Omron Corporation

Yusuke Iida

Toru Hosoda

Ryosuke Tsuzuki

Hiroaki Takimasa

Nobuharu Ishikawa

Shoichi Ohnaka

Koji Iguchi

Kiyoshi Imai

Mitsuhiro Yoneda

Yuichi Inoue

Kiyohiko Gondo

Norihiro Tomago

Osamu Harada

Takuya Matsushima

Yasuhito Uetsuji

Hitoshi Oba

Motoharu Okuno

Takahiro Suga

Kazunari Komai

Tetsuya Nosaka

Naoya Nakashita

Hoshibumi Ichiyanagi

Soji Ohmae

Koyo Ozaki

Tatsuya Matsunaga

Hidetomo Ohtsuki

Yoshihiro Kanetani

Hideyoshi Nakamura

Yusuke Shibasaki

Mai Miyawaki

Hideyuki Kishiba

Masahiro Ikumo

Kohei Tanisue

Tokiko Inoue

Seho Seo

Hironobu Morita

Provided are a photoelectric sensor and a threshold setting method. The photoelectric sensor is a photoelectric sensor detecting an object and includes a light reception part, an object determination part, and a setting part. The light reception part receives light to obtain a light reception amount. The object determination part determines presence/absence of the object based on the light reception amount and a threshold. The setting part sets the threshold based on the light reception amount during a period in which it has been determined that the object is present and the light reception amount during a period in which it has been determined that the object is absent.

Photoelectric sensor and threshold setting method

Provided are a sensor device and a detection method. The sensor device includes: a light emitting unit transmitting a transmission signal toward a target; a light receiving unit receiving a reflected signal of the transmission signal and generating a binarized signal; a TDC delay line measurement unit and a waveform integration unit generating waveform data indicating temporal changes in the binarized signal and integrating the waveform data to generate integrated waveform data; a stage number calculation unit and a distance conversion unit calculating a near-side distance value and a far-side distance value from intersections of the integrated waveform data and a high threshold value and a low threshold value, respectively; and a determination unit determining whether the target is present on the basis of a distance value calculated from the near-side distance value and the far-side distance value and on the basis of a predetermined distance threshold value.

Sensor device and detection method

The present invention provides a sensor system with which a change in the state of a workpiece which has occurred in a conveyance process can be detennined. The sensor system comprises: a plurality of sensors positioned along a line and measuring data indicating that a workpiece being conveyed upon the line has passed thereby; a plurality of slave units respectively connected to the plurality of sensors and acquiring the data measured by the plurality of sensors; and a master unit connected to the plurality of slave units. The master unit comprises: a storage part for storing the data in association with information which relates to the timing at which the data was measured; and a determination part for comparing the data transmitted from two or more of the plurality of slave units using the information which relates to the timing, and determining a change in the state of the workpiece.

Sensor system

A sensor device measuring a distance to an object includes: a light projection unit repeatedly emitting detection light toward the object; a light reception unit receiving reflected light of the detection light and outputting a binarized light reception signal (RT); a light projection oscillation unit controlling the emission of the detection light and outputting a start signal synchronized with the emission of the detection light; a counter measurement unit starting counting of the RT when receiving the RT and the start signal, and outputting a stop signal corresponding to a feature point of the RT; a delay line measurement unit outputting a delay line output signal corresponding to the delay time of the RT near the feature point of the RT when receiving the RT and the stop signal; and a distance calculation unit calculating the distance to the object based on the delay line output signal.

Sensor device and measurement method

A displacement sensor includes an emitting unit periodically emitting pulse signals; a receiving unit receiving reflection signals generated from the pulse signals and reflected by an object and outputs binary signals that indicate signal intensity of the received reflection signals; a waveform summation unit generating a summation waveform by accumulating temporal waveforms of the binary signals for the respective corresponding periods of time with reference to emission timings of the corresponding pulse signals; a distance calculation unit calculating a value that indicates a distance to the object on the basis of waveform features corresponding to waveform features of the pulse signals that appear in the summation waveform; and a reception signal amount calculation unit calculating a reception signal amount that is intensity of the reflection signals received by the receiving unit on the basis of feature amounts indicated by cumulative values that appear in the summation waveform.

Displacement sensor

A sensor control device and a sensor system are provided through which it is possible to automatically detect whether mutual interference occurs for a plurality of sensor units, and it is possible to automatically set periodic light projection timings for preventing mutual interference. A sensor control device includes a light projection control part configured to instruct a light projection operation for each of a plurality of sensor units and a light projection timing setting part configured to set periodic light projection timings when each of the sensor units is periodically operated based on results of light projection control for each of the sensor units and detection results of each of the sensor units.

Periodic light projecting sensor control device and sensor system ensuring mutual interference does not occur

A photosensor includes a light projection unit, a light receiving unit, a determination unit that determines a magnitude relation between a received light quantity of the light receiving unit and a threshold value set for the received light quantity; and a threshold value setting unit that sets the threshold value of the received light quantity. The threshold value setting unit calculates for each of a plurality of different wavelength regions, a contrast difference that is a difference between a received light quantity obtained when projection is performed on a detection target on a surface of a workpiece and a received light quantity obtained when projection is performed on a background on the surface of the workpiece, and updates the threshold value based on the contrast difference for a wavelength region among the plurality of wavelength regions in which the contrast difference has a maximum value.

Photosensor and sensor system

In a sensor system including a plurality of photoelectric sensor units, a light projecting period arbitrarily determined in each type is provided and mutual interference is prevented between identical types. The sensor system includes the plurality of sensor units coupled by a connector unit while a signal can be transmitted. Each of the sensor units retains type information thereof, and sets a unique identification number by transmitting the signal to each other. Each sensor unit operates after a delay time determined according to the identification number thereof elapses with a synchronous signal as a starting point. The synchronous signal is transmitted with a predetermined period from the sensor unit having a specific identification number in the plurality of sensor units. The delay time of each sensor unit is determined such that an operating period is matched with a predetermined period determined in each piece of the type information.

Sensor system having a plurality of coupled sensors

The disclosure provides a photoelectric sensor that provides useful information to set measurement conditions. The photoelectric sensor includes a light emitting unit having a light emitting element configured to emit detection light toward a detection area, a light receiving unit having a light receiving element configured to receive the detection light from the detection area and to obtain a detection value corresponding to the amount of light received, and a display unit configured to display information about the detection value in the light receiving unit. When the detection value varies across a predetermined threshold, the display unit displays a transit time that is the time from when the detection value crosses the predetermined threshold until when it crosses the predetermined threshold again, and a variation amount of the detection value in the variation.

Photoelectric sensor

In a measurement apparatus, higher-quality measurement is realized in measurement of measurement object displacement or imaging of a two-dimensional image. In a controller, a light receiving signal of a photodiode is supplied to a displacement measuring unit of a sensor head in order to measure a height of a measurement object, and the height of a surface of the measurement object is measured based on the light receiving signal. Then, in the controller, image obtaining timing is determined based on the height of the measurement object. Specifically, a focus adjustment value corresponding to the computed height of the measurement object is obtained from the table, and an image obtaining signal is transmitted to an imaging device at the timing the focus adjustment value is realized. Therefore, a length between two points on the measurement object is computed from the thus obtained image based on the height of the measurement object.

Measurement apparatus

Teaching processing using a model of a workpiece is performed by accepting at least one input of a target value for a response time and a tolerance value for a detection error as a parameter representing a condition for a displacement sensor to operate. A CPU during teaching processing determines a maximum exposure time while it causes repeated detection processing by a light projecting unit and a light receiving unit, calculates variation in measurement data of an amount of displacement, and derives the number of pieces of data of moving average calculation suitable for a value for the input parameter as a result of operation processing using the maximum exposure time and variation in measurement data. This number of pieces of data is registered in a memory and used for moving average calculation in a normal operation mode.

A signal processing unit (C, C, C) for processing a light reception signal from an imaging element () at different magnifications is provided in a light receiving unit () in a displacement sensor (). This sensor () measures a displacement by using light receiving amount data generated by the signal processing unit (C) for each detection processing by a light projecting unit () and the light receiving unit (), and further adjusts sensitivity for next detection processing. In sensitivity adjustment processing, when a peak value in the light receiving amount data generated by the signal processing unit (C) approximates to 0, a peak value extracted by the signal processing unit (C) to which higher magnification is applied is employed. Alternatively, when a peak value in the light receiving amount data generated by the signal processing unit (C) is saturated, a peak value extracted by the signal processing unit (C) to which 1-fold magnification is applied is employed.

An image processing apparatus that can determine an optimal registration color according to an acquired image is provided. An image processing unitreceives a sample image from an imaging unitand acquires a hue with respect to each of pixels arranged two-dimensionally that constitute the sample image and calculates a hue histogram. A control unitextracts a candidate color based on the hue at a maximum point in the hue histogram received from the image processing unit. At the same time, the control unitdetermines a hue threshold value in order to define the range of the color regarded as the candidate color. Furthermore, the control unitextracts all pixels that satisfy the hue threshold value of the candidate color and acquires the value and chroma of the extracted pixel and sets the maximum value and the minimum value in the acquired value and chroma to a value threshold value and a chroma threshold value. The control unitstores the determined hue threshold value, value threshold value and chroma threshold value in a memory unit

Image processing apparatus

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.

An extension unit provided adjacent to an amp unit comprises a measurement data accumulation memory, a measurement data acquiring part for acquiring measurement data coming through a transmission line and accumulating it in the above memory, a data analyzing part for analyzing an accumulated series of measurement data according to predetermined algorithm, a determining part for determining a data analyzed result, and an output part for outputting a control signal corresponding to a determined result to the outside. A plurality of process programs in which measurement algorithm is segmentalized are incorporated in the extension unit and a process program is selected according to a command from a personal computer and the selected process program is performed in a predetermined order.

Growing community of inventors

Ayabe, Japan

Yusuke Iida