Abnormality determining device and abnormality determining method

• US 10,335,948 B2
• Filed: 03/30/2017
• Issued: 07/02/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/18/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Suzuki, Tomohiro, Kokume, Masanori
• Primary Examiner(s): Allgood, Alesa
• Application Number:
  US15/474,130
• Publication Number:
  US 20170297199A1
• Time in Patent Office: 824 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 9/1674 characterised by safety, monitoring, diagnostic
• CPC Class Codes: G01M 13/021 Gearings
• CPC Class Codes: G01P 3/48 by measuring frequency of generated current or voltage in general G01R23/00
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/406 characterised by monitoring or safety G05B19/19 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/4065 Monitoring tool breakage, life or condition
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/37209 Estimate life of gear, drive
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/37525 Mean, average values, statistical derived values

Abstract

An abnormality determining device includes: a current value detecting unit configured to detect a current value which is a value of a drive current of a motor; a variance ratio calculating unit configured to group time-series current values detected in time series by the current value detecting unit at a predetermined time interval, to calculate a variance value of the current values of each group, and to calculate a variance ratio of each group by dividing the variance value of the current values of the corresponding group by a variance value of a reference current value of the motor when a reduction gear is normal; and a determination unit configured to determine that the reduction gear is abnormal when the variance ratios calculated by the variance ratio calculating unit for all the groups are equal to or greater than a threshold value.

Claims

1. An abnormality determining device that determines abnormality of a reduction gear of a motor for a robot including:

a jointed arm having a joint rotating in a pitch direction that is driven by the motor via the reduction gear, and a balancer provided to the joint, the balancer being configured to generate a balancing force for balancing a gravitational moment acting on the joint, the abnormality determining device comprising;

a processor programmed to;

detect a current value which is a value of a drive current of the motor;

group time-series current values detected in time series at a predetermined time interval of greater than 10 ms, to calculate a variance value of the current values of each group, and to calculate a variance ratio of each group by dividing the variance value of the current values of a corresponding group by a variance value of a reference current value of the motor when the reduction gear is new;

detect a rotational angular velocity of the motor;

detect a rotation angle of the motor;

determine that the reduction gear is abnormal when the calculated variance ratio is equal to or greater than a threshold value;

calculate a variation of rotational angular velocities corresponding to the current values of the motor in the groups based on the detected rotational angular velocity of the motor;

extract groups in which a calculated variation of the rotational angular velocities of the motor is equal to or less than a predetermined variation from the groups;

extract groups in which all the rotation angles corresponding to the current values belonging to each group are within a predetermined angle range centered on a neutral rotation angle at which the gravitational moment balances with the balancing force;

calculate an abnormality ratio which is a ratio of a number of groups in which the variance ratio is equal to or greater than the threshold value to a number of groups using only the variance ratios of the extracted groups;

determine that the reduction gear is abnormal when the calculated abnormality ratio is equal to or greater than a predetermined ratio; and

when it is determined that the reduction gear is abnormal, issue a report that the reduction gear is abnormal.

2. The abnormality determining device according to claim 1, wherein the processor is programmed to:

calculate an average value of the rotational angular velocities corresponding to the current values of the motor in the groups based on the detected rotational angular velocity of the motor;

exclude groups in which a calculated average value of the rotational angular velocities of the motor is equal to or less than a predetermined velocity from the groups;

calculate the abnormality ratio; and

determine that the reduction gear is abnormal when the calculated abnormality ratio is equal to or greater than the predetermined ratio.

3. The abnormality determining device according to claim 1, wherein the report is issued to a user.

4. An abnormality determining method of determining abnormality of a reduction gear of a motor for a robot including:

a jointed arm having a joint rotating in a pitch direction that is driven by the motor via the reduction gear, and a balancer provided to the joint, the balancer being configured to generate a balancing force for balancing a gravitational moment acting on the joint, the abnormality determining method comprising;

detecting a current value which is a value of a drive current of the motor;

grouping detected time-series current values at a predetermined time interval of greater than 10 ms;

calculating a variance value of the current values of each group;

calculating a variance ratio of the current values of each group by dividing the variance value of the current values of a corresponding group by a variance value of a reference current value of the motor when the reduction gear is new;

detecting a rotational angular velocity of the motor;

detecting a rotation angle of the motor;

determining that the reduction gear is abnormal when a calculated variance ratio is equal to or greater than a threshold value;

calculating a variation of rotational angular velocities corresponding to the current values of the motor in the groups based on the detected rotational angular velocity of the motor;

extracting groups in which a calculated variation of the rotational angular velocities of the motor is equal to or less than a predetermined variation from the groups;

extracting groups in which all the rotation angles corresponding to the current values belonging to each group are within a predetermined angle range centered on a neutral rotation angle at which the gravitational moment balances with the balancing force;

calculating an abnormality ratio which is a ratio of a number of groups in which the variance ratio is equal to or greater than the threshold value to the number of groups using only the variance ratios of the extracted groups;

determining that the reduction gear is abnormal when the calculated abnormality ratio is equal to or greater than a predetermined ratio; and

when it is determined that the reduction gear is abnormal, issuing a report that the reduction gear is abnormal.