EP1323363B1 - Device with a movable furniture part, including drive unit and control device - Google Patents

Abstract

The item has a movable component, e.g. a drawer (3), operated by an electric drive unit (5) using a servomotor (6), with a force measuring device (2) providing a signal indicating the external force applied to the movable component, for corresponding regulation of the drive unit via a regulation device (1). The latter maybe supplied with a second signal from a position measuring device (4), indicating the drawer position.

Description

The present invention relates to an arrangement with a movable furniture part, in particular with a drawer, or the like with a drive unit for driving the movable furniture part and with a control device for controlling the drive unit.

Such arrangements are already known in principle. The German Patent DE 1 017 351 describes a device for extending or inserting drawers in furniture, which can be extended or retracted by a driven by means of body-side push buttons drive unit. With the help of trained as push buttons triggering device every possible positioning of the drawer between the fully inserted and the fully withdrawn position is possible. The Austrian patent AT 398 513 B describes a drawer guide set whose drive is controlled by a arranged on the front panel of the drawer capacitive pushbutton. Touching the push-button switches the drawer on or off. The European patent application EP 0 957 225 A1 contains a device for opening a drawer provided with a drive unit, wherein the drive unit is driven by a trigger element designed as a push-button. The last two publications each show a trigger element that knows two switching states. Consequently, after a successful extraction operation on actuation of the trigger element only the triggering of the opposite process is possible.

Object of the present invention is therefore to provide a generic arrangement that allows a more intuitive operation of a driven by a drive unit movable furniture part.

This is achieved by an arrangement with the features of claim 1.

According to the invention thus an arrangement is provided, which can be operated as a conventional, not additionally driven movable furniture part. By means of the force measuring device according to the invention generates a force signal, which forwards the actuation request of the user to the control device. From this, the control device calculates a control signal, which enables the support of the user desired movement of the movable furniture part by the drive unit. In this way, the user desired movement is supported, while the intuitively known procedure for opening or closing a movable furniture part for the user remains fully preserved.

It is particularly advantageous in this case that the force signal includes both the information about the amount and about the direction, preferably via the direction component parallel to the extension direction of the movable furniture part, the forces applied from the outside to the movable furniture part forces. In this variant, it is thus provided that it is detected by the control device by means of the force measuring device, whether pressure or train is exerted on the movable furniture part. In this way, the control device can decide whether the movable furniture part should be opened, closed, accelerated or delayed. Moreover, by measuring the amount of forces applied externally to the movable furniture part, it is also possible to determine how much it should be accelerated or decelerated when opening or closing.

Furthermore, it is favorable that the arrangement has at least one position-measuring device which generates a position signal characteristic of the opening state of the movable furniture part and which can be fed to the control device. The position signal thus provided can serve the calculation of the current actual position and / or the instantaneous actual speed and / or the instantaneous actual value of the acceleration or deceleration of the movable furniture part as a function of the measured position. This is conveniently realized in that the control device has an actual value calculation device.

In a favorable variant is further provided that the control device has a setpoint calculation device which calculates a setpoint for the acceleration or deceleration of the movable furniture part from the force signal generated by the force measuring device, wherein a particularly preferred embodiment, in turn, provides that the desired value for the Acceleration or the delay of the loading state of the movable furniture part is independent. By this configuration it is achieved that the movable furniture part is always moved with the same acceleration or deceleration regardless of its filling upon application of a certain external force to the movable furniture part. This gives the user the feeling that the movable furniture part apparently always has the same mass regardless of its filling and results in that the opening or closing of a fully filled movable furniture part feels in the same way for the user and connected with the same effort is like opening or closing an empty movable piece of furniture.

This can be conveniently realized by the controller having a control module which adjusts the actual value of the acceleration or deceleration to the setpoint of acceleration or deceleration by passing a control signal to a drive unit controller, the drive unit controller driving the drive unit. By means of this actual value / target value adjustment of the acceleration, it is achieved that the drive unit specifically supports the movement of the movable furniture part in such a way that a filled movable furniture part can apparently also be actuated by the user as an empty movable furniture part.

In order to ensure a timely braking of the movable furniture part before reaching its end position when opening or closing, it is advantageous if the control device has a speed setpoint calculation device which calculates a dependent of the actual position setpoint of the speed, the control module the drive unit controller a control command to reduce the actual value of the acceleration or to increase the actual value of the delay sent when the actual value of the speed exceeds the setpoint of the speed for the current position. Thus, in this embodiment, the control signals exerted by the user of the movable furniture part by pressing or pulling on it are controlled in such a way that the movable furniture part comes to rest in the fully extended and fully retracted position. As a result, unintentional damage to the entire device can be prevented.

In a further advantageous embodiment of the invention it can be provided that the force measuring device is arranged between a front panel and a directly adjoining part of the movable furniture part. It can also be provided that the force measuring device is arranged between a front panel and the drive unit, preferably in the engine.

Fig. 1

eine schematisierte Seitenansicht auf eine erfindungsgemäße Ausführungsform mit einer Schublade,

Fig. 2

ein Schema zu einer Möglichkeit der Ausbildung der Regeleinrichtung,

Fig. 3

ein Vergleich des Kraftbedarfs beim Betätigen einer rein manuell betriebenen Schublade im leeren und im gefüllten Zustand,

Fig.4

eine beispielhafte Darstellung zum Sollwert der Geschwindigkeit als Funktion der momentanen Position und

Fig. 5 und 6

spezielle Ausführungsvarianten der Kraftmesseinrichtung

Further details and features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of the figures. Showing:

Fig. 1

1 a schematic side view of an embodiment according to the invention with a drawer,

Fig. 2

a diagram of a way of forming the control device,

Fig. 3

a comparison of the power requirement when operating a purely manually operated drawer in the empty and in the filled state,

Figure 4

an exemplary representation of the setpoint of the speed as a function of the current position and

FIGS. 5 and 6

special embodiments of the force measuring device

Fig. 1 shows as a movable furniture part of a drawer or a drawer 3 without the surrounding piece of furniture in which he / she is installed. The drawer 3 in this case, as is common practice, a front panel 15 and a handle 16. Furthermore, a rail 14, which is formed on its lower edge as a rack, is arranged on the drawer 3 shown in a side view. The leadership of the drawer when opening or closing takes place here, as known in the art, on the rail 14. This is not shown in more detail and can be performed in various ways and ways. To support the opening and closing movement, a drive unit 5 is now arranged in such a way that the gear 13 driven by it engages in the toothed rack attached to the guide rail 14. The drive unit 5 in this case has an electric motor, preferably a servo motor 6 and a gear 12. The drawer 3 can be partially or completely opened by means of the thus designed drive unit 5 as well as partially or completely closed. Here, the drive unit 5 is fixed to the not shown, the drawer surrounding furniture attached. to Determination of a position signal indicative of the opening or closing state of the drawer is provided to a position measuring device 4 (here shown as a gear meshing with the rack).

In order to determine the amount and the direction of the forces 20 acting on the drawer 3 from the outside, the arrangement has a force measuring device 2 according to the invention. This force measuring device 2 can engage in the rack 14 in the rail 14 via a gear 17. Alternatively, however, numerous other arrangements and embodiments of the force measuring device according to the invention are possible. For example, the force measuring device can also be arranged on the handle 16 or between the front panel 15 and the drawer 3. In general, it may be provided that the force-measuring device 2 is arranged between a front panel 15 and a part of the movable furniture part 3 directly adjoining it, or that the force-measuring device is arranged between a front panel 15 and the drive unit 5, preferably in the motor 6. In Fig. 5 Here, a variant of the force measuring device 2 is shown, which is designed to actuate the handle 16 in the vertical direction 21. In Fig. 6 a variant is shown which detects forces in the horizontal direction 20. As a force measuring device 2 most different force or accelerometer come into question. These may be, for example, strain gauges, piezoelectric force transducers or electromagnetic force measuring devices, such as eg plunger coils. The force measuring device 2 and the position measuring device 4 lead via suitable lines of the control device 1 to a force signal or position signal, from which in the control device 1, a drive signal for the drive unit 5 is calculated. When measuring the externally acting on the drawer forces 20 is usually as in the Fig. 1 illustrated conventional embodiment, only in the direction of movement of the drawer 3 extending horizontal force component (indicated by the direction of arrow 20) measured, since the vertically acting force components are transmitted through the guide rail on corresponding trained according to the prior art bearings. The power transmission from the drive unit 5, as well as the arrangement of the position measuring device 4 and the force measuring device 2 can also be realized in other than the manner shown here. In this come, for example, drives on cables, timing belt or otherwise driven guide rails.

In the Fig. 2 Control device 1 initially receives a force signal from the force measuring device 2 and a position signal from the position measuring device 4. The control device 1, the force measuring device 2 and the position measuring device 4 can be formed both analog and digital as well as partially analog and partially digital. In the example shown, the analog force measuring device 2 supplies an analog measuring signal to the analog input 18. This transmits the measurement signal to the setpoint calculation device 7 and to the comparator 19. The position signal generated by the position measuring device 4 (for example as a sine-cosine encoder or incremental encoder) is fed to the actual value calculation device 8. In this, both the instantaneous actual position x _I and actual speed and the current actual value of the acceleration or deceleration of the drawer are calculated from the position signal. The actual value of the speed and the acceleration can be calculated, for example, by simple or double derivation of the actual value of the position after the time. All three actual values calculated in this way are supplied to the controller module 9 and to the speed setpoint calculation device 11. The latter calculates from this for each position the setpoint of the speed, which may not be exceeded by the actual value of the speed at any position (see Fig. 4 ).

The comparator 19 receives both information about the instantaneous actual speed and the force signal, which includes the information about the momentarily externally applied to the drawer forces. In this case, the comparator 19 calculates a signal which tells the control module 9 whether pressure or tension is exerted on the movable furniture part or the drawer. The setpoint calculation device 7 calculates the desired value of the acceleration of the drawer from the force signal. In this case, both the frictional forces, which act on the drawer or the movable furniture part when opening or closing, as well as the adhesive forces, which act only in the end positions on the drawer or the movable furniture part, are taken into account. The aim of the calculation is to provide a setpoint of the acceleration or deceleration which equals the acceleration or deceleration of an empty drawer or of an empty movable furniture part in the case of the measured, externally applied forces. This can be done both by a calculation and by means of a digital table, in the measured accelerations or delays of the empty furniture part depending on the measured from the outside this applied forces are stored, realized. In the case of a non-filled furniture part, the desired value of the acceleration preferably corresponds to the acceleration value which would result from the externally applied forces without additional support of the drive unit. In the case of a filled furniture part, the setpoint value of the acceleration is calculated in such a way that the additional forces to be applied by the filling for opening or closing are compensated by the drive unit. The values calculated as described above are supplied to the control module 9. In the control module 9, a control command is generated, which serves to adapt the actual value of the acceleration or deceleration to the desired value of the acceleration or deceleration. In this case, it is also monitored that the actual value of the speed does not exceed the setpoint value of the speed at any position of the movable furniture part 3. As an alternative to the actual value / setpoint value adjustment of the acceleration, it can also be provided in the control module 9 that the measured force applied externally to the movable furniture part 3 is adjusted to 0 by a corresponding acceleration or deceleration. The control command thus calculated is supplied to the drive unit controller 10. This can be configured, for example, as a servomotor control module, preferably with a cascaded position controller, speed controller and current controller, and serves to control the motor or servomotor 6 of the drive unit 5. The drive signal required for this purpose can be, for example, a pulse-width modulated current, as known in the prior art for servo controllers , be. In the Fig. 2 shown control device 1 is here only one possible embodiment of a control method for the inventive arrangement. In the Fig. 2 schematically illustrated components may be formed both as an integrated component as well as an arrangement of various separate components.

The in the Fig. 1 and 2 schematically illustrated device of the invention serves both to support the closing and the opening movement of the movable furniture part. During the closing process, the acceleration phases and deceleration phases result in the same way as during the opening process. However, the deceleration phase can take place in such a way that the servo-assistance effect is deactivated from a user-defined position and the movable furniture part moves into the end position with always the same kinematic parameters (forced operation).

In Fig. 3 are shown in an arbitrarily selected calculation example, the forces of a typical opening operation for an empty (solid line) and a filled (dashed line) drawer. In order to achieve an acceleration and a deceleration of ¹ m / s ² for the drawer, in the case of the unloaded drawer 3, an external actuation force 20 of 8 N for acceleration or an actuation force of 2 N for deceleration is necessary (solid line). To achieve the same acceleration and deceleration values for a filled drawer when the drawer is full, an external actuation force of 53 N for acceleration or 47 N for deceleration is necessary (dashed line) without servo assistance. This in Fig. 3 The calculation example shown is based on a constant frictional force of 3 N, a non-existent clamping force of the guide system of 0 N, a desired acceleration / deceleration of the tray of 1 m / s ² and a net weight of the drawer of 5 kg. The mass of the contents is 45 kg.

By the in Fig. 1 and 2 However, illustrated drawer according to the invention behaves like an unloaded system (solid line), since the externally applied actuating force 20 is converted directly into a target value of the acceleration for the drive unit. This ensures that even at 8 N actuating force 20, the filled drawer 3 by support also experiences an acceleration or a delay of 1 m / s ² . Without this support by the drive unit 5, the filled drawer would only experience an acceleration of 0.1 m / s ² at the values used in the above-mentioned calculation example, if it were accelerated or decelerated with an actuation force of 8 N. Im in Fig. 3 The externally applied actuating force F _{B is} plotted as a function of the actual position x _{I of} the drawer.

Fig. 4 shows an example of a calculated for a given state of motion of the movable furniture part curve of the set value V _{S of} the speed. This setpoint curve calculated in this way is used by the control device 1 to ensure that the movable furniture part comes to a standstill in the end positions (0 or x _M ) and thus no incorrect operation is possible. When opening or closing, the in Fig. 4 represented ramp calculated so that the maximum achievable speed decreases linearly to zero from a certain position. Alternatively to the calculation of the Target value of the speed can also be provided that corresponding setpoint curves are preferably stored digitally.

In addition, a switching threshold may be provided in the control process, wherein, if the actuating force 20 in direction 20 or 21 is smaller than the switching threshold, the movable furniture part is delayed with a user-defined delay value. This switching threshold can be calculated, for example, from the frictional force of the empty movable furniture part, but also determined by other aspects. Overall, the control device 1 ensures that the maximum speed of the movable furniture part at each position is always less than or equal to the target value V _{S of} the speed.

Claims (12)

1. An arrangement with a movable furniture part 3, in particular with a drawer, or the like, with a drive unit (5) for driving the movable furniture part (3) and with a regulating device (1) for regulating the drive unit (5), characterized in that the arrangement has a force measuring device (2), which preferably is analog, wherein the force measuring device (2) produces a force signal which is characteristic for forces (20, 21) applied externally to the movable furniture part (3) and which can be fed to the regulating device (1) for calculation of a regulating signal and wherein the regulating device (1) regulates the driving of the movable furniture part (3) by the drive unit (5) depending on the regulating signal.
2. An arrangement as set forth in claim 1 characterized in that the force signal contains both the information about the amount of and also about the direction of the forces (20) applied from the exterior to the movable furniture part (3), preferably about the directional component parallel to the pull-out direction of the movable furniture part (3).
3. An arrangement as set forth in claim 1 or 2 characterized in that it has at least one position measuring device (4) which produces a position signal which is characteristic for the condition of opening of the movable furniture part (3) and can be fed to the regulating device (1).
4. An arrangement as set forth in one of claims 1 through 3 characterized in that the drive unit (5) has an electric motor (6), preferably a servomotor.
5. An arrangement as set forth in one of claims 1 through 4 characterized in that the regulating device (1) has a reference value calculation device (7) which, from the force signal produced by the force measuring device (2), calculates a reference value in respect of acceleration or deceleration of the movable furniture part (3).
6. An arrangement as set forth in claim 5 characterized in that the reference value in respect of acceleration or deceleration is independent of the loading condition of the movable furniture part (3).
7. An arrangement as set forth in one of claims 3 through 6 characterized in that the regulating device (1) has an actual value calculation device (8) which, from the position signal produced by the position measuring device (4), calculates the instantaneous actual position and/or the instantaneous actual speed and/or the instantaneous actual value in respect of acceleration or deceleration of the movable furniture part (3) as a function of the measured position.
8. An arrangement as set forth in claim 7 characterized in that the regulating device (1) has a regulating module (9) which adapts the actual value in respect of acceleration or deceleration to the reference value in respect of acceleration or deceleration by transmitting a regulating signal to a drive unit regulator (10), wherein the drive unit regulator (10) actuates the drive unit (5).
9. An arrangement as set forth in claim 8 characterized in that the regulating device (1) has a speed reference value calculation device (11) which calculates a reference value in respect of speed, which is dependent on the actual position, wherein the regulating module (9) sends the drive unit regulator (10) a control command for reducing the actual value in respect of acceleration or for increasing the actual value in respect of deceleration when the actual value in respect of speed exceeds the reference value in respect of speed for the instantaneous position.
10. An arrangement as set forth in one of claims 1 through 9 characterized in that the force measuring device (2) is arranged between a front panel (15) and a part, directly adjoining same, of the movable furniture part (3).
11. An arrangement as set forth in one of claims 1 through 9 characterized in that the force measuring device (2) is arranged between a front panel (15) and the drive unit (5), preferably in the motor (6).
12. An arrangement as set forth in one of claims 1 through 11 characterized in that the movable furniture part (3) is a drawer and the drive unit (5) opens and/or closes the drawer only partly.

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