Actuator control unit

• US 7,129,668 B2
• Filed: 09/20/2004
• Issued: 10/31/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/10/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: Wakao, Shinji, Koumura, Daizou, Yamaguchi, Akira, Kuribayashi, Nobukazu, Sugaya, Masahiko, Takeuchi, Tokuhisa
• Primary Examiner(s): IP, SHIK LUEN PAUL
• Application Number:
  US10/944,957
• Publication Number:
  US 20050077858A1
• Time in Patent Office: 771 Days
• Field of Search: 318/479, 318/638, 318/466, 318/772, 318/786, 307/10.2, 307/10.1, 236/13, 236/51, 236/75, 236/49.3, 180/287, 701/1, 701/29, 701/36
• US Class Current: 318/625
• CPC Class Codes: B60H 1/00835 Damper doors, e.g. position control construction or arrangement of damper doors B60H1/00664; B60H1/00864 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/30 for purposes related to the operation of the system, e.g. for safety or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/54 using one central controller connected to several sub-controllers
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/88 Electrical aspects, e.g. circuits

Abstract

An actuator control device includes an electrical control unit for detecting the present positions of output shafts of servo motors, and communicating with control circuits for driving the output shafts of the servo motors to target stop positions on the basis of the present positions thus detected. When it is judged that a present position of one of the output shafts thus receives is abnormal, the electrical control unit corrects the present position and transmits the corrected present position to the appropriate control circuit.

Claims

1. An actuator control device for controlling the positions of a plurality of output shafts, comprising:

a plurality of actuators for respectively driving the plurality of output shafts by a motor;

a plurality of control circuits, each control circuit including a count value representing a present position of a respective output shaft, the control circuits respectively driving the output shafts to respective target stop positions based on the present positions; and

an electrical control unit which carries out multiplex communications with the control circuits through a multiplex communication line, wherein the electrical control unit comprises a receiving unit for receiving a present pulse state from each of the plurality of control circuits through the multiplex communication line before the plurality of control circuits drive the respective actuators, a judging unit for judging whether each of the respective present pulse states thus received is abnormal or not by comparing each present pulse state to a respective count value, and a transmitting unit for correcting at least one present position when judged by the judging unit that the at least one present position is abnormal based on the comparison of the present pulse state to the respective count value, and transmitting the corrected present position to the control circuit corresponding to the abnormal present position through the multiplex communication line.

2. The actuator control device according to claim 1, wherein when the judging unit judges that at least one present position out of the received present positions is a normal present position, the transmitting unit transmits the target stop position to the control circuit corresponding to the normal present position while the multiplex communications with the control circuits other than the control circuit corresponding to the normal present position are stopped immediately after the judgment.

3. The actuator control device according to claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of actuators outputs two pulse signal sequences displaced in phase in connection with the driving of the respective output shaft thereof, and wherein each of the plurality of control circuits counts variation of the two pulse signal sequences output from the respective actuator to obtain the count value and determines the present position comprising the count value.

4. The actuator control device according to claim 3, wherein the receiving unit also receives a pulse state of the two pulse signals at the present time from each of the plurality of control circuits in addition to the present position, and on the basis of a relationship between the present position comprising the count value and the pulse state of the two pulse signals the judging unit makes a judgment as to whether the respective present positions received from the each of the plurality of control circuits are abnormal or not.

5. The actuator control device according to claim 4, wherein the electrical control unit includes therein a storage unit for storing the relationship between the pulse state of the two pulse signals and the value of a predetermined digit at a lower side of the count value indicating the present position when the present position is normal, and the judging unit judges whether the present position comprising the count value received from each of the plurality of control circuits and the pulse state of the two pulse signals satisfy the relationship indicated in the storage data of the storage unit, thereby judging whether present position information received from each control circuit is abnormal or not.

6. The actuator control device according to claim 3, wherein the receiving unit receives the present position comprising the count value from each of the plurality of control circuits every predetermined period, and when the difference between a currently-received present position from a prescribed control circuit out of the plurality of control circuits and a previously-received present position from the prescribed control circuit is larger than a fixed value, the judging unit judges that the currently-received present position from the prescribed control circuit is abnormal.

7. The actuator control device according to claim 6, wherein the judging unit periodically judges whether the difference between the currently-received present position from the prescribed control circuit out of the plurality of control circuits and the previously-received present position is larger than a predetermined value, and the predetermined value is determined on the basis of the predetermined period of the reception of the present position by the receiving unit and a maximum speed of the output shafts of the plurality of actuators.

8. The actuator control device according to claim 1, wherein when the present position received from a prescribed control circuit out of the plurality of control circuits is out of a predetermined range, the judging unit judges that the present position received from the prescribed control circuit is abnormal.

9. The actuator control device according to claim 4, wherein the actuator control device is equipped with a storage unit for storing data indicating the corresponding relationship of the value of a predetermined digit at a lower side out of the present position comprising the count value, the pulse state of the two pulse signals and a correction amount of the present position, and when the judging unit judges that the present position received from a prescribed control circuit out of the plurality of control circuits is abnormal, the transmitting unit determines the correction amount on the basis of the present position received from the prescribed control circuit, the pulse state of the two pulse signals and the data stored in the storage unit, corrects the present position comprising the count value on the basis of the correction amount thus determined and transmits the corrected present position to the prescribed control circuit.

10. The actuator control device according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of actuators drive a plurality of doors equipped to an air conditioning unit for air conditioning a room by driving the output shafts thereof.

11. The actuator control device according to claim 10, wherein each of the plurality of control circuits is equipped with an initializing unit for driving the output shaft of each actuator to an original position and storing in memory that the output shaft is located at the original position, and the actuator control device is equipped with an instructing unit for instructing a prescribed control circuit out of the plural control circuits to actuate the initializing unit after the air conditioning of the air conditioning unit is stopped when the judging unit judges that a specific present position out of the received present positions is abnormal.

12. The actuator control device according to claim 1, wherein:

the plurality of control circuits are equipped to the plurality of actuators, respectively; and

the electronic control unit is connected to the plurality of actuators through the time-divisional multiplex communication line, a power supply line and a ground line.

13. The actuator control device according to claim 3, wherein each of the actuators is equipped with a pulse pattern , wherein the pulse pattern plate includes first and second pulse patterns comprising conductive portions and non-conduction portions which are alternately arranged in the circumferential direction, wherein the pulse pattern plate is rotated integrally with the output shaft to output the two pulse signal sequences.

14. The actuator control device according to claim 13, wherein each of the plurality of control circuits comprises:

a motor driving circuit for driving the motor;

a rotational angle detector for detecting a rotational angle serving as the present position of the output shaft on the basis of pulse signals generated in the pulse pattern plate;

a storage circuit for storing control information; and

a communication circuit for communicating with the electrical control unit through the multiplex communication line.

15. The actuator control device according to claim 14, further comprising:

a pulse generator comprised of first and second brushes and the pulse pattern plate, wherein the pulse generator generates the two pulse signal sequences every time the output shaft rotates by a predetermined angle,

wherein the two pulse signals sequences comprise a two-phase first-phase pulse generated by the first pulse pattern and the first brush and a two-phase second-phase pulse generated by the second pulse pattern and the second brush and displaced in phase from the first-phase pulse in the pulse occur in the pulse generator, wherein the two-phase second-phase pulse is displaced in phase from the first-phase pulse.

16. An actuator control device for controlling the position of an output shaft, comprising:

a control circuit for receiving from an actuator two pulse signal sequences displaced in phase, for counting variation of the two pulse signal sequences to obtain a count value and detect a present position of the output shaft, and for driving the output shaft to a target stop position based on the present position thus detected, wherein the present position thus detected comprises the count value;

an electrical control unit for receiving a present pulse state from the control circuit through a multiplex communication line before the control circuit controls the actuator to drive the output shaft, for correcting the present position when judged to be abnormal, for transmitting the corrected present position to the control circuit through the multiplex communication line, for storing the relationship between a pulse state of the two pulse signals and a value of a predetermined digit at a lower side of the count value indicating the present position when the present position is normal in a storage unit;

wherein the electrical unit judges whether the present position is abnormal by comparing the present position comprising the count value with the pulse state of the two pulse signals to determine if the relationship indicated in the storage data of the storage unit is satisfied;

wherein the two pulse signal sequences include a pattern that is repeatedly switched in the following order [0,1]→

[1,1]→

[1,0]→

[0,0];

wherein the present position of the output shaft is renewed on the basis of a switching operation of the state of the two pulse signal sequences, and the count value serving as the present position is incremented by one every time the state of the two pulse signal sequences is changed.

17. The actuator control device according to claim 16, wherein the state of the two pulse signal sequences and the predetermined two digits of the digital value representing the count value have a predetermined corresponding relationship when the count value is a normal value.

18. The actuator control device according to claim 17, wherein the electrical control unit determines a correction amount for the present position of the output shaft by selecting from a table of correction amounts based upon storage data stored in the storage unit, wherein predetermined digits of the count value and the pulse state of the two pulse signal sequences are associated with one another in the storage data, wherein the correction amount is added to the present position comprising the count value to correct the present position, and the present position thus corrected is transmitted to the control circuit.

19. The actuator control device of claim 16, further comprising a plurality of the control circuits, each of the plurality of control circuits receiving from a respective actuator two pulse signal sequences displaced in phase, each of the plurality of control circuits counting variation of the two pulse signal sequences to obtain a count value and detect the present position of the output shaft and driving the respective output shaft to a target stop position based on the present positions thus detected,

wherein the electrical control unit receives the present positions thus detected from each of the plurality of control circuits through the multiplex communication line before the each of the plurality of control circuits controls the respective actuator to drive the output shaft, wherein the electrical unit judges whether each of the present positions is abnormal by comparing the present position comprising the count value with the pulse state of the two pulse signals to determine if the relationship indicated in the storage data of the storage unit is satisfied.