Position Sensing System with Multiple Resolving Nodes
AssigneeParker-Hannifin Corporation
InventorsDaniel R. Van de Water, Timothy A. Christensen, Steven A. Robison, David J. Bibelhausen
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An example position sensing system includes: a cylinder actuator having a cylinder and a piston that is movable within the cylinder, wherein a range of movement of the piston is divided into a set of ranges; a magnet that is coupled to the piston; and a plurality of sensor nodes mounted external to the cylinder, wherein each sensor node of the plurality of sensor nodes is assigned a respective range of the set of ranges, and wherein each sensor node provides position information indicating a position of the magnet when the magnet is in the respective range assigned to the sensor node.
Claims20
A position sensing system comprising:
- a cylinder actuator having a cylinder and a piston that is movable within the cylinder, wherein a range of movement of the piston is divided into a set of ranges of detection;
- a magnet that is coupled to the piston;
- and
- a plurality of sensor nodes mounted external to the cylinder, wherein each sensor node of the plurality of sensor nodes is assigned a respective range of detection the set of ranges of detection, and wherein each sensor node provides position information indicating a position of the magnet when the magnet is in the respective range of detection assigned to the sensor node.
A method comprising:
- detecting a position of a magnet via a first sensor node of a plurality of sensor nodes mounted external to a cylinder of a cylinder actuator when the magnet is in a respective range of detection assigned to the first sensor node, wherein the magnet is coupled to a piston that is moving within the cylinder;
- detecting the position of the magnet via a second sensor node of the plurality of sensor nodes when the magnet crosses into the respective range of detection assigned to the second sensor node;
- providing position information indicating the position of the magnet to a controller;
- and
- controlling, by the controller, movement of the piston within the cylinder based on the position information.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.