KR20170054189A

KR20170054189A - Apparatus, method and computer program responding to circuit failure

Info

Publication number: KR20170054189A
Application number: KR1020150157018A
Authority: KR
Inventors: 최재혁; 정영석
Original assignee: (주)니어스랩
Priority date: 2015-11-09
Filing date: 2015-11-09
Publication date: 2017-05-17
Also published as: KR101747746B1

Abstract

Disclosed are an apparatus, a method, and a computer program for responding to a failure of a circuit. According to an aspect of the present invention, the apparatus for responding to a failure of a circuit comprises: a voter which randomly selects, as a temporary selection control signal, one control signal among multiple control signals input from multiple controllers including a first controller and outputs a voter operation signal which is a result obtained by inter-operating the temporary selection control signal and a first control signal received from the first controller; and an operation unit which receives the first control signal from the first controller, receives the voter operation signal from the voter, and outputs a final control signal, which is a result obtained by inter-operating the first control signal and the voter operation signal, as an object to be controlled. According to the present invention, the object to be controlled can be stably controlled even when an error or the like occurs to a circuit.

Description

[0001] APPARATUS, METHOD AND COMPUTER PROGRAM RESPONDING TO CIRCUIT FAILURE [0002]

The present invention relates to an apparatus, a method and a computer program corresponding to a failure of a circuit.

Electric and electronic circuits are used in various fields such as toys for toys, electronic control units for automobiles, control systems for aircraft, and control systems for power plants. In the case of a circuit inserted in a toy toy, even if the circuit breaks down, the toy simply does not work or malfunctions, but the financial and psychological damage is not large. However, in the case of a large power plant or an embedded circuit in an aircraft, if the circuit fails, the power plant may be shut down or various equipment in the aircraft may malfunction, resulting in a very dangerous situation. Therefore, in case of a power plant, an aircraft, or an automobile which requires high safety, a spare controller capable of replacing the controller is provided in preparation for a failure of a controller for outputting a signal for controlling a controlled object such as a generator, a jet engine or a braking device To respond to a failure.

Specifically, when the controller fails in the conventional system, it can transmit a control signal with no error selected in the bot to the controlled object by using a voter which can select one of the signals of the other controllers. This makes it possible to prepare for controller failure. However, in this case, there is a problem that when the botters fail, the control signal with no error can not be transmitted to the controlled object.

On the other hand, the background art of the present invention is disclosed in Korean Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 10-2009-0082008 (2009.07.29). In the prior art, it is disclosed that, in the event of failure of an actuator of an airplane, a different actuator prepared in advance operates to prepare for a failure. In the case of the prior art, there is a problem in that both the redundant controller and the controlled object must be provided in preparation for the failure.

Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2009-0082008 (July 29, 2009)

It is an object of the present invention to provide a device corresponding to a failure of a circuit.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a method for responding to a failure of a circuit.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a computer program corresponding to a failure of a circuit

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a control method for a control apparatus for selecting one control signal among a plurality of control signals input from a plurality of controllers including a first controller as a temporary selection control signal, A voter for outputting a vector operation signal as a result of mutually calculating first control signals input from the controller; And a controller for receiving the first control signal from the first controller, receiving the bot signal from the bot, and outputting a final control signal, which is a result of mutual calculation of the first control signal and the bot signal, There is provided an apparatus corresponding to a failure of a circuit including an arithmetic section for outputting.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is also provided a method of controlling a robot, comprising: (a) receiving a plurality of control signals from a plurality of controllers including a first controller; (b) arbitrarily selecting one of the plurality of input control signals as a temporary selection control signal; (c) outputting a bus operation signal that is a result of the bot performing a mutual operation of the temporary selection control signal and the first control signal input from the first controller; (d) receiving, by the operation unit, the first control signal from the first controller and receiving the vector operation signal from the vector; And (e) outputting a final control signal, which is a result of the arithmetic operation unit calculating the first control signal and the bus operation signal to each other, as a controlled object.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for controlling a flight of an unmanned aerial vehicle, including receiving a control signal for controlling a flight of an unmanned aerial vehicle, such as a ground operator, A plurality of controllers receiving a sensing value signal output from any one or more of a sensor, an air pressure sensor, a position sensor, a distance sensor, a proximity sensor, and an image sensor; And a controller for arbitrarily selecting one of the plurality of control signals input from the plurality of controllers including the first controller as a temporary selection control signal and outputting the temporary selection control signal and the first control signal A voter for outputting a vortex operation signal which is a result of mutual calculation of the vortex operation signal; A first control signal is received from the first controller and a second control signal is input from the first controller and the second control signal is received from the second controller, ; And an actuator, such as a rotor, controlled by a signal output from the operation unit.

In addition, when the botter is in error, the arithmetic unit may output the first control signal to the controlled object as the final control signal.

Also, when the first controller is in error, the controller may select one of the remaining control signals except for the first control signal as a temporary selection control signal in the received plurality of control signals.

In addition, the operations performed by the botters and the operations performed by the arithmetic unit may be arithmetic operations inverse to each other.

Also, the controller may compare the plurality of control signals with each other to select a temporary selection control signal.

Further, after step (d), when the botter is in error, the arithmetic unit may output the first control signal as the final control signal.

If it is determined that the first controller is in error before the step (b), the controller may select one of the remaining control signals excluding the first control signal output from the first controller, Can be selected as the temporary selection control signal.

The operation of the step (c) and the operation of the step (d) may be opposite to each other.

In the step (b), the controller may compare the plurality of received control signals with each other to select a temporary selection control signal.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there may be provided a computer program stored in a recording medium for executing the steps included in the methods. That is, these general and specific aspects may be practiced in systems, methods, computer programs, or any combination of systems, methods, and computer programs.

According to the present invention, it is possible to provide an apparatus corresponding to a failure of a circuit.

According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a method corresponding to a failure of a circuit.

According to the present invention, a computer program corresponding to a failure of a circuit can be provided.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Fig. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an apparatus corresponding to a failure of a circuit according to the present invention. Fig.
2 is a diagram showing a conventional circuit configuration.
3 is a view showing a configuration of a part of an unmanned aerial vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention.
4 shows a sequence of a method corresponding to a failure of a circuit according to the invention;

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The present invention is capable of various modifications and various embodiments, and specific embodiments are illustrated in the drawings and described in detail in the detailed description. It is to be understood, however, that the invention is not to be limited to the specific embodiments, but includes all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The terms first, second, etc. may be used to describe various components, but the components should not be limited by the terms. The terms are used only for the purpose of distinguishing one component from another.

The terminology used in this application is used only to describe a specific embodiment and is not intended to limit the invention. The singular expressions include plural expressions unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. In the present application, the terms "comprises" or "having" and the like are used to specify that there is a feature, a number, a step, an operation, an element, a component or a combination thereof described in the specification, But do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, or combinations thereof.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Reference will now be made in detail to embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to the like elements throughout. And redundant explanations thereof will be omitted.

It is also to be understood that the terms first, second, etc. used hereinafter are merely reference numerals for distinguishing between identical or corresponding components, and the same or corresponding components are defined by terms such as first, second, no.

In addition, the term " coupled " is used not only in the case of direct physical contact between the respective constituent elements in the contact relation between the constituent elements, but also means that other constituent elements are interposed between the constituent elements, Use them as a concept to cover each contact.

1 shows a configuration of an apparatus corresponding to a failure of a circuit according to the present invention. On the other hand, Fig. 2 shows a conventional circuit configuration. Prior to the description of the present invention, in the conventional case, since only one controller is used in the conventional case, when the controller fails, the error signal is transmitted to the controlled object and the controlled object may not operate properly. Such a conventional circuit can not be used where high reliability is required.

Next, referring to FIG. 1, an apparatus corresponding to a failure of the circuit according to the present invention includes a buser 20 and an arithmetic unit 30.

First, the voter receives the control signals from the plurality of controllers in parallel, and arbitrarily selects one of the control signals to transmit to the operation unit. In a system or circuit requiring high reliability, two or more controllers are provided to control the controlled object with the remaining controller even if one controller fails. In this way, the controller finally selects only one of the error signal input from the controllers and the normal signal after excluding the error signal from the normal signal, and transmits the signal to the controlled object.

In addition, the controller can determine whether the control signals received from the plurality of controllers are abnormal according to a predetermined rule. For example, in the case of a signal having a significantly higher or lower value by comparing each input control signal, it can be determined that the signal is abnormal. Also, in the case of a control signal exceeding the predetermined expected output range, it can be determined that the signal is abnormal. Then, the controller can arbitrarily select the temporary selection control signal in the remaining signals except the signal determined to be an abnormal control signal. Also, the controller can obtain an average value of each input control signal, and select a control signal having a value closest to the average value as a normal signal. In this way, the controller can select one of the signals received from the various controllers to be normal. The method of selecting a normal signal is not limited to the above-mentioned method, and a normal signal may be selected in any manner.

Next, the operation unit computes again the temporary selection control signal, which is a signal input from the bot, and the signal received from the controller, and finally outputs the final control signal to the controlled object. The arithmetic unit serves not only to the controller but also to output a signal input from the controller that has not failed, directly to the controlled object, in case the bot is broken.

As described above, the controller can detect the error signal output from the faulty controller. However, if a bot having such a role fails, a normal signal can not be transmitted to the controlled object, and as a result, the controlled object may malfunction. Therefore, an operation unit is further provided to prepare for a case where an error occurs in the bus.

More specifically, when an error occurs in the botters, the operation unit ignores the signal generated by the bot and considers the signal input from the first controller as the final control signal, and controls the controlled object with the signal output from the first controller. Meanwhile, the operation unit may further include a separate configuration for detecting that an error has occurred in the botters. In addition, the botters themselves can inform the operation unit that an error has occurred.

In addition, in the present specification, an error refers not only to an error occurring in the controller or the bus itself, but also a process of transmitting a signal from the controller to the bus and a process of transmitting a signal from the bot to the operation unit, This makes it possible to prepare not only errors occurring in the controller or the bus, but also errors occurring on the lines connecting the respective components in the system. For example, an error signal generated by electromagnetic interference between a plurality of lines can be prepared.

Meanwhile, as described above, the controller can randomly select the temporary selection control signal among the signals of the first controller to the nth controller, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the first control signal output from the first controller may be used as a temporary selection control signal You can also choose the default. Accordingly, the second to n-th controllers can be provided with inexpensive controllers, and the first controller can have a more reliable controller than the second to the n-th controllers, thereby lowering the overall system production cost.

An embodiment will be described. The first to n < th > controllers receive signals from the outside and generate control signals, respectively. All controllers output a pulse signal with a duty ratio of 50% for controlling the controlled object based on an external signal. The controller may arbitrarily select one of the pulse signals and temporarily store the selected pulse signal as a temporary selection control signal. The control signal output from all the controllers is normal to the pulse signal having the duty ratio of 50%, and the control signal output from any controller may be selected as the temporary selection control signal.

The controller computes the temporary selection control signal with the first control signal, which is a pulse signal having the duty ratio of 50% output from the first controller, and transmits the calculated control signal to the operation unit. If the subtraction operation is performed between the temporary selection control signal and the first control signal simply, the duty ratio of the output pulse value is 0%. It can be temporarily stored as a bus operation signal.

Then, the arithmetic operation unit receives a pulse operation signal, which is a pulse signal having a duty ratio of 0%, and receives a first control signal, which is a pulse signal with a duty ratio of 50%, from the first controller. However, at this time, the arithmetic unit performs a subtraction operation that is opposite to the subtraction operation that is performed by the botter. A pulse signal of a duty ratio of 0% and a first control signal of a pulse signal of a duty ratio of 50% are finally added to finally output a pulse signal with a duty ratio of 50%. It is possible to control the controlled object with this as the final control signal.

As described above, the pulse signal having the duty ratio of 50%, which is the final control signal obtained by using the bus and the arithmetic unit, is the same as the normal control signal generated by the first to nth controllers.

Next, it is assumed that an error has occurred in the first controller. For example, while the duty ratio of the signal output from the first controller is abnormally high at 90%, the duty ratio of the signals output from the second to the n-th controllers is normal at 50%. At this time, the controller may compare the first to the n-th signals and temporarily store one of the remaining signals except for the abnormal first control signal as a temporary selection control signal. The description of the method of selecting the normal signal is omitted. The pulse signal of the 50% duty ratio of the second controller can be stored with the temporary selection control signal.

The controller then computes the temporary selection control signal with a first control signal, which is a pulse signal having a duty ratio of 90%, output from the first controller, and transmits the calculated control signal to the operation unit. As described above, when the subtraction operation is performed, a pulse signal with a duty ratio of -40% remains. It can be temporarily stored as a bus operation signal.

Then, the arithmetic unit receives the pulse signal of the pulse signal having the duty ratio of -40%, receives the first control signal having the duty ratio of 90% from the first controller which has generated the error, and performs the arithmetic operation. The same operation as that performed on the bot is performed in the opposite manner as described above. A pulse signal of a duty ratio of -40% and a first control signal of a duty ratio of 90% are finally added to finally output a pulse signal with a duty ratio of 50%. It is possible to control the controlled object with this as the final control signal.

As described above, even if an error occurs in the first controller, the normal signal can be selected from the bus and the operation can be performed by the operation unit once again, so that the final signal can finally be used as the final control signal.

Next, it is assumed that an error has occurred in the botters. It is possible to notify the system such as the arithmetic operation unit that the second signal outputted from the buser has a value that can not be outputted normally or that the buser itself is faulty. In this case, the operation unit can ignore the signal output from the bot and transmit the pulse signal having the duty ratio of 50%, which is the first control signal output from the connected first controller, directly to the controlled object. As a result, the controlled object can be controlled with a pulse signal having a duty ratio of 50%, which is a normal signal.

Even if an error occurs in the bus as described above, the arithmetic operation unit can process the error, thereby preventing a system failure as a whole.

In the above description, the operation order between the bot and the operation unit is in the order of subtraction and addition, but it is not limited to this, and it may be addition or subtraction. Also, it may be in the order of multiplication, division, division, or multiplication. That is, it is sufficient if the operation of the botter and the operation of the operation unit are arithmetically inverse operations.

As described above, according to the present invention, the controlled object can be normally controlled in all cases, such as when the controller malfunctions, when one or more of the controller and the controller fails, or when the controller fails.

The following examples will be discussed. FIG. 3 shows a part of the configuration of a small unmanned aerial vehicle, a drone, which is an unmanned aerial vehicle to which the present invention can be applied.

The dron has four rotors 51, 52, 53 and 54 corresponding to a propeller in the form of a quadcopter, three controllers 11, 12 and 13 for controlling the operation of the rotor, And a sensor 40 that senses information such as the wind intensity, the altitude of the airplane, the remaining amount of the airplane battery, the external temperature, the orientation of the airplane, the speed of the airplane, and the acceleration of the airplane. In addition, the control signals received from the ground operator's remote controller (not shown) can be directly input to the controllers. The rotor may be a BLDC motor, which is controlled by a PWM signal.

For example, when the air vehicle is shaken by an external wind, the orientation value of the flying object is changed, and the sensor that senses the orientation value transmits the information to the controllers. On the other hand, when the third controller outputs a failure signal, the bot selects one of the signals output from the first controller and the second controller, which is normal except for the signal output by the third controller, as a normal signal, 1 control signal and transmits it to the arithmetic operation unit as a bus operation signal. Thereafter, the arithmetic unit again calculates the first control signal and the voltage of the voltage signal output from the first controller, and supplies the final normal signal to the first to fourth rotors.

This enables the drones to fly normally by intercepting errors in the controller that are prone to failure by processing a variety of complex information. This allows the expensive drones to fly steadily without crashing.

Of course, the apparatus against a circuit failure according to the present invention is not limited to the use of an unmanned airplane, and can be used for any system that requires error-free control signals such as a power plant system, a plant control system, and a vehicle circuit.

Fig. 4 is a flowchart showing a procedure of a method corresponding to a failure of a circuit according to the present invention. Fig. However, the description related to the apparatus corresponding to the failure of the circuit according to the present invention can be omitted.

A method corresponding to a failure of a circuit according to the present invention comprises the steps of: (a) receiving a plurality of control signals from a plurality of controllers including a first controller (SlOO); (b) arbitrarily selecting one of the plurality of input control signals as a temporary selection control signal (S120); (c) a step (S130) of outputting (S130) a bot operation signal which is a result of mutual operation of the temporary selection control signal and the first control signal input from the first controller, A step (S 140) of receiving the first control signal and receiving the bot operation signal from the bot; And (e) outputting a final control signal, which is a result of the arithmetic operation between the first control signal and the botera operation signal, to a controlled object (S160).

More specifically, the botter receives a plurality of control signals from a plurality of controllers including the first controller (S100). The controllers are designed to output the same output signal for the same input signal. This makes it possible to appropriately control the controlled object such as the actuator even if some controllers fail.

Next, one of the plurality of control signals inputted by the botters is selected as a temporary selection control signal (S120). At this time, a plurality of control signals may be selected arbitrarily or by a predetermined method. The controller may determine whether the first control signal, which is a signal output from the first controller, is normal, such as whether an error has occurred in the first controller (S110). If the botter judges that the first control signal is not normal and thus the first controller has an error, the controller selects one of the plurality of control signals from which the first control signal was input, A signal can be selected (S125).

Thereafter, the controller cooperates with the temporary selection control signal and the first control signal, and outputs the result of the botter operation to the operation unit (S130). For example, when the temporary selection control signal is the first control signal, the first control signal and the first control signal are mutually operated. For another example, when the temporary selection control signal is the second control signal, the second control signal and the first control signal are mutually operated. If an error occurs in the first controller, the control signal selected in the remainder other than the first control signal and the first control signal in error are operated with each other.

Thereafter, the arithmetic unit cooperates with the first control signal on the result of the botter computation output by the botter, and outputs the final control signal, which is the result of the computation, to the controlled object (S160). If the arithmetic unit determines that the botter operation signal is not normal and there is an error in the botera, the arithmetic unit does not use the arithmetic operation unit to calculate the botera operation signal, but instead outputs the first control signal to the controlled object (S165). This makes it possible to prepare for the breakdown of the boater.

The methods and processes described above may be embodied as instructions for execution by, for example, a processor, controller, or other processing device, or may be encoded or read from a compact disk read only memory (CDROM), magnetic or optical disk, flash memory, (RAM) or read only memory (ROM), erasable programmable read only memory (EPROM), or other machine-readable medium.

Such a medium may be embodied as any device that stores, communicates, propagates, or transports executable instructions for use by or in connection with an instruction executable system, apparatus or device. Alternatively or additionally, as analog or digital logic using one or more integrated circuits, or hardware such as one or more processor execution instructions; Or as application programming interfaces (APIs) or dynamic link libraries (DLLs), software as functions defined in local or remote procedure calls or available in shared memory; Or a combination of hardware and software.

In other implementations, the method may be represented as a signal or a propagation-signal medium. For example, instructions that implement the logic of any given program may take the form of electrical, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or other types of signals. The above-described systems may be configured to receive such signals at a communication interface, such as a fiber optic interface, antenna, or other analog or digital signal interface, to recover instructions from the signal, store them in a machine readable memory, and / And execute them.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present invention without departing from the spirit of the invention as set forth in the appended claims. The present invention can be variously modified and changed by those skilled in the art, and it is also within the scope of the present invention.

10: Controller
20: Botter
30:
40: sensor
50: Controlled object
100: unmanned vehicle

Claims

And a controller for arbitrarily selecting one of the plurality of control signals input from the plurality of controllers including the first controller as a temporary selection control signal and outputting the temporary selection control signal and the first control signal A voter for outputting a vortex operation signal which is a result of mutual calculation of the vortex operation signal; And
A first control signal is received from the first controller and a second control signal is input from the first controller and the second control signal is received from the second controller, And an arithmetic section for performing arithmetic operation on the circuit.

The method according to claim 1,
And the arithmetic unit outputs the first control signal as the final control signal to the controlled object when the botter is faulty.

The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the controller selects one of the remaining control signals excluding the first control signal as the temporary selection control signal when the first controller is in error. Corresponding device.

The method according to claim 1,
Wherein an operation performed by the botters and an operation performed by the arithmetic unit are arithmetic operations opposite to each other.

The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the controller compares the plurality of control signals with each other and selects the control signal as a temporary selection control signal.

(a) receiving a plurality of control signals from a plurality of controllers including a first controller;
(b) arbitrarily selecting one of the plurality of input control signals as a temporary selection control signal;
(c) outputting a bus operation signal that is a result of the bot performing a mutual operation of the temporary selection control signal and the first control signal input from the first controller;
(d) receiving, by the operation unit, the first control signal from the first controller and receiving the vector operation signal from the vector; And
and (e) outputting a final control signal, which is a result of the arithmetic operation between the first control signal and the bus operation signal, to a controlled object.

The method according to claim 6,
After the step (d)
And if the botter is faulty, the arithmetic unit further comprises outputting the first control signal as the final control signal.

The method according to claim 6,
Before the step (b)
If the first controller is in error, the step of selecting one of the remaining control signals excluding the first control signal output from the first controller as the temporary selection control signal in the input plurality of control signals Wherein the circuitry is further configured to respond to a failure of the circuit.

The method according to claim 6,
Wherein the operation of step (c) and the operation of step (d) are opposite arithmetic operations.

The method according to claim 6,
The step (b)
And the botters compare the received plurality of control signals with each other to select the temporary selection control signal.

11. A computer program stored in a recording medium for executing the steps contained in the method of any one of claims 6 to 10.