JP2006256616A - Electric steering gear - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an electric steering gear capable of making a pilot feel external force and speedily cope with movement of the vessel by this external force by transmitting the external force which a vessel receives to a steering wheel. <P>SOLUTION: This electric steering gear is furnished with a steering gear 15 driven by an electric motor, the steering wheel 7 to operate this steering gear 15, an anti-torque motor 11 to give reaction force corresponding to operation of this steering wheel 7 to the steering wheel, a load sensor 16 to detect the external force working on the vessel in steering and an anti-torque computing circuit 17 to compute target torque of the anti-torque motor 11 in accordance with output of this load sensor 16, and the anti-torque computing circuit computes the target torque in accordance with the velocity of the vessel. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an electric steering apparatus for a small boat or the like.

  An electric steering device using an electric motor as a steering device for an outboard motor is described in Patent Document 1. The electric steering apparatus described in Patent Document 1 includes a sensor that detects an operation rotation angle and a rotation direction of a handle, and a controller that controls an electric motor of the steering apparatus based on a detection signal from the sensor. It is electrically connected to the electric motor via the controller. Thus, the ship can be steered by driving the electric motor in accordance with the handle operation amount.

  However, in the electric steering device of Patent Document 1, the steering device can be driven by a steering operation to steer the ship and steer the ship. However, external force applied from a water flow or the like does not return to the steering wheel when steered. Therefore, it is not possible to obtain an operation feeling corresponding to an external force (an operation feeling such as a heavy feeling or a light feeling due to an operation speed or an operation angle when the handle is turned, or a handle operation feeling due to the influence of an external force such as a wave or wind). For this reason, it is difficult to recognize the external force acting on the ship because the sense of driving of the ship by steering cannot be obtained, and it is impossible to respond quickly to the movement of the ship due to the external force.

Japanese Patent No. 2739208

  The present invention is based on the above-described prior art, and transmits an external force received by the ship to the steering wheel so that the operator can feel the external force and can quickly cope with the movement of the ship due to the external force. For the purpose of provision.

  In order to achieve the above object, according to the first aspect of the present invention, a steering device driven by an electric actuator for changing a traveling direction of a ship and a driving signal operated by a ship operator and corresponding to the operation amount are supplied to the electric actuator. A handle electrically connected to the electric actuator for applying, a load sensor for detecting an external force acting on the ship during cruising, an anti-torque motor for applying a reaction force to the handle, and an output of the load sensor And a counter-torque calculation circuit that calculates a target torque of the counter-torque motor according to the anti-torque motor, wherein the counter-torque calculation circuit calculates the target torque according to the ship speed. .

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a propulsion device that generates a propulsive force, and the steering device performs steering by rotating the propulsion device and changing the direction of the propulsive force.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the electric actuator of the steering device is driven by the steering operation, the steering is steered according to the steering operation amount, and the external force acting on the ship is detected, and based on the detected external force. Counter torque is applied to the handle. Therefore, the marine vessel operator can feel the external force applied to the ship by a water flow or the like through the steering wheel, and can recognize the movement of the ship corresponding to the external force and respond quickly.
The actuator is a drive device including an electric drive unit such as an electric motor or an electric hydraulic pump.

  In addition, since the counter-torque applied to the steering wheel is calculated based on the ship speed data, for example, a large counter-torque is generated when the speed is high, and the sensitivity to external force is increased, so that a quick and stable ship maneuvering operation is possible during high-speed driving In addition, when the influence on the stable traveling of the ship is small, the counter torque can be reduced to save power.

  According to the invention of claim 2, the steering device can be steered by changing the propulsion direction by rotating the propulsion device around the steering shaft. The propulsion device is, for example, an outboard motor or a stern drive.

FIG. 1 is an overall plan view of a small vessel equipped with an outboard motor to which the present invention is applied.
The outboard motor main body 3 is attached to the stern plate 2 of the hull 1 via the clamp bracket 4. The outboard motor main body 3 can rotate around a swivel shaft (steering shaft) 6. A steering bracket 5 is fixed to the upper end portion of the swivel shaft 6. A steering device 15 is connected to the end 5 a of the steering bracket 5. The steering device 15 is composed of, for example, a DD (Direct Drive) type electric motor, and a motor body (not shown) slides along a screw shaft (not shown) provided in parallel with the stern plate 2. A steering bracket 5 is connected to the motor main body, and the outboard motor main body 3 is rotated around the swivel shaft 6 in conjunction with the sliding operation of the motor main body.

  A handle 7 is provided at the driver's seat of the hull 1, a handle control unit 13 is provided at the base of the handle shaft 8, and a handle operation angle sensor 9 and an anti-torque motor 11 are provided therein. The handle control unit 13 is connected to the controller 12 via the signal cable 10, and the controller 12 is connected to the steering device 15.

  The controller 12 calculates a steering torque based on a detection signal from the steering wheel operating angle sensor 9 and transmits the steering torque as an electric command signal to the steering device 15 to drive the steering device 15. Rotate around 6 and steer.

  Further, the controller 12 detects an external force (rotational torque applied to the swivel shaft 6) acting on the outboard motor body 3 by a load sensor (see FIG. 2) provided in the outboard motor body 3 or the steering device 15, and this external force. As described later, the target value of the counter torque for causing the counter torque motor 11 to act on the handle 7 with the counter force applied to the handle corresponding to the external force is calculated. Then, the counter-torque motor 11 is driven so as to achieve this target torque, thereby applying a reaction force according to the external force to the handle 7.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the steering apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.
When the handle 7 is operated by the operator, the rotation angle is detected by the handle operation angle sensor 9, and the steering torque calculation circuit 21 of the controller (ECU) 12 calculates the steering torque based on the detection signal, and the steering is performed. An electric motor (not shown) of the device 15 is driven. As a result, the outboard motor main body 3 rotates around the swivel shaft 6 to change the direction of the ship.

  During such steering, an external force F such as a force acting by wind or waves or a force acting as a rotation resistance force of the outboard motor main body 3 acts on the outboard motor main body 3. Further, a constant force F ′ in a predetermined direction is applied to the outboard motor body 3 due to the paddle ladder effect generated by the rotating action of the propeller 14. The resultant force F ″ of the external force F acting on the outboard motor main body 3 and the force F ′ due to the paddle ladder effect acts on the steering device 15 connected to the outboard motor main body 3.

  A load sensor 16 is provided in the steering device 15 to detect the resultant force F ″ of the external force F and the force F ′ due to the paddle ladder effect. The detection data of the resultant force F ″ is transmitted to the anti-torque calculation circuit 17 of the controller 12. Further, for example, ship information 18 such as a trim angle and a propeller size, detection data from a speed sensor 19 for detecting a ship speed, and engine speed data from an engine speed sensor 20 are input to the anti-torque calculation circuit 17. The The reaction torque calculation circuit 17 calculates the target torque of the reaction force applied to the handle 7 based on the detection information of the resultant force F ″ and the detection information of the ship, the ship speed, and the engine speed. The target torque thus transmitted is transmitted as an electrical command signal to the counter-torque motor 11 and is driven to apply a counter-force to the handle 7.

  The load sensor 16 will be further described. The force detected by the load sensor 16 is a rotational torque applied to the steering shaft of the rudder (outboard motor body), which is received by the hull and the external force received by the rudder from a water flow or the like. Rotational torque generated from external force. Therefore, even when the rudder is not rotated, if a force for rotating the hull is applied by a water flow or the like, rotational torque may be applied to the steering shaft. This load sensor may be an axial torque sensor that directly detects the axial torque, or a portion of the steering device to which the axial torque is transmitted may be measured by a detection means such as a strain sensor.

  Here, since the counter torque applied to the steering wheel is calculated including the ship speed data, for example, a large counter torque is generated when the speed is high, and the sensitivity to external force is increased to perform quick and stable maneuvering operation at high speed. In addition, when the influence on the stable traveling of the ship is small, the counter torque can be reduced to save power.

  Further, reaction force adjusting means may be provided so that the magnitude of the external force felt by the operator can be adjusted by adjusting the strength of the reaction force applied to the handle, or the reaction force against the handle can be made zero. Thereby, the magnitude of the counter-torque applied to the handle corresponding to the external force can be set so that the handle can be easily operated according to the operator's preference, arm strength or fatigue state, and driving conditions.

  The present invention is particularly applicable to a steering device such as an electric steering device for a small boat driven by a propulsion device such as an outboard motor or a stern drive.

The whole top view of the embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a block diagram of an electric steering apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Explanation of symbols

1: hull, 2: stern board, 3: outboard motor body, 4: clamp bracket,
5: Steering bracket, 5a: End, 6: Swivel shaft, 7: Handle,
8: Handle shaft, 9: Handle operation angle sensor, 10: Signal cable,
11: Anti-torque motor, 12: Controller, 13: Handle control device,
14: Propeller, 15: Steering device, 16: Load sensor,
17: Anti-torque calculation circuit, 18: Ship information, 19: Speed sensor,
20: Engine speed sensor, 21: Steering torque calculation circuit.

Claims (2)

A steering device driven by an electric actuator to change the traveling direction of the ship;
A handle that is operated by a ship operator and is electrically connected to the electric actuator to give a drive signal corresponding to the operation amount to the electric actuator;
A load sensor that detects the external force acting on the ship while sailing,
An anti-torque motor that applies a reaction force to the handle;
An anti-torque calculation circuit that calculates a target torque of the anti-torque motor according to an output of the load sensor, and the anti-torque calculation circuit calculates a target torque according to a ship speed. Steering device. 2. The ship steering according to claim 1, further comprising a propulsion device that generates a propulsion force, wherein the steering device performs steering by rotating the propulsion device and changing a direction of the propulsion force. apparatus.