Patents by Inventor Kozo Sasaki

Kozo Sasaki 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: 8442692
    Abstract: According to a method for performing adaptive friction compensation of an actuator including a wave gear drive, there is used as a friction compensation current applied to a motor drive current a static friction compensation current is when a motor shaft stops with a deviation, and a Coulomb friction compensation current ic in other circumstances. The static friction compensation current is is obtained by adding a compensation amount isr of a monotonically increasing ramp function to a compensation amount iss of a step function, and a step-function compensation amount ics is used as the Coulomb friction compensation current ic. Since the amount of friction compensation can be changed adaptively based on the data during positioning-control response, a motor shaft can be stabilized at a target angle without prominent accompanying vibration, even if the ambient temperature changes and the friction characteristics of the wave gear drive fluctuate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 14, 2013
    Assignees: Harmonic Drive Systems, Inc., National University Corporation Nagoya Institute of Technology
    Inventors: Yoshifumi Okitsu, Yuki Kato, Kozo Sasaki, Makoto Iwasaki
  • Patent number: 8427094
    Abstract: A method for controlling positioning of an actuator having a wave gear device uses an exact linearization technique to compensate effects relative to positioning control of a load shaft caused by the non-linear spring characteristics of the wave gear device. A plant model is constructed from the actuator, and linearized using the exact linearization technique; measurements are taken of non-linear elastic deformation of the wave gear device relative to load torque; the non-linear spring model ?g(?tw) is defined using a cubic polynomial with the constant defined as zero to allow the measurement results to be recreated; and the current input into the model and motor position of the model when a load acceleration command is a command value are entered into a processor arranged as a semi-closed loop control system for controlling positioning of the load shaft, as a feed-forward current command and a feed-forward motor position command.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 6, 2011
    Date of Patent: April 23, 2013
    Assignees: Harmonic Drive Systems, Inc., National University Corporation Nagoya Institute of Technology
    Inventors: Yoshifumi Okitsu, Yuki Kato, Kozo Sasaki, Makoto Iwasaki
  • Patent number: 8296089
    Abstract: A positioning system (1) provided with an actuator (2) having a wave gear device (4) is driven and controlled by a semi-closed loop control for controlling the load position of a load device (5) based on the motor position of a motor shaft (31) of a motor (3). In a method for compensating for an angular transmission error by compensating for a motor shaft synchronous component ?Sync that occurs in synchrony with the motor position and is a relative rotation-synchronous component that includes an angular transmission error component of the wave gear device (4), the positioning system (1) is represented as a two-inertia model, and the motor shaft synchronous component ?Sync is represented as an oscillation source for producing a twisting action between the two inertia bodies in the two-inertia model.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 8, 2010
    Date of Patent: October 23, 2012
    Assignees: Harmonic Drive Systems Inc., National University Corporation Nagoya Institute of Technology
    Inventors: Kozo Sasaki, Yoshifumi Okitsu, Toshio Yajima, Makoto Iwasaki
  • Patent number: 8232757
    Abstract: A motor rotational position detecting method detects the magnetic pole position of each phase of a three-phase AC servomotor, generates a three-phase square wave signal having a phase difference of 120 degrees, allocates data on the rotational position of a motor shaft to the edge of each square wave signal, calculates the rotational speed of the motor on the basis of the elapsed time from the previous edge detection point to this time edge detection point, and estimates the rotational position of the motor shaft at a certain period and outputs it on the basis of the rotational speed of the motor and the rotational position allocated to this time edge in the rotational section from this time edge detection point to the next edge detection point. As a result, a detection mechanism can be constructed with a small installation space and at low cost and the output of a high-resolution encoder can be obtained in a pseudo manner.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 30, 2007
    Date of Patent: July 31, 2012
    Assignee: Harmonic Drive Systems Inc.
    Inventor: Kozo Sasaki
  • Publication number: 20110248661
    Abstract: A method for controlling positioning of an actuator having a wave gear device uses a strict linearization technique to compensate for the effects relative to positioning control of a load shaft in the, as caused by the non-linear spring characteristics of the wave gear device. In the method, a plant model is constructed from the actuator to be controlled, the model being linearized using a strict linearization technique; measurements are taken of the non-linear elastic deformation of the wave gear device relative to load torque; the non-linear spring model ?g(?tw) is defined using a cubic polynomial with the constant defined as zero to allow the measurement results to be recreated; and the current input into the plant model and the motor position of the plant model when a load acceleration command is a command value are entered into a semi-closed loop control system for controlling the positioning of the load shaft, as a feed-forward current command and a feed-forward motor position command.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 6, 2011
    Publication date: October 13, 2011
    Applicant: Harmonic Drive Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Yoshifumi OKITSU, Yuki KATO, Kozo SASAKI, Makoto IWASAKI
  • Publication number: 20110251722
    Abstract: According to a method for performing adaptive friction compensation of an actuator including a wave gear drive, there is used as a friction compensation current applied to a motor drive current a static friction compensation current is when a motor shaft stops with a deviation, and a Coulomb friction compensation current ic in other circumstances. The static friction compensation current is is obtained by adding a compensation amount isr of a monotonically increasing ramp function to a compensation amount iss of a step function, and a step-function compensation amount ics is used as the Coulomb friction compensation current ic. Since the amount of friction compensation can be changed adaptively based on the data during positioning-control response, a motor shaft can be stabilized at a target angle without prominent accompanying vibration, even if the ambient temperature changes and the friction characteristics of the wave gear drive fluctuate.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 28, 2011
    Publication date: October 13, 2011
    Applicant: Harmonic Drive Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Yoshifumi OKITSU, Yuki KATO, Kozo SASAKI, Makoto IWASAKI
  • Patent number: 8013560
    Abstract: The non-linear elastic deformation component included in the angular transmission error of an actuator provided with a wave gear drive is a component of the angular transmission error occurring due to elastic deformation of a flexible externally-toothed gear when the direction of rotation of the motor shaft changes. This component can be analyzed by driving the motor in a sine-wave shape. A model of the non-linear elastic deformation component (non-linear model) obtained from the analysis results is used to store data or a function for compensating for this component in a motor-control device. Compensation for the non-linear elastic deformation component (?Hys) is added to a motor-shaft angle command (?*M) as a compensation input (N?*TE) for feed-forward compensation. As a result, the non-linear elastic deformation component (?Hys) can be effectively reduced, and the positioning precision of the actuator can be improved.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 13, 2009
    Date of Patent: September 6, 2011
    Assignee: Harmonic Drive Systems Inc.
    Inventors: Kozo Sasaki, Yoshifumi Okitsu, Toshio Yajima, Makoto Iwasaki
  • Patent number: 7963374
    Abstract: The power-off electromagnetic brake (2) attracts an armature that is pressed by a spring force to a rotating member by a magnetic attraction force that is generated by energizing an exciting coil, and brake force that is acting on the rotating member is released. A voltage control circuit (12) continuously energizes the exciting coil for a fixed length of time and generates a considerable magnetic attraction force in order to attract the armature to a yoke when a brake power source (14) is switched on during brake release. After the armature has been attracted to the yoke, the voltage control circuit (12) intermittently energizes the exciting coil at a set cycle and a set on/off duty ratio to hold the armature in an attracted state to the yoke, thereby reducing power consumption and heat generation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 10, 2007
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2011
    Assignee: Harmonic Drive Systems Inc.
    Inventor: Kozo Sasaki
  • Publication number: 20110054820
    Abstract: A positioning system (1) provided with an actuator (2) having a wave gear device (4) is driven and controlled by a semi-closed loop control for controlling the load position of a load device (5) based on the motor position of a motor shaft (31) of a motor (3). In a method for compensating for an angular transmission error by compensating for a motor shaft synchronous component ?Sync that occurs in synchrony with the motor position and is a relative rotation-synchronous component that includes an angular transmission error component of the wave gear device (4), the positioning system (1) is represented as a two-inertia model, and the motor shaft synchronous component ?Sync is represented as an oscillation source for producing a twisting action between the two inertia bodies in the two-inertia model.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 8, 2010
    Publication date: March 3, 2011
    Applicants: HARMONIC DRIVE SYSTEMS ,INC., NATIONAL UNIVERSITY CORPORATION NAGOYA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
    Inventors: Kozo Sasaki, Yoshifumi Okitsu, Toshio Yajima, Makoto Iwasaki
  • Patent number: 7876092
    Abstract: A multiple-rotation absolute encoder attached to an actuator provided with a motor and a reduction gear comprises a multiple-rotation value counter for counting a multiple-rotation value representing a number of rotations of a rotating shaft of the motor from a predetermined origin; a memory part for storing a reduction ratio R of the reduction gear; and a counter-controlling part for setting a range of the count value of the multiple-rotation value counter from zero rotations to (R?1) rotations on the basis of the reduction ratio R stored and maintained in the memory part, resetting the count value to zero when the rotating shaft makes a single rotation in a forward direction from a state in which the count value is (R?1), and setting the count value to (R?1) when the rotating shaft makes a single rotation in a reverse direction from a state in which the count value is zero.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 10, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 25, 2011
    Assignee: Harmonic Drive Systems Inc.
    Inventors: Kozo Sasaki, Toshiki Maruyama
  • Publication number: 20100181956
    Abstract: A motor rotational position detecting method detects the magnetic pole position of each phase of a three-phase AC servomotor, generates a three-phase square wave signal having a phase difference of 120 degrees, allocates data on the rotational position of a motor shaft to the edge of each square wave signal, calculates the rotational speed of the motor on the basis of the elapsed time from the previous edge detection point to this time edge detection point, and estimates the rotational position of the motor shaft at a certain period and outputs it on the basis of the rotational speed of the motor and the rotational position allocated to this time edge in the rotational section from this time edge detection point to the next edge detection point. As a result, a detection mechanism can be constructed with a small installation space and at low cost and the output of a high-resolution encoder can be obtained in a pseudo manner.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 30, 2007
    Publication date: July 22, 2010
    Inventor: Kozo Sasaki
  • Publication number: 20090243599
    Abstract: A multiple-rotation absolute encoder attached to an actuator provided with a motor and a reduction gear comprises a multiple-rotation value counter for counting a multiple-rotation value representing a number of rotations of a rotating shaft of the motor from a predetermined origin; a memory part for storing a reduction ratio R of the reduction gear; and a counter-controlling part for setting a range of the count value of the multiple-rotation value counter from zero rotations to (R?1) rotations on the basis of the reduction ratio R stored and maintained in the memory part, resetting the count value to zero when the rotating shaft makes a single rotation in a forward direction from a state in which the count value is (R?1), and setting the count value to (R?1) when the rotating shaft makes a single rotation in a reverse direction from a state in which the count value is zero.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 10, 2009
    Publication date: October 1, 2009
    Applicant: HARMONIC DRIVE SYSTEMS INC.
    Inventors: Kozo Sasaki, Toshiki Maruyama
  • Publication number: 20090200979
    Abstract: The non-linear elastic deformation component included in the angular transmission error of an actuator provided with a wave gear drive is a component of the angular transmission error occurring due to elastic deformation of a flexible externally-toothed gear when the direction of rotation of the motor shaft changes. This component can be analyzed by driving the motor in a sine-wave shape. A model of the non-linear elastic deformation component (non-linear model) obtained from the analysis results is used to store data or a function for compensating for this component in a motor-control device. Compensation for the non-linear elastic deformation component (?Hys) is added to a motor-shaft angle command (?*M) as a compensation input (N?*TE) for feed-forward compensation. As a result, the non-linear elastic deformation component (?Hys) can be effectively reduced, and the positioning precision of the actuator can be improved.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 13, 2009
    Publication date: August 13, 2009
    Applicant: HARMONIC DRIVE SYSTEMS INC.
    Inventors: Kozo SASAKI, Yoshifumi OKITSU, Toshio YAJIMA, Makoto IWASAKI
  • Publication number: 20090015188
    Abstract: The drive controller of an actuator previously measures positioning error of an actuator output shaft caused by the angle transmission error of a wave gear drive and stores it as correction data. In a feedback control loop, a speed feedback value ?f is computed using the detected position feedback value ?f, after corrected by the correction data, of the actuator output shaft, and a current command Ir is computed using it, thus performing drive control on a motor. Since a speed component caused by the angle transmission error of the wave gear drive has been added to the rotational speed of a motor with regard to the speed feedback value ?f, a variation in rotational speed of the actuator output shaft caused by the angle transmission error of a wave gear drive can be suppressed effectively.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 2, 2006
    Publication date: January 15, 2009
    Inventors: Kozo Sasaki, Kunio Miyashita
  • Patent number: 7471080
    Abstract: In the magnetic absolute encoder, an ordinary operating circuit and an ordinary/backup operating circuit are actuated during ordinary operation in which power is supplied from the ordinary operating power supply; the single-rotation absolute value (1) and single-rotation absolute value (2) detected by these circuits are compared by the abnormality diagnosis circuit, and the presence or absence of an abnormality is automatically judged During backup in which the ordinary operating power supply is interrupted, only the low-power-consumption ordinary/backup operating circuit is actuated, and the multiple-rotation value (2) is detected At the point in time at which the system is returned to ordinary operation, the multiple-rotation value setting circuit sets the multiple-rotation value (2) as the multiple-rotation value (1) of the ordinary operating circuit. As a result, the calculation operation of the multiple-rotation value (1) can be restarted.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 7, 2007
    Date of Patent: December 30, 2008
    Assignee: Harmonic Drive Systems Inc.
    Inventors: Kozo Sasaki, Toshiki Maruyama, Toshiyuki Abe, Muneo Mitamura
  • Publication number: 20080157705
    Abstract: In the magnetic absolute encoder, an ordinary operating circuit and an ordinary/backup operating circuit are actuated during ordinary operation in which power is supplied from the ordinary operating power supply; the single-rotation absolute value (1) and single-rotation absolute value (2) detected by these circuits are compared by the abnormality diagnosis circuit, and the presence or absence of an abnormality is automatically judged During backup in which the ordinary operating power supply is interrupted, only the low-power-consumption ordinary/backup operating circuit is actuated, and the multiple-rotation value (2) is detected At the point in time at which the system is returned to ordinary operation, the multiple-rotation value setting circuit sets the multiple-rotation value (2) as the multiple-rotation value (1) of the ordinary operating circuit. As a result, the calculation operation of the multiple-rotation value (1) can be restarted.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 7, 2007
    Publication date: July 3, 2008
    Applicant: HARMONIC DRIVE SYSTEMS INC.
    Inventors: Kozo Sasaki, Toshiki Maruyama, Toshiyuki Abe, Muneo Mitamura
  • Publication number: 20080156597
    Abstract: The power-off electromagnetic brake (2) attracts an armature that is pressed by spring force to a rotating member by magnetic attraction force that is generated by energizing an exciting coil, and brake force that is acting on the rotating member is released. A voltage control circuit (12) continuously energizes the exciting coil for a fixed length of time and generates a considerable magnetic attraction force in order to attract the armature to a yoke when a brake power source (14) is switched on during brake release. After the armature has been attracted to the yoke, the voltage control circuit (12) intermittently energizes the exciting coil at a set cycle and a set on/off duty ratio to hold the armature in an attracted state to the yoke, thereby reducing power consumption and heat generation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 10, 2007
    Publication date: July 3, 2008
    Inventor: Kozo Sasaki
  • Patent number: 7224139
    Abstract: A servo driver (3) includes: an input section (11) for input-specifying the type of an encoder (7) at the side of an actuator (2); a control section (13) for generating a control signal (12) according to the type input; and an encoder signal processing IC (20) for switching the input port to which reception data (7S) is input form the encoder (7) according to the control signal (12). The encoder signal processing IC (20) is compatible with processing of an output of either a line-saving encoder or a 14-line encoder and can realize a highly general-purpose servo driver. This can solve the problem that the servo driver should be modified according to the type of the encoder mounted on the actuator.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 27, 2004
    Date of Patent: May 29, 2007
    Assignee: Harmonic Drive Systems Inc.
    Inventors: Kozo Sasaki, Yuichi Mizuguchi
  • Publication number: 20060186852
    Abstract: A servo driver (3) includes: an input section (11) for input-specifying the type of an encoder (7) at the side of an actuator (2); a control section (13) for generating a control signal (12) according to the type input; and an encoder signal processing IC (20) for switching the input port to which reception data (7S) is input form the encoder (7) according to the control signal (12). The encoder signal processing IC (20) is compatible with processing of an output of either a line-saving encoder or a 14-line encoder and can realize a highly general-purpose servo driver. This can solve the problem that the servo driver should be modified according to the type of the encoder mounted on the actuator.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 27, 2004
    Publication date: August 24, 2006
    Inventors: Kozo Sasaki, Yuichi Mizuguchi
  • Patent number: 6664752
    Abstract: A method of correcting positional error in an actuator that is equipped with a motor and a wave gear reduction drive that transmits a motor output to the target load. Positioning error relative to the absolute position of the actuator output shaft is measured, to compile error correction data relating to each position on the rotation of the motor shaft. The rotational position of the motor shaft is detected and rotational position correction information produced by adding error correction values assigned to the position concerned. The rotational positional error information thus produced is used as position feedback information for controlling the positioning of the output shaft.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 19, 2002
    Date of Patent: December 16, 2003
    Assignee: Harmonic Drive Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Naoki Kanayama, Kozo Sasaki