the sensor controller unit, are made possible.

Sensor system

Sensor controller

Joint connector

A sensor controller is disclosed which transmits large-capacity data such as waveform data and image data within a short time (in rapid cycles, for example) and makes possible various collaborative operations using the transmitted data. A control unit includes a programmable logic circuit and a CPU to control the operation of the sensor controller. A unit connector can be used to connect other sensor controllers. An inter-unit path constitutes a signal transmission path between the control unit and the unit connector and includes a sensing data transmission path between the programmable logic circuit and the unit connector. In the case where another sensor controller is connected to the unit connector, the sensing data can be transmitted between the programmable logic circuit of the local sensor controller and the programmable logic circuit of the particular another sensor controller.

A cable includes a first connector half holding a conductor terminal, a second connector half holding a conductor terminal, an electric cord electrically connecting the conductor terminal of the first connector half to the conductor terminal of the second connector half, and a waveform shaping circuit performing waveform shaping of a signal passing through the electric cord, and the first and second connector halves are structured to allow attachment to and detachment from each other.

Sensor cable having easily changeable entire length and allowing accurate and high speed signal transmission even when entire length is made longer, and amplifier-separated type sensor with the cable

A displacement sensor comprising an imaging unit and an image processing unit. The imaging unit comprises a two dimensional imaging device and a drive control unit. The two dimensional imaging device includes a group of light receiving pixels arranged in a matrix so as to correspond to a field of view of a standard imaging unit, a plurality of vertical shift registers corresponding to different columns of the pixels, and a horizontal register for receiving the outputs of the vertical shift registers from top stages thereof, a photosensitive pixel region being defined in a prescribed horizontal band having a sufficiently narrower width than that would be provided by the total number of horizontal lines and interposed between a front optically black pixel region and a back optically black pixel region. The drive control unit controls, according to a commanded electric charge transfer protocol, a feeding of signal electric charges from each light receiving pixel to the vertical shift register of a corresponding column, a vertical transfer of signal electric charges in the vertical shift register of each column, and a horizontal transfer of signal electric charges in the horizontal shift register. The image processing unit comprises electric charge transfer protocol command means for giving an electric charge transfer protocol to the drive control unit of the imaging unit in dependence of a content of the image process.

An image recording system includes first imaging means for imaging operations of manufacturing equipment in a production line, second imaging means arranged downstream from the manufacturing equipment for imaging articles processed by the manufacturing equipment, inspection means for inspecting the processed articles based on image data outputted from the second imaging means, and an image recording apparatus for acquiring data outputted from the first imaging means and the inspection means, wherein the image recording apparatus is equipped with a temporary storage portion for temporarily storing image data from the imaging means, storage means, and control means for reading out any desired interval from the image data stored a prescribed time interval portion in the past in the temporary storage portion and storing such read out interval when a signal based on inspection results outputted from the inspection means is received.

Image recording apparatus and image recording system

In a displacement sensor ( ) comprising a sensor head ( ) and a controller ( ) either integrally or separately, the sensor head comprises a measurement light emitting optical system ( ), an image acquiring optical system ( ) and a two dimensional imaging device ( ). The controller can control the imaging condition associated with the brightness of the image in the form of a video signal both under a measurement mode and an observation mode. Under the measurement mode, with a light source ( ) for measurement turned on, the imaging condition is adjusted in such a manner that a measurement light radiated light image ( ) can be imaged at an appropriate brightness but a surrounding part ( ) of the measurement object is substantially darker than the appropriate brightness, and a desired displacement is computed according the video signal obtained by the two dimensional imaging device ( ). Under the observation mode, the imaging condition is adjusted in such a manner that the measurement position and the surrounding part of the measurement object can be imaged both at an appropriate brightness, and an image of the measurement position of the surface of the measurement object and the surrounding region ( ) is displayed on the screen of an image monitor ( ) according the video signal obtained by the two dimensional imaging device ( ).

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Kameoka, Japan

Hitoshi Oba