Patents by Inventor Nobuyuki Sakatani

Nobuyuki Sakatani has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 11892819
    Abstract: An objective of the present invention is to provide a control device, control system, control method, and computer-readable storage medium, for enabling verification of the reliability of operation machine control. Provided is a control device comprising: a control part comprising a controller for outputting output data with regard to input data, said control part serving to control an operation machine using the controller; an acquisition part for acquiring attribute information including statistics of previously obtained input data and output data; and an evaluation part for, on the basis of a comparison of the attribute information with new input data being newly inputted into the controller and/or new output data being newly outputted from the controller with regard to the new input data, evaluating to what extent the new input data and/or the new output data deviate from the statistics.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 21, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 6, 2024
    Assignee: OMRON Corporation
    Inventors: Yuki Ueyama, Takashi Fujii, Yasuaki Abe, Kazuhiko Imatake, Nobuyuki Sakatani
  • Patent number: 11811547
    Abstract: A control system, apparatus, and method are provided. In the control system, plural apparatuses in time synchronization with one another are connected to a network, and the network transfers a frame periodically exchanged by the apparatuses. The apparatuses include a control device and an apparatus controlled by the control device. Each apparatus in the control system is connected over the network, to a first apparatus that transmits a frame that arrives at each of the apparatuses and a second apparatus that receives a frame transmitted from each of the apparatuses. Each apparatus includes information on a frame transfer path and transfer timing based on a synchronous time. When a frame does not arrive at defined time through the transfer path and when a condition associated with a cycle is satisfied, one or more of the apparatuses is configured to transmit a resend request through the transfer path.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 18, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2023
    Assignee: OMRON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Mitsuhiro Yoneda, Nobuyuki Sakatani, Ryota Akai, Taiga Niimi, Shigenori Sawada
  • Publication number: 20230305931
    Abstract: Information is backed up with a simple configuration. A control device that controls an object, the control device includes: a storage configured to store information controlling the object; and a change detector configured to detect that information in the storage is changed, in which the control device executes backup processing of the information stored in the storage when the change detector detects that the information in the storage is changed during operation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 30, 2021
    Publication date: September 28, 2023
    Applicant: OMRON Corporation
    Inventors: Hitoshi KATAOKA, Nobuyuki SAKATANI, Mitsuhiro YONEDA
  • Patent number: 11762347
    Abstract: A control device executes a step of starting a computation processing of a prediction model; a step of computing a remaining processing time until the computation processing is completed after starting the computation processing of the prediction model; a step of determining whether the determination of the command value based on an output obtained from the prediction model is made within a control timing for controlling the operation of manufacturing by the manufacturing device, on the basis of a computed remaining processing time; and a step of stopping, when it is determined that the determination of the command value is not made within the control timing, the computation processing of the prediction model, determining the command value on the basis of a value of an intermediate result of the computation processing, and controlling the operation of the manufacturing device on the basis of the determined command value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 13, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 19, 2023
    Assignee: OMRON Corporation
    Inventors: Yuki Ueyama, Yasuaki Abe, Nobuyuki Sakatani, Kazuhiko Imatake, Takashi Fujii
  • Publication number: 20220357715
    Abstract: A control system includes plural control devices connected to a network, each of the control devices including a program storage, an operation module, and an arbitration module. The program storage stores a control program including a command to calculate and update a control instruction that is a value related to control of a control target. The operation module operates the control program of the program storage of the control device. The arbitration module disposes plural control programs including a command to calculate and update an identical control instruction in another one of the plural control devices, and arbitrates an operation time between the plural control programs such that updatings of the identical control instruction do not conflict with each other in the plural control programs.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 10, 2020
    Publication date: November 10, 2022
    Applicant: OMRON Corporation
    Inventors: Taiga NIIMI, Mitsuhiro YONEDA, Ryota AKAI, Nobuyuki SAKATANI, Shigenori SAWADA
  • Publication number: 20220350313
    Abstract: An information management system includes a storage unit configured to store a database including a bill of materials, a bill of process, and a bill of equipment. Each of the bills includes designation of an approver for included information. An information management system includes: a search module configured to search an item corresponding to a change content that is a content of a change from the database in response to generation of a change to a production site or generation of a change to be reflected in the production site, and search the approver of the searched item; an approval request module configured to request the searched approver to approve the reflection of the change content in the database; and an update module configured to reflect the change content in a corresponding item of the database in response to the approval from the approver.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 28, 2022
    Publication date: November 3, 2022
    Applicant: OMRON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Shuji INAMOTO, Yuki UEYAMA, Nobuyuki SAKATANI, Yasuaki ABE, Hitoshi KATAOKA
  • Patent number: 11480931
    Abstract: This learning device provides a learned model to an adjuster containing a learned model learned to output a predetermined compensation amount to a controller, in a control system including the controller outputting a command value obtained by compensating a target value based on a compensation amount and a control object controlled to process an object to be processed. The learning device includes: an evaluation part obtaining operation data including the target value, command value and control variable and evaluates the quality of the control variable; a learning part generating candidate compensation amounts based on the operation data, and learning, as teacher data, the generated candidate compensation amount and the specific parameter of the object, and generating a learned model; and a setting part providing the learned model to the adjuster if the evaluated quality is within an allowable range.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 8, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 25, 2022
    Assignee: OMRON Corporation
    Inventors: Takashi Fujii, Yuki Ueyama, Yasuaki Abe, Nobuyuki Sakatani, Kazuhiko Imatake
  • Publication number: 20220286267
    Abstract: The present invention decides a reference timer for synchronizing time in consideration of an indicator which indicates a length of a transmission path. A timer decision means for deciding a reference timer out of timers having a plurality of transfer apparatuses acquires, for each of the plurality of transfer apparatuses, a path indicator which indicates a length of a path on a network through which data passes from the transfer apparatus to an end apparatus, and decides a reference timer out of timers of one or more transfer apparatuses having the path indicator which indicates that a path to the end apparatus has a predetermined length out of the plurality of transfer apparatuses.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 10, 2020
    Publication date: September 8, 2022
    Applicant: OMRON Corporation
    Inventors: Taiga NIIMI, Mitsuhiro YONEDA, Ryota AKAI, Nobuyuki SAKATANI, Shigenori SAWADA
  • Publication number: 20220244697
    Abstract: A control system includes a control target and plural devices, and the control target and the devices are connected to a network. The control system includes a program storage provided in each device storing a control program that calculates control data using data exchanged with the control target, an execution module and a disposition module. The execution module is included in each device and causes a processor to execute programs including a disposed control program. The disposition module disposes control programs in one or more of the devices. The disposition module determines a device in which the control program is disposed from among the plural devices based on a communication delay time between the devices and information about a resource usable for execution of the control program of each device for each control program.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 10, 2020
    Publication date: August 4, 2022
    Applicant: OMRON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Ryota AKAI, Mitsuhiro YONEDA, Taiga NIlMI, Nobuyuki SAKATANI, Shigenori SAWADA
  • Publication number: 20220247632
    Abstract: According to the present invention, when there is a change in a network configuration, timers of a changed network configuration are synchronized with a timer having high accuracy among the timers. This control system has a network configuration in which one or more control devices each for controlling a target can be communicably connected to a network, and each of the one or more control devices has: a timer for managing time with accuracy; a communicator for transmitting a control command to a target corresponding to said control device on the basis of the time managed by the timer; and a timer synchronizer that, when the network configuration is changed, time-synchronizes, among timers of each control device of a changed network configuration, timers with another timer having higher accuracy than the timers.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 10, 2020
    Publication date: August 4, 2022
    Applicant: OMRON Corporation
    Inventors: Mitsuhiro YONEDA, Taiga NIIMI, Ryota AKAI, Nobuyuki SAKATANI, Shigenori SAWADA
  • Publication number: 20220173922
    Abstract: A control system, apparatus, and method are provided. In the control system, plural apparatuses in time synchronization with one another are connected to a network, and the network transfers a frame periodically exchanged by the apparatuses. The apparatuses include a control device and an apparatus controlled by the control device. Each apparatus in the control system is connected over the network, to a first apparatus that transmits a frame that arrives at each of the apparatuses and a second apparatus that receives a frame transmitted from each of the apparatuses. Each apparatus includes information on a frame transfer path and transfer timing based on a synchronous time. When a frame does not arrive at defined time through the transfer path and when a condition associated with a cycle is satisfied, one or more of the apparatuses is configured to transmit a resend request through the transfer path.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 18, 2020
    Publication date: June 2, 2022
    Applicant: OMRON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Mitsuhiro YONEDA, Nobuyuki SAKATANI, Ryota AKAI, Taiga NIIMI, Shigenori SAWADA
  • Publication number: 20220147022
    Abstract: A control system includes one or more control devices, and an information processing device. The information processing device and the one or more control devices are communicatively connected and time-synchronized with each other. The information processing device includes a processor configured to perform control calculation processing of calculating control data in accordance with control calculation based on data received from each of the one or more control devices. Each of the control devices includes a controller configured to perform input/output processing of transferring incoming data from a field device to the information processing device and outputting the control data received from the information processing device to the field device, and the control calculation processing and the input/output processing are performed within a period of time based on the time synchronization and shared between each of the control devices and the information processing device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 18, 2020
    Publication date: May 12, 2022
    Applicant: OMRON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Mitsuhiro YONEDA, Nobuyuki SAKATANI, Ryota AKAI, Taiga NIIMI, Shigenori SAWADA
  • Patent number: 11128571
    Abstract: A communication system in which a plurality of communication apparatuses in time synchronization with one another are connected over a network is provided. Each of the communication apparatuses includes management means for allowing transmission in accordance with a predetermined communication schedule, of cyclically transmitted first data to be used for control of a manufacturing apparatus or a production facility, second data which should be delivered to a destination within a designated time period, and third data different from the first and second data, selection means for selecting a data transfer scheme for each piece of data to be transmitted from among an on-the-fly scheme, a cut-through scheme, and a store-and-forward scheme based on the communication schedule, and a transmission and reception circuit which transfers each piece of data received from another communication apparatus to yet another communication apparatus in accordance with the data transfer scheme determined for that data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 16, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 21, 2021
    Assignee: OMRON Corporation
    Inventors: Mitsuhiro Yoneda, Taiga Niimi, Hiroshi Sawada, Nobuyuki Sakatani, Tatsuya Kitaguchi
  • Publication number: 20210157285
    Abstract: The disclosure provides an additional learning device, an additional learning method, and a storage medium. The additional learning device includes: an acquisition unit acquires information based on data observed in a control object which is controlled by an instruction in accordance with an output from a previously learned model outputting an objective variable with respect to an explanatory variable. A determination unit determines whether or not the explanatory variable corresponding to the information acquired by the acquisition unit exists as learning data of the model, that is, whether or not the explanatory variable is unknown. When the explanatory variable is determined to be unknown by the determination unit, an additional learning unit acquires the objective variable corresponding to the unknown explanatory variable, correlates the unknown explanatory variable and the acquired objective variable, and additionally learns the model.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 13, 2020
    Publication date: May 27, 2021
    Applicant: OMRON Corporation
    Inventors: Yuki UEYAMA, Yoshiki ITO, Yasuaki ABE, Shuji INAMOTO, Nobuyuki SAKATANI
  • Patent number: 10999367
    Abstract: A communication apparatus connected to a network over which data is updated every predetermined cycle is provided. The communication apparatus includes first scheduling means for securing a first communication band necessary for updating every predetermined cycle, first data to be used for control of a manufacturing apparatus or a production facility, second scheduling means for securing a second communication hand necessary for delivering second data to a destination within a designated time period in a communication hand other than the first communication band of communication bands of the network, and third scheduling means for securing a third communication band for transmitting third data in a communication band set as neither of the first communication band and the second communication band of the communication bands of the network.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 13, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 4, 2021
    Assignee: OMRON Corporation
    Inventors: Mitsuhiro Yoneda, Taiga Niimi, Hiroshi Sawada, Nobuyuki Sakatani, Hiroaki Yamada
  • Publication number: 20210089005
    Abstract: An objective of the present invention is to provide a control device, control system, control method, and computer-readable storage medium, for enabling verification of the reliability of operation machine control. Provided is a control device comprising: a control part comprising a controller for outputting output data with regard to input data, said control part serving to control an operation machine using the controller; an acquisition part for acquiring attribute information including statistics of previously obtained input data and output data; and an evaluation part for, on the basis of a comparison of the attribute information with new input data being newly inputted into the controller and/or new output data being newly outputted from the controller with regard to the new input data, evaluating to what extent the new input data and/or the new output data deviate from the statistics.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 21, 2019
    Publication date: March 25, 2021
    Applicant: OMRON Corporation
    Inventors: Yuki UEYAMA, Takashi FUJII, Yasuaki ABE, Kazuhiko IMATAKE, Nobuyuki SAKATANI
  • Publication number: 20210049506
    Abstract: A learning assistance device according to the disclosure is designed to perform relearning for a processing part including a learning device that has already undergone learning for performing a prescribed output from a prescribed input, the learning assistance device including: an assessment part for assessing an anomaly of the input on the basis of a prescribed reference; and a relearning part for, if the assessment part has assessed that the input is anomalous, carrying out relearning of the learner under a prescribed condition using the anomalous input as additional learning data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 20, 2019
    Publication date: February 18, 2021
    Applicant: OMRON Corporation
    Inventors: Yuki UEYAMA, Nobuyuki SAKATANI, Yasuaki ABE, Kazuhiko IMATAKE, Takashi FUJII
  • Publication number: 20210041838
    Abstract: This learning device provides a learned model to an adjuster containing a learned model learned to output a predetermined compensation amount to a controller, in a control system including the controller outputting a command value obtained by compensating a target value based on a compensation amount and a control object controlled to process an object to be processed. The learning device includes: an evaluation part obtaining operation data including the target value, command value and control variable and evaluates the quality of the control variable; a learning part generating candidate compensation amounts based on the operation data, and learning, as teacher data, the generated candidate compensation amount and the specific parameter of the object, and generating a learned model; and a setting part providing the learned model to the adjuster if the evaluated quality is within an allowable.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 8, 2019
    Publication date: February 11, 2021
    Applicant: OMRON Corporation
    Inventors: Takashi FUJII, Yuki UEYAMA, Yasuaki ABE, Nobuyuki SAKATANI, Kazuhiko IMATAKE
  • Patent number: 10908579
    Abstract: A controller performs a control operation associated with a control target. The controller includes a communication interface that electrically connects at least one function unit to the controller through a data transmission path, a writing unit that writes an observation value obtained through the function unit into a database, and a delay obtaining unit that obtains a delay time taken from when a signal indicating an observation value is input into the function unit to when data representing the observation value becomes usable in the controller, and stores information indicating the obtained delay time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 22, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 2, 2021
    Assignee: OMRON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yasuaki Abe, Yuhki Ueyama, Nobuyuki Sakatani
  • Patent number: 10901398
    Abstract: A controller includes a control operation unit that cyclically performs a control operation for controlling a control target, a data generator that generates data showing a chronological change in a value associated with a control target, and an analyzer that analyzes the data and outputs an analysis result in a predetermined analysis target period. The analysis target period includes a plurality of sections. The data generator sequentially outputs section data showing a chronological change in a value for each of the plurality of sections in the analysis target period. The analyzer analyzes the sequentially output section data for each section. When an analysis of section data for a section in the analysis target period shows a predefined result, the analyzer eliminates an analysis of section data for one or more sections in the analysis target period that are subsequent to the section for which the analysis shows the predefined result.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 21, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 26, 2021
    Assignee: OMRON Corporation
    Inventors: Yuhki Ueyama, Nobuyuki Sakatani, Yasuaki Abe