Access-level control apparatus

• US 9,904,276 B2
• Filed: 11/11/2013
• Issued: 02/27/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 11/11/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• Inventors: Sawa, Yoshitsugu, Kondo, Junji, Inomata, Kenji, Takahashi, Nobuyuki
• Primary Examiner(s): Flores, Leon
• Application Number:
  US15/023,848
• Publication Number:
  US 20160239018A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,569 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/12 using record carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/18 Numerical control [NC], i.e. automatically operating machines, in particular machine tools, e.g. in a manufacturing environment, so as to execute positioning, movement or co-ordinated operations by means of programme data in numerical form G05B19/418 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/408 characterised by data handling or data format, e.g. reading, buffering or conversion of data
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/418 Total factory control, i.e. centrally controlling a plurality of machines, e.g. direct or distributed numerical control [DNC], flexible manufacturing systems [FMS], integrated manufacturing systems [IMS] or computer integrated manufacturing [CIM]
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/24167 Encryption, password, user access privileges
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/36542 Cryptography, encrypt, access, authorize with key, code, password
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

An access-level control apparatus includes an NC machine tool, an RFID that is held by an operator and stores an ID given to the operator, a reader unit that reads out the ID, an authenticating unit that determines operator processing limitation information including an operable range by the operator associated with the ID or display information provided to the operator, an operation/display limiting unit that limits processing by the operator for the NC machine tool on the basis of the operator processing limitation information, and a separation detecting unit that periodically reads out, after the authentication, the ID in the RFID, performs re-authentication, and detects presence or absence of separation of the operator. When detecting as a result of the re-authentication that the operator separates from the NC machine tool, the separation detecting unit releases the authentication.

Claims

1. An access-level control apparatus comprising:

a numerical control (NC) machine tool;

a radio frequency identification (RFID) held by an operator, the RFID storing an identification (ID) given to the operator;

a reader unit that reads out the ID in the RFID;

an authenticating unit that determines operator processing limitation information including an operable range by the operator associated with the ID or display information provided to the operator;

an operation/display limiting unit that limits processing by the operator for the NC machine tool on the basis of the operator processing limitation information; and

a separation detecting unit that periodically reads out, after the authentication, the ID in the RFID via the reader unit, performs re-authentication, and detects presence or absence of separation of the operator, wherein

the reader unit includes a transmission antenna that radiates a calling signal with a near magnetic field as a signal for calling the RFID,

detects separation of the operator based on a distance of the operator from the transmission antenna, the distance being estimated from a change in reception intensity during the re-authentication acquired by the RFID,

the authenticating unit releases the limitation of the processing by the operator, and

if the signal received form the reader unit is a normal call signal, then the RFID responds to the reader unit and if the signal received form the reader unit is not the normal call signal, then the RFID does not respond to the reader unit.

2. The access-level control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the RFID includes:

an RFID reception antenna that receives a signal from the reader unit;

an RFID receiving unit that demodulates the signal received by the RFID reception antenna;

an RFID-communication control unit that generates a response signal to the demodulated signal;

an RFID transmitting unit that modulates the response signal; and

an RFID transmission antenna that transmits the modulated response signal,

the RFID receiving unit is supplied with electric power by induction from the near magnetic field and, after determining that the received signal is a normal call signal, starts the RFID-communication control unit and the RFID transmitting unit that are in a sleep state,

the RFID-communication control unit and the RFID transmitting unit are started up by the RFID receiving unit and returned to be in the sleep state when a response signal is replied to the reader unit.

3. The access-level control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the transmission antenna is disposed in parallel to a rotation axis of a motor unit configuring the NC machine tool disposed in a position close to the transmission antenna.

4. The access-level control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the NC machine tool includes a plurality of the motor units and a plurality of motor driving units,

the reader unit includes:

a plurality of the transmission antennas; and

a transmission-antenna selecting unit that selects a singularity of the transmission antenna among the transmission antennas,

the transmission antennas are disposed in parallel to the rotation axes of the motor units disposed closest to the transmission antennas, and

the transmission-antenna selecting unit selects the one transmission antenna on the basis of control information received from the NC machine tool and transmission antenna disposition information indicating a disposition relation between the transmission antennas and the motor units.

5. The access-level control apparatus according to claim 4, wherein

the control information is numbers of revolutions of the motor units received from the motor driving units, and

the transmission-antenna selecting unit selects the transmission antenna disposed near the motor unit having a small number of revolutions.

6. The access-level control apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the RFID further includes:

a trio of the RFID reception antennas orthogonal to one another; and

an RFID-reception-antenna selecting unit that selects a singularity of the RFID reception antenna from the three RFID reception antennas.

7. The access-level control apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the RFID-reception-antenna selecting unit selects the RFID reception antenna having high reception intensity among the three RFID reception antennas.

8. The access-level control apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the RFID-reception-antenna selecting unit selects the RFID reception antenna capable of receiving a specific pattern transmitted by the reader unit among the three RFID reception antennas.

9. The access-level control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, when transmitting a call signal to the RFID, the reader unit transmits an instruction for stopping the motor unit to the NC machine tool.

10. The access-level control apparatus according to claim 4, where, when transmitting a call signal to the RFID, the reader unit transmits, to the NC machine tool, an instruction for stopping only the motor unit disposed closest to the transmission antenna selected on the basis of transmission antenna disposition information indicating a disposition relation between a plurality of the transmission antennas and a plurality of the motor units.