JP2584278B2 - Tilt angle sensor - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a tilt angle sensor for detecting a tilt angle or a horizontal level, and particularly to a device having no base for angle detection, such as a self-propelled type. It is suitable for detecting the angle of the tip of a robot arm.

[Prior Art] As a conventional tilt angle sensor, two orthogonal potentiometers are used. A liquid containing small bubbles is sealed in two orthogonal donut-shaped transparent containers, and the bubbles are removed. There are known those which detect respective positions with respect to the container, those which detect two sets of containers in which a liquid dielectric is sealed between opposing electrodes, and orthogonally change the capacitance between the electrodes.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] In the above-described conventional technology, those using a potentiometer have a mechanical sliding portion, so that the life of the sliding portion is short, and those using a liquid are in a stable state. There was a problem that it took time.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, and has two sets of two sets disposed in a direction intersecting at regular intervals on a hemispherical substrate. A plurality of electrodes, a signal detector having a center of rotation at the center of a hemispherical substrate provided with the two sets of electrodes, and a decoder for sequentially applying a scanning pulse to each of the two sets of electrodes. And a control circuit for detecting a scanning pulse applied from the decoder via an electrode and a signal detector, and a control circuit for arithmetically processing the detected signal.

[Operation] In the present invention, the inclination angle on the electrode side is detected by utilizing the fact that the signal changes with the movement of the electrode corresponding to the signal detector.

Embodiment An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of an electrode portion of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the entire configuration. In this embodiment, an electrode employing a capacitive coupling method will be described. The signal detector 1 includes a detection portion 4 at the tip in all directions by a support mechanism 2 at the center of a substrate 3 made semi-spherical with synthetic resin, and a plurality of electrodes 6 arranged on the surface of the substrate 3 of polyimide synthetic resin. 7 is capacitive coupling (about 5mm
Below). Indicating mechanism 2
The weight 5 is suspended so that the signal detector 1 always keeps a vertical state. (See FIG. 3) The detector 1 is implanted in a horizontal bar 21 which is rotatably supported by a ring 22 so as to be rotatable.
Reference numeral 22 denotes support shafts 23, 23 which rotatably hold the whole. In this state, the substrate 3 is fixed to the arm tip of a self-propelled robot (not shown). When the arm of the robot changes the angle with respect to the vertical axis, since the signal detector 1 is located in the vertical direction, the electrodes 6, 7 facing the detection portion 4 of the signal detector 1 change. Therefore, by calculating the amount of change (rotated angle) of the electrodes 6 and 7, two components of the inclination angle in the perpendicular direction can be obtained.

Next, the actual operation will be described with reference to FIG. To facilitate understanding of the description, the hemispherical substrate 3 has been developed and disclosed as a planar shape. The electrodes 6, 6,... Of the substrate 3 are connected to the decoder 8,
The electrodes 7, 7, ... are connected to the decoder 9 by a circuit arranged on a flexible substrate. The decoders 8 and 9 are controlled by the control circuit 13 so that the scanning pulses are alternately sequentially applied to the electrodes 6 and 7.
(In the drawing, the contact is shown in the drawing, but it is actually a non-contact circuit), and the scanning pulses from the electrodes 6 and 7 closest to the detection part 4 of the signal detector 1 are transmitted through the detection part 4 to the amplifier 10.
Is applied to The pulse amplified by the amplifier 10 is applied to a comparator 11, and the comparator 11 applies a digital signal to the arithmetic circuit 12 as a digitized signal when compared with a preset reference potential and exceeds the reference potential. The arithmetic circuit 12 compares the address of the pulse sent from the control circuit 13 to the decoder 8 or 9 with the pulse received from the comparator 11 to determine where the signal detector 1 is on the substrate 3. That is, the inclinations of the hemispherical substrate 3 and the signal detector 1 in the X and Y directions are detected.

[Effects of the Invention] The present invention has the above-described configuration,
In addition, a highly stable tilt angle sensor can be configured.

In this embodiment, the identification of the electrode detected as a hemispherical electrode substrate has been described by mere circuit connection of an amplifier, a comparator, and an arithmetic circuit.However, in order to improve the detection accuracy, for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 53-19380, etc. It is also possible to use it.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of an electrode portion of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the entire configuration, and FIG. 3 shows a support structure of a detector. . 1 ... signal detector, 3 ... substrate, 4 ... detection part, 5 ...
… Weight, 6, 7… electrode, 8, 9… decoder, 10… amplifier, 11… comparator, 12… arithmetic circuit, 13… control circuit

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] A plurality of electrodes disposed on a hemispherical substrate in a direction intersecting at a predetermined interval; and a rotation of the two electrodes on a center of the hemispherical substrate on which the plurality of electrodes are disposed. A signal detector having a center, a decoder for sequentially applying a scanning pulse to each of the two sets of electrodes, and a scanning pulse applied from the decoder is detected via the electrode and the signal detector, and the detected signal is detected. And a control circuit for performing arithmetic processing.