Apparatus and method for determining deformation speed of elastic member, and actuator

A method for determining a deformation speed V that is a rate of change of an amount of elastic deformation of an elastic member that connects a driving element and a driven element to be actuated, the deformation speed V being determined based upon quantized values of the amount of elastic deformation, the method comprising:

• acquiring a driving speed Vd that is a speed of a driving force input point at which a driving force from the driving element is transmitted to the elastic member;
• acquiring an amount of elastic deformation Pe of the elastic member as a quantized value;
• computing an approximate rate Ve based upon a plurality of values of the amount of elastic deformation Pe acquired at different points in time, the approximate rate Ve being a rate of change of the amount of elastic deformation Pe obtained by smoothing out an abrupt change in the values of the amount of elastic deformation Pe caused to appear by quantization;
• and
• computing the deformation speed V of the elastic member based upon the driving speed Vd and the approximate rate Ve, by the following formula:
• V=A·(−Vd)+B·Ve
• where A is a coefficient increasing with increase in frequency of fluctuations in a position of the driving force input point, and B is a coefficient increasing with decrease in the frequency of fluctuations in the position of the driving force input point.

An actuator comprising:

• a driving element;
• a driven element to be actuated by a driving force transmitted from the driving element;
• an elastic member that is an elastically deformable member having a first end configured to receive the driving force from the driving element and a second end connected to the driven element, to transmit a motion of the driving element to the driven element;
• a driving element speed sensor configured to detect a speed of the driving element;
• a displacement sensor configured to detect an amount of elastic deformation Pe of the elastic member to output quantized values of the amount of elastic deformation Pe of the elastic member;
• and
• a deformation speed determination apparatus configured to determine a deformation speed V that is a rate of change of an amount of elastic deformation of the elastic member, based upon the speed of the driving element detected by the driving element speed sensor and the quantized values of the amount of elastic deformation Pe detected by the displacement sensor,
• wherein the deformation speed determination apparatus includes:
• a driving speed acquisition unit configured to acquire a driving speed Vd that is a speed of a driving force input point at which the driving force from the driving element is transmitted to the elastic member, based upon the speed of the driving element detected by the driving element speed sensor;
• a deformation amount acquisition unit configured to acquire the quantized values of the amount of elastic deformation Pe detected from the displacement sensor;
• an approximate rate computation unit configured to compute an approximate rate Ve based upon the quantized values of the amount of elastic deformation Pe acquired at different points in time by the deformation amount acquisition unit, the approximate rate Ve being a rate of change of the amount of elastic deformation Pe obtained by smoothing out an abrupt change in the values of the amount of elastic deformation Pe caused to appear by quantization;
• and
• a deformation speed computation unit configured to compute the deformation speed V of the elastic member based upon the driving speed Vd acquired by the driving speed acquisition unit and the approximate rate Ve computed by the approximate rate computation unit, by the following formula:
• V=A·(−Vd)+B·Ve
• where A is a coefficient increasing with increase in frequency of fluctuations in a position of the driving force input point, and B is a coefficient increasing with decrease in the frequency of fluctuations in the position of the driving force input point.