JP2008043125A - Machine remote control method using magnetic field - Google Patents

Abstract

Remote control of a micromachine is performed by a power supply and communication method using a magnetic field.
[Solution]
A coil and a resonance circuit are attached to the micromachine to be operated. By applying an alternating magnetic field with an external magnetic field application device, electromagnetic induction is induced in the coil attached to the micromachine. At this time, an electric signal having the same frequency as the applied alternating magnetic field is generated on the micromachine side. This electrical signal is stored in the tank circuit and used as energy, and at the same time, switching is performed using the resonance circuit. By this switching, drive control of the actuator attached to the micromachine is performed. Further, by transmitting the switched signal to a microcomputer built in the micromachine, communication with the micromachine is performed from the outside.
[Selection] Figure 1

Description

The present invention relates to a machine control method that can be suitably used as a control / operation method that can be used in the field of machines and micromachines such as capsule endoscopes used in the body or underwater.

In the conventional machine control method using a magnetic field, for example, Patent Publication 2006-87521, Seiichi Sudo, Shinya Segawa, Takashi Honda; Frequency dependence of moving speed of magnetic micromachine; Experimental Mechanics, Vol. 3, No. 4, p235-241 (12, 2003), a magnetic field is applied to the magnet attached to the machine from the outside, and the attitude of the machine is controlled by moving the magnet in the direction of the magnetic field. Rotate the magnet by applying a rotating magnetic field and move it using the mechanism of the screw attached to the machine by the action, or vibrate the magnet by the magnetic field and transmit the movement to the fin attached to the magnet and move underwater There is an example to do.
JP 2006-87521 A Seiichi Sudo, Shinya Segawa, Takashi Honda; Frequency dependence of moving speed of magnetic micromachine; Experimental Mechanics, Vol. 3, No. 4, p235-241 (12,2003)

  However, in these methods, if a plurality of machines are operated at the same time, they all move in the same way. In addition, since the characteristics of the magnet that follows the direction of the magnetic field are used, it is fundamental to change the magnetic field so that the direction and rotation move, and it is difficult to realize a complicated operation.

In addition, basically only the movement of the magnet can be controlled, and it is difficult to drive an actuator that operates according to other principles. Furthermore, information cannot be transmitted to the control device installed inside the machine.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a novel method for controlling a machine by supplying power and transmitting signals to the machine using a magnetic field.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a machine control method characterized by attaching a coil to a machine, inducing electromagnetic induction by an external AC magnetic field, and transmitting an AC electric signal together with electric energy to the machine. About.

  Further, the present invention uses the frequency of the AC electrical signal to transmit a signal corresponding to the frequency by exciting a resonance circuit corresponding to the previous period frequency among a plurality of resonance circuits incorporated in the previous period machine. The present invention relates to a method for controlling a machine.

  The present inventors have intensively studied to achieve the above object. As a result, when an AC magnetic field was applied to the machine from an external magnetic field application device, electromagnetic induction was induced in a coil attached to the machine, and an AC electrical signal having the same frequency as the applied AC magnetic field was generated.

The generated AC electric signal is stored as electric energy in a tank circuit using a capacitor built in the machine, and in the resonance circuit built in the machine, when the resonance frequency matches the frequency of the external magnetic field, A large voltage signal is output. The AC magnetic field is applied while switching the frequency, voltage signals from a plurality of resonance circuits are compared by a comparator, and the result is amplified by an amplifier circuit, thereby controlling and driving the operation direction of the actuator.

  Further, the voltage signal from the resonance circuit is converted into a digital signal and input to a microcomputer built in the machine, thereby transmitting information to the machine by modulating the frequency of the magnetic field applied from the outside.

  As described above, according to the machine remote control method using a magnetic field of the present invention, electrical energy and signal transmission can be performed simultaneously using an alternating magnetic field generated by a single magnetic field application device. A plurality of machines can be remotely controlled simultaneously. Furthermore, a plurality of actuators attached to one machine can be remotely controlled independently at the same time. In addition, communication using a magnetic field can be performed by connecting to a microcomputer instead of the actuator.

  Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail based on embodiments of the invention. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the overall configuration of an apparatus that can be suitably used in a machine control method using a magnetic field of the present invention. The apparatus shown in FIG. 1 includes a coil 1 for applying a magnetic field, a machine 2, a water tank 3 in which the machine is floating, a computer 4 for controlling the entire system, and a magnetic field applying apparatus 5 for supplying current to the coil 1. It has.

  When an AC voltage signal is input from the computer 4 to the magnetic field application device 5, the magnetic field application device 5 causes an alternating current obtained by amplifying the AC voltage signal to flow through the coil 1. The coil 1 generates an alternating magnetic field by the flowing alternating current, and applies the alternating magnetic field to the machine 2 floating in the water tank 3. The frequency of the alternating magnetic field can be arbitrarily set / changed in the computer 4.

  FIG. 2 shows an example of a machine. The machine includes a drive circuit 7 attached to a main body 6, a coil 8, and an IPMC (Ionic Polymer-Metal Composite) actuator 9. The AC magnetic field applied from the coil 1 induces electromagnetic induction in the coil 8 and is transmitted to the drive circuit 7 as an AC electric signal.

  FIG. 3 shows an example of a drive circuit. The drive circuit includes a resonance circuit (A) 10, a resonance circuit (B) 11, a tank circuit (A) 12, a tank circuit (B) 13, a rectifier circuit (A) 14, and a rectifier circuit (B) 15. , A comparator 16 and an amplifier circuit 17. The AC electric signal generated by electromagnetic induction in the coil 8 is stored as electric charges in the tank circuit (A) 12 and the tank circuit (B) 13. Moreover, it flows also through the resonance circuit (A) 10 and the resonance circuit (B) 11. In the apparatus of FIG. 3, the resonance frequency of the resonance circuit (A) 10 is 9 kHz, and the resonance frequency of the resonance circuit (B) 11 is 11 kHz.

FIG. 4 shows the output voltage / input voltage ratio of the rectifier circuit (A) 14 and the rectifier circuit (B) 15 when the frequency of the alternating magnetic field is 9 kHz and 11 kHz. When the frequency of the AC magnetic field is 9 kHz, the output voltage of the rectifier circuit (A) 14 is larger than that of the rectifier circuit (B) 15, and when the frequency of the AC magnetic field is 11 kHz, the rectifier circuit (B) 15 is more rectifier circuit. (A) The output voltage is larger than 14. Each output voltage is compared by the comparator 16 and the result is transmitted to the amplifier circuit 17 to determine the voltage for driving the IPMC actuator 9 of the machine. As a result, by alternately switching the frequency of the alternating magnetic field between 9 kHz and 11 kHz, the voltage applied to the IPMC actuator 9 is changed, and the operation direction is switched. By continuously switching the operation direction, the IPMC actuator 9 scrapes the surrounding water, and the reaction propels the machine.

  In addition, the frequency of the alternating magnetic field to be applied corresponds to “1” and “0” by switching the frequency according to the digital signal to be transmitted, with 9 kHz corresponding to “1” and 11 kHz corresponding to “0”. The voltage is output from the amplifier circuit 17 of the drive circuit. By connecting the output signal from the amplifier circuit 17 of the drive circuit to the input port of a microcomputer built in the machine instead of the actuator, data is transmitted in a serial format.

In addition, data is transmitted in parallel by connecting a plurality of drive circuits to the input port of the microcomputer.

The magnetic field applying apparatus shown in FIG. 1 is divided into two coil Nos. Having a coil radius of 50 mm, a coil winding number of 10 and a coil length of 30 mm. 1 and coil no. 2 includes a Helmholtz coil connected at a distance of 50 mm between the coils, a microcomputer for generating an AC signal, and an amplifier circuit shown in FIG. The amplitude of the current flowing from the signal amplification circuit to the Helmholtz coil is 16 A when the frequency of the AC signal is 9 kHz, and 10 A when the frequency is 11 kHz. As a result, the magnetic field amplitude on the central axis of the Helmholtz coil is 3173 (A / m) or more at 9 kHz, and 1966 (A / m) or more at 11 kHz. The magnetic field strength / current of this magnetic field application device is 95 (1 / m). FIG. 6 is an example of a micromachine having the same configuration as FIG. This micromachine is composed of a main body manufactured by stereolithography and an IPMC actuator. The main body is composed of a cylindrical tip having a radius of 7.5 mm and a body having a diameter of 15 mm and a length of 22.5 mm. The IPMC actuator is 20 mm long. The coil is wound on the machine body so that the amplitude of the output voltage from the coil attached to the machine is 3.5 V and the output current is about 100 mA by applying an alternating magnetic field from the magnetic field application device. The coil is connected to an external drive circuit by connection. The drive circuit attached to the machine has the same configuration as in FIG. The output voltage from the drive device when an alternating magnetic field is applied from the magnetic field application device is -1.51 V when the applied alternating magnetic field is 9 kHz, and 1.15 V when the applied magnetic field is 11 kHz. This is a voltage sufficient to drive the IPMC actuator attached to the micromachine. As shown in FIG. 7, after the micromachine was placed in the water tank, an external magnetic field was applied while switching its frequency, and the bending motion of the IPMC actuator was confirmed.

  As described above, the present invention has been described in detail based on the embodiments of the present invention with specific examples. However, the present invention is not limited to the above contents, and all modifications and changes are made without departing from the scope of the present invention. It can be changed. For example, for a plurality of actuators attached to one machine, a drive circuit is prepared and connected for each actuator. The resonance frequency of the resonance circuit (A) 14 and the resonance circuit (B) 15 of each drive circuit is assigned a different frequency for each drive circuit. By applying the alternating magnetic field to be applied in the form of a signal waveform in which the resonance frequency components for each drive circuit to be operated are superimposed, multiple actuators attached to one machine can be simultaneously and independently used. To control and drive.

Similarly, a plurality of machines are independently controlled and driven at the same time using one or a plurality of magnetic field application devices by attaching a drive circuit and an actuator to which a frequency is separately assigned to a plurality of machines.

It is a model figure of the Example of the remote control method of the machine using the magnetic field of this invention. It is the schematic which shows the structure of the machine which can be used suitably in the remote control method of the machine using the magnetic field of this invention. It is a structural example of the drive circuit used with the remote control method of the machine using the magnetic field of this invention. It is an example of the frequency selection performance of the drive circuit used with the remote control method of the machine using the magnetic field of this invention. It is an example of the amplifier circuit which comprises the magnetic field application apparatus used with the remote control method of the machine using the magnetic field of this invention. It is an example of the machine used as the controlled object used with the remote control method of the machine using the magnetic field of the present invention. It is an example of operation | movement of the machine used as the control object used with the remote control method of the machine using the magnetic field of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Magnetic field application coil 2 Machine 3 Water tank 4 Computer 5 Magnetic field application apparatus which supplies an electric current to the coil 1 6 Machine main body 7 Drive circuit 8 Coil 9 IPMC actuator 10 Resonance circuit (A)
11 Resonant circuit (B)
12 Tank circuit (A)
13 Tank circuit (B)
14 Rectifier circuit (A)
15 Rectifier circuit (B)
16 Comparator 17 Amplifier Circuit

Claims (4)

  In a system comprising a computer that controls the entire system, a magnetic field application device that generates an alternating magnetic field of any frequency controlled by the computer, and a device that is mechanically independent and controllable by the computer, A method for controlling a machine, wherein power supply and signal transmission are performed simultaneously by switching (or controlling the frequency to be superimposed).   2. The signal according to claim 1, wherein a signal corresponding to the frequency is transmitted by exciting a resonance circuit corresponding to the previous frequency among a plurality of resonance circuits incorporated in the previous machine using the frequency of the AC electric signal. How to control the machine.   2. The signal corresponding to the previous frequency is discriminated by using a rectifier and a comparator built in the machine, and transmitted to an amplifier circuit to drive an actuator attached to the machine. A method for controlling the machine according to claim 1. In the magnetic field application apparatus according to claim 1, the frequency is appropriately modulated according to '0' and '1' of the digital signal to be transmitted, and rectified using a comparator built in the machine through the resonance circuit according to claim 2, The machine control according to claim 1, wherein the digital signal is serially or parallelly transmitted to the machine by demodulating it as a digital signal and transmitting it to a communication port of a microcomputer attached to the machine. Method.

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