Measuring and testing – Dynamometers – Responsive to multiple loads or load components
Patent
1996-12-26
1999-01-12
Noland, Thomas P.
Measuring and testing
Dynamometers
Responsive to multiple loads or load components
7386205, 74471XY, 250221, 250229, G01L 522
Patent
active
058593721
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to an apparatus for manual control of a real or imaginary object and is of the type in which an operator applies forces and torques to a handle.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Apparatuses of the above type may be used in the same way as a commonly known "joystick". The operator grasps the handle of the apparatus and thereby applies forces which, both in respect of direction and size, reproduce the move-ment which the operator wants a controlled object to perform. As a function hereof the apparatus emits signals which contain unambiguous information--both in respect of direction and size about the strain applied by the operator to the handle and which can therefore be utilized by the controlled object or by an intermediate control system for operating accordingly.
A joystick often has a substantial degree of movability and is generally used with a high translational or angular movement of the handle of the joystick that it can distinctly be felt by the operator. The emitted signal is proportional to the movement of the handle, and the joystick is most often biased by a relatively weak return spring towards its neutral position. Apparatuses of the type mentioned by way of introduction may, contrary to this, be designed in such a way that the handle is rigid or nearly rigid relative to the rest of the apparatus. A strain applied by the hand of the operator will not entail any noticeable or visible movement of the handle relative to the rest of the apparatus. Admittedly, even so rigid a construction will always move more or less when a force or a torque is applied, but the movement may be so small that it is not noticeable to the operator.
In EP-B 227,432, U.S. Pat. No. 5,222,400 and WO 93/4348 an apparatus is disclosed, in which six arms in the form of leaf springs and radially positioned in three mutually orthogonal pairs are slidably seated in the handle, the arms of each pair extending along one and the same axis and the arms in combination connecting the handle with the support.
For detecting the movements of the handle the apparatus is provided with three pairs of sensing means for sensing the translation and the rotation of the handle relative to the support. The sensing means is, with respect to each arm, provided with a light source and a light sensor which are fastened to the frame by means of suspensions, as well as a movable shutter fastened to the remote end of the arm. Each pair of sensing means can thus sense displacement of the handle relative to the frame in the direction of one axis perpendicular to the axis which connects the two means of the pair, and rotation of the handle relative to the support about a third axis perpendicular to both these axes.
Said slidable seating is a condition for the translatory movability of the handle when the arms are arranged in the above-mentioned way; the arms are in practice not deformable in their longitudinal direction, and each pair of arms would otherwise oppose translatory movement of the handle along this axis.
The slidable seating is also a prerequisite for using arms in form of leaf springs, as they are practically not deformable in the direction transverse to the longitudinal axis of the arm and transversely to the desired direction of deformation; each pair of arms which extends along the same axis would otherwise oppose both rotation of the handle about one of the axis perpendicular to said axis and translatory movement of the handle along the second one of the axes perpendicular to said axis.
Such a slidable seating has been obtained by providing the end of each leaf spring (arm) with a ball engaging a slot in the handle in the form of a slit-shaped interspace between two plane-parallel walls, said interspace having the same diameter as that of the ball and extending in the plane of the leaf spring in question.
The slidable seating of the arms is theoretically ideal in respect of providing a correct resolution of the forces and torques applied by the operator to the handle into unambiguously correspo
REFERENCES:
patent: 4046005 (1977-09-01), Goroski
patent: 4607159 (1986-08-01), Goodson et al.
patent: 4660828 (1987-04-01), Weiss
patent: 4809557 (1989-03-01), Maurer et al.
patent: 4876524 (1989-10-01), Jenkins
patent: 5168221 (1992-12-01), Houston
patent: 5222400 (1993-06-01), Hilton
patent: 5264768 (1993-11-01), Gregory et al.
Patent Abstracts of Europe (EP 227432) dated Jun. 1, 1987 "Force and torque Converter," by John A Hilton.
Patent Abstracts of Europe (WO 91/20022) dated Dec. 26, 1991 "Improvements to Joystick Assemblies" by Vincent Paul Ditton.
Patent Abstracts of Europe (WO 93/4348) dated Mar. 4, 1993 "Force and Torque Converter" by John A Hilton.
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