JP2817469B2 - Automatic leveling device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automatic leveling device,
In particular, the present invention relates to an automatic leveling device using an inclination angle detection sensor having a high resolution but a relatively narrow detection range for detecting an inclination angle.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional automatic leveling device is disclosed in, for example,
One such as shown in -179413 is known. In such an automatic leveling device, an inclination angle detection sensor is provided on a pedestal that is a driven member or a surveying instrument main body attached to the pedestal, and the inclination is adjusted based on the inclination angle of the driven member detected by the inclination angle detection sensor. Thereby, the driven member (the surveying instrument main body) is leveled. Since a high leveling accuracy of such an automatic leveling device is required, the tilt angle detection sensor requires a high resolution.

[0003]

However, the high-resolution tilt angle detection sensor has a narrow range in which the tilt angle can be detected, which limits the tilt adjustment range of the automatic leveling device. Therefore, such an automatic leveling device requires an operator to adjust the inclination of the driven member until the inclination becomes within the leveling adjustment range. It does not change much.

[0004] Further, since an inclination angle detection sensor having a wide detection range has a low resolution, an automatic leveling device using such a sensor has a disadvantage that leveling cannot be performed with sufficient accuracy. The present invention has been made in view of such a problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide an automatic leveling device capable of leveling a driven member without being limited by a detection range of an inclination angle detection sensor. An apparatus is provided.

[0005]

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an automatic leveling apparatus, comprising: a driven member (1, 2); Angle detection means (5X) for detecting the inclination, drive means (6X, 6Y) for adjusting the inclination of the driven member, and drive control means (7) for controlling the drive means. A judging section (steps 2, 5, and 10) for judging whether or not the inclination angle of the driven member is within a detection range of the inclination angle detecting means;
When the determination is negative, a speed drive control unit (step 3) that drives the driving unit at a predetermined speed based on the inclination direction detected by the inclination angle detection unit; At this time, there is provided an angle drive control section (step 11) for driving the drive means by a predetermined angle based on the tilt direction and the tilt angle detected by the tilt angle detection means.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the automatic leveling device according to the second aspect, the drive control means controls the inclination angle of the driven member to be within a detection range of the inclination angle detection means during the drive control by the speed control unit. When the angle is within, the motor is driven by an amount corresponding to a predetermined angle in a direction opposite to the driving direction by the speed drive control unit (step 7), and then the control is switched to the angle control means.

[0007]

According to the automatic leveling device of the present invention, when the inclination of the driven member is out of the detection range of the inclination angle detecting means, that is, when the driven member is largely inclined, the speed drive control section of the driving control means is controlled by the inclination angle detecting means. The drive means is controlled so as to drive at a constant speed based on the detected inclination direction, and when the inclination angle is within the detection range of the inclination angle detection means, that is, when the inclination angle can be measured by the inclination angle detection means, the drive is performed. The angle drive control unit of the control means controls the drive means to drive by the tilt angle based on the tilt angle and the tilt direction detected by the tilt angle detection means, thereby leveling the driven member.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An automatic leveling device according to an embodiment in which the automatic leveling device of the present invention is used for a leveling table for a surveying instrument will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a front view showing the configuration of the automatic leveling device of the embodiment, and FIG.
FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a control operation of a drive control device of the automatic leveling device according to the embodiment.

As shown in FIG. 1, the automatic leveling device of the embodiment has a pedestal 2 having a mounting portion for installing a surveying instrument main body 1.
A base 3 attached to a tripod, supporting members 4a, 4b, 4c, 45, 46 for supporting the pedestal 2 and the base 3,
Inclination angle detection sensors (hereinafter referred to as inclination sensors) 5X and 5Y (5Y not shown) for detecting the inclination angle of the pedestal 2, and motors 6 provided on the support legs 4b and 4c of the support member.
X, 6Y, a drive control device 7 for controlling the operation of the motors 6X, 6Y, and a motor driver 60. The pedestal 2 has a connecting recess for mounting the surveying instrument main body 1 so that the center axis V of the surveying instrument main body 1 is perpendicular to the level surface H serving as a reference of the pedestal 2, and levels the reference plane H. Thereby, the surveying instrument main body 1 attached to the connection recess is also leveled. The support member includes one fulcrum support leg (hereinafter, referred to as a fulcrum leg) 4a, two height-adjustable adjustment support legs (hereinafter, referred to as an adjustment leg) 4b, 4c, and connecting members 45, 4.
6 The two adjusting legs are female screws 41b, 4
1c and external threads 42b and 42c.
Manual knobs 43b and 43c are attached to the male screws 42b and 43c, and the height can be adjusted manually. One end of the three support legs is directly fixed to the pedestal 2, and the other end is supported by the base 3 by pressing the spherical seat against the base 3 by the connecting members 45 and 46. The tip of the leg is in contact. In this way,
The support member connects the pedestal 2 and the base 3 so as to be relatively tiltable. Further, the three support legs 4a, 4b, 4
c indicates a direction (hereinafter referred to as an X direction) connecting the fulcrum leg 4a and the adjustment leg 4b with the fulcrum leg 4a as an origin, and the fulcrum leg 4a.
The direction (hereinafter, referred to as the Y direction) connecting a to the adjustment leg 4c is arranged to be orthogonal. Tilt sensors 5X, 5Y
Is a lower part of the pedestal 2, the sensor 5X is located between the fulcrum leg 4a and the adjusting leg 4b, and the sensor 5Y is a fulcrum leg 4a.
And the adjustment leg 4c.
The tilt sensors 5X and 5Y are respectively supported by supporting legs 4a and 4Y.
b and a straight line Y connecting the support legs 4a and 4c.
Is detected, the inclination in the direction orthogonal to the fulcrum leg 4a (a plane parallel to the level surface H) can be detected. The inclination angle and the inclination direction are detected. As shown in FIG. 3, the tilt sensors 5X and 5Y have electrodes 8a, 8b and 9 on the outer periphery of the rod-shaped bubble tube 8, and the electrodes 8a and 9 and the electrodes 8b and 9 The inclination angle and the inclination direction are detected by utilizing the fact that the capacitance changes depending on the position of the bubble 10 in the bubble tube.

Next, the operation of the automatic leveling device of the embodiment will be described along the procedure of the drive control device 7 shown in FIG.
The leveling process in the X direction and the Y direction is the same, and X
Only the direction will be described. First, the drive control device 7
The output signal of the tilt sensor 5X is read, and the tilt angle of the pedestal 2 is detected (Step 1). Next, the drive control device 7
Determines whether the inclination angle of the pedestal 2 is within the detection range of the inclination sensor 5X based on the detected inclination angle (step 2). This is performed by comparing a reference value based on a previously known maximum value of the output signal of the tilt sensor 5X with the detected tilt angle. If it is determined in step 2 that the detected inclination angle is within the detection range of the sensor 5X, the process proceeds to step 11. In step 2, if the angle is outside the detection range of the sensor 5X, the inclination angle of the pedestal 2 cannot be detected from the inclination sensor 5X. Therefore, the drive control device 7 determines only the inclination direction of the pedestal 2 from the output signal of the inclination sensor. Pedestal 2 based on the detected inclination direction
Is instructed to the motor driver so that the motor 6X is driven at a constant speed in the horizontal direction, and the motor driver 60 drives the motor 6X based on the driving speed and the driving direction (step 3). By driving the motor 6X in this manner, the length of the adjusting leg 4b changes, and the inclination of the pedestal 2 changes. The drive control device 7 reads the output signal of the inclination sensor 5X intermittently (step 4), and determines whether the inclination angle of the pedestal 2 is within the detection range of the inclination sensor 5X as in step 2 (step 5). ). If it is within the detection range of the tilt sensor 5X in this step 5, the motor 6X is temporarily stopped (step 6), and if it is out of the detection range, steps 3 to 5 are repeated until the motor 6X enters the range. After stopping the motor 6X, the drive control device 7 reversely rotates the motor by a predetermined angle from the inclination angle at the time when the motor is stopped (step 7), and further until the sensor 5X is stabilized. The reading of the output signal of the inclination sensor 5X is stopped for a predetermined time (step 8).
After the predetermined time, the drive control device 7 reads the output signal of the tilt sensor 5X in the same manner as in Steps 1 and 2 (Step 9), and the tilt angle detected from the output signal is
It is determined whether it is within the detection range of X (step 10). In this step 10, if the detected inclination angle is out of the detection range, steps 3 to 10 are repeated. When the inclination angle falls within the detection range, the drive control device 7 converts the motor rotation speed and the rotation amount based on the inclination angle obtained from the output signal of the inclination sensor 5X,
An instruction signal defining the rotation speed and the rotation amount according to this is output to the motor driver 60, and the motor driver 60 drives the motor 6X by a predetermined rotation amount based on the instruction signal (step 11). ), The reading of the output signal of the sensor 5X is stopped for a certain period of time as in the step 7 (step 12). After a predetermined time, the output signal of the sensor 5X is read (step 13), and it is determined whether or not the inclination angle of the pedestal 2 obtained from the read output signal is within a predetermined accuracy (step 14). In step 14, when the tilt angle is out of the predetermined accuracy, steps 11 to 14 are repeated until the tilt angle falls within the predetermined accuracy. When the tilt angle is in the accuracy, it is assumed that the pedestal 2 has been leveled, and the operation is performed. To end.

In the operation of the above embodiment, step 8,
The reason why the motor 6X stops for a predetermined time after the motor 6X stops as in step 12 is to accurately detect the inclination angle. This is because the inclination sensor 5X of the embodiment uses a bubble tube, and the liquid (eg, an organic solvent such as alcohol) used in the bubble tube has viscosity. Therefore, the movement of the bubble cannot be followed and is delayed. For this reason, the inclination angle of the pedestal 2 cannot be accurately detected until the movement of the bubble is stabilized. Therefore, the operation is stopped only for the time necessary to remove the delay caused by the viscosity of the liquid.
Also, the output signal of the tilt sensor read in step 4 includes an error of the tilt angle due to the viscosity of the liquid,
In addition, since the output signal is read intermittently, the tilt adjustment is performed even when the output signal is not detected, so that an error due to the time lag is included. When it is determined in step 4 that the motor 6X is within the detection range due to these errors, some time elapses after actually entering the detection range, and the motor 6X
Is stopped, the inclination angle of the pedestal 2 is adjusted excessively. As described above, since the detection range of the inclination sensor 5X is narrow, the excessive adjustment may cause the inclination sensor 5X to incline too far in the opposite direction or to fall outside the detection range. Therefore, in order to correct this, the motor 6X is reversely rotated by a certain angle, which is step 7. The amount of the reverse rotation varies depending on the viscosity of the liquid in the bubble tube and the detection timing of the output signal, and is determined and set in advance through experiments and the like. Although the inclination angle of the pedestal 2 is corrected by this step 7, the corrected inclination angle does not always fall within the detection range of the sensor 5X depending on the detection range of the sensor 5X and the detection interval. Therefore, the automatic leveling device of the embodiment is checked again in steps 9 and 10 described above.

[0012] The automatic leveling device of the embodiment, as described above,
Leveling can be performed using a tilt sensor having a detection range smaller than the tilt adjustment range of the automatic leveling device. Further, it is conceivable to reduce the driving speed of the motor so that the movement of the inclination sensor can follow the change in the inclination angle of the pedestal 2. However, if the driving speed is reduced so as to follow, the leveling time will be too long. Therefore, by driving the motor to rotate in reverse by a predetermined angle after stopping the motor as in step 7, the driving speed of the motor can be increased in step 3, and the leveling time until the pedestal 2 is leveled. Can be shortened.

The automatic leveling device according to the embodiment includes a sensor 5
The speed drive control and the angle drive control are switched depending on whether or not they are within the detection range of X. For example, it is determined whether or not the inclination angle detected in step 5 has become 0 degree. Alternatively, the motor may be stopped by determining whether or not the angle is an arbitrary angle (or within an arbitrary angle) within the detection range of the sensor. Also, the automatic leveling device of the embodiment uses only a sensor with a high resolution and a narrow detection range,
Although the number of sensors increases and the cost increases, this high-resolution sensor may be combined with a sensor having a lower resolution than the high-resolution sensor but a wider detection range. In this case, the control procedure is based on the tilt direction and the tilt angle detected by the low-resolution sensor when it is within the detection range of the low-resolution sensor but outside the detection range of the high-resolution sensor until it is within the detection range of the high-resolution sensor. Thus, the tilt of the pedestal 2 is adjusted by rotating the pedestal 2 by a predetermined angle. Also,
By the step 7, the inclination angle of the base 2 must be
Steps 9 and 10 need not be performed if the value falls within the detection range of X.

[0014]

As described above, the automatic leveling device of the present invention has a configuration in which the speed drive control means and the angle drive control means are switched between when the inclination sensor is outside the detection range and when it is within the detection range. By doing so, it is possible to level the driven member with sufficient accuracy by using the inclination angle detecting means having a narrow detection range but high resolution.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view showing a configuration of an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a control procedure of a drive control device of the automatic leveling table according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating a configuration of a tilt sensor according to an embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1, 2 ... Driven member 5X, 5Y ... Inclination angle detecting means 6X, 6Y ... Drive means 7 ... Drive control means Steps 2, 5, 10 ... Judgment unit Step 3 ... Speed drive control unit Step 11 ... Angle drive control unit

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁶ , DB name) G01C 15/00-15/14 G01C 9/00-9/36

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] A driven member; a tilt angle detecting means for detecting a tilt direction of the driven member and a tilt angle within a predetermined detection range; a driving means for adjusting the tilt of the driven member; A drive control means for controlling the drive means; and an automatic leveling device for leveling the driven member based on the inclination direction and the inclination angle detected by the inclination angle detection means, wherein the drive control means comprises: A determination unit that determines whether the inclination angle of the driven member is within the detection range of the inclination angle detection unit, and when the determination unit does not, based on the inclination direction detected by the inclination angle detection unit, A speed drive control unit that drives the drive unit at a predetermined speed; and a drive unit that determines the drive unit based on the tilt direction and the tilt angle detected by the tilt angle detection unit when the determination unit is within the detection range. Drive by the angle of An automatic leveling device, comprising: an angle drive control unit that moves. 2. The drive control unit according to claim 1, wherein the drive control unit is configured to control the drive by the speed drive control unit when an inclination angle of the driven member falls within a detection range of the inclination angle detection unit during drive control by the speed control unit. 2. The automatic leveling device according to claim 1, wherein the control unit switches to the angle control unit after driving by an amount corresponding to a predetermined angle in a direction opposite to the direction.