Electrical duplicating control apparatus

Claim 2

In electrical duplicating control apparatus, including a sensor which scans a model mechanically and comprises a sensing stylus and orthogonally operating coil sensing systems, means for developing velocity control signals for the individual axes feed drives in the individual machine axes from the output voltages thereof, and means to feed appropriate correction signals to the feed drives to maintain a predetermined amount of the deflection of the sensing stylus, the improvement comprising: a. a sensing stylus having three sensing systems which operate in three mutually perpendicular directions; b. a first vector analyzer having as inputs the outputs of said three sensing systems and forming as outputs, voltages proportional to the respective cosines of the direction angles (α, β, γ) of the three dimensional deflection vector of the stylus relative to three orthogonal machine axes and the magnitude of the three dimensional deflection vector; c. a deflection controller having as an input the difference between a desired value and an actual value which is the magnitude of the three dimensional deflection vector; d. first and second multipliers each having as one input the output voltage of said deflection controller and as second inputs respectively separate ones of the cosine outputs of the first vector analyzer and forming as outputs two correction signals; e. a second vector analyzer having as inputs the two output voltages of the sensing systems which operate in the plane formed by two desired feed directions and providing output voltages which correspond to the sine and cosine of the deflection angle in that plane; and f. third and fourth multipliers having as first inputs the desired feeding velocity and as second inputs respectively the outputs of said first and second multipliers and providing as outputs desired feed velocity signals in that plane.

Claim 3

Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said first vector analysis comprises three dividers having voltages proportional to the sensing stylus deflections as dividend inputs; means for squaring the output voltages of said dividers; and a proportional integral controller having a summing junction at its input for summing the outputs of said squaring means and for generating the difference between said sum with a constant quantity, the output of said controller being the divisor inputs of said dividers.

Claim 4

Apparatus according to claim 1, and further comprising means for generating the difference of said desired velocity signals and corresponding correction signals and for providing the results as desired values to said means for developing velocity control signals.

Claim 5

In electrical duplicating control apparatus, including a sensor which scans a model mechanically and comprises a sensing stylus and orthogonally operating coil sensing systems, means for developing velocity control signals for the individual axes feed drives in the individual machine axes from the output voltages thereof, and means to feed appropriate correction signals to the feed drives to maintain a predetermined amount of the deflection of the sensing stylus, the improvement comprising: a. a sensing stylus having three sensing systems which operate in three mutually perpendicular directions; b. a first vector analyzer having as inputs the outputs of said three sensing systems and forming, as outputs, voltages proportional to the respective cosines of the direction angles of the three dimensional deflection vector of the stylus relative to three orthogonal machine axes and the magnitude of the three dimensional deflection vector; c. a deflection controller having as inputs a desired value and an actual value which is said magnitude of the three dimensional deflection vector; d. a second vector analyzer having as inputs two voltages derived from the outputs of said sensing system which define two desired feed directions in a plane in which work is desired to be done and providing output voltages which correspond to the sine and cosine of the deflection angle of that plane; e. a computing circuit associated with said second vector analyzer having as one input a voltage indicating a desired rotation angle φ* said angle being the angle between a feed drive plane containing two of the machine axes and a plane in which work is desired to be done, said computing circuit having as additional inputs the outputs of said second vector analyzer and providing as outputs the respective cosines of the three dimensional deflection vector in a plane rotated by said angle φ from said feed drive plane and also providing an output proportional to the tangent of φ*; f. first, second and third multipliers each having as one input the output voltage of said deflection controller and the second input respectively separate ones of the cosine outputs of said first vector analyzer and forming as outputs three correction signals; g. fourth, fifth and sixth multipliers having as first inputs the desired feeding velocity and as second inputs respectively the cosine outputs of said computing circuit; h. means for summing the respective outputs of said first, second and third and fourth, fifth and sixth multipliers and providing the respective results as velocity control signals to the feed drive for the individual axes; i. a rotation angle controller for correcting the direction angle of the velocity vector having as a desired value input said output proportional and tan φ*, the output voltage of which is coupled as an additional input for one axis of the means for developing velocity control signals; and j. a divider having as input signals voltages representing the actual feeding velocities in said feed plane for forming the quotient thereof, said quotient output being provided as an actual value input to said rotation angle controller.

Claim 6

In electrical duplicating control apparatus, including a sensor which scans a model mechanically and comprises a sensing stylus and orthogonally operating coil sensing systems, means for developing velocity control signals for the individual axes feed drives in the individual machine axes from the output voltages thereof, and means to feed appropriate correction signals to the feed drives to maintain a predetermined amount of the deflection of the sensing stylus, the improvement comprising: a. a sensing stylus having three sensing systems which operate in three mutually perpendicular directions; b. a first vector analyzer having as inputs the outputs of said three sensing systems and forming, as outputs, voltages proportional to the respective cosines of the direction angles of the three dimensional deflection vector of the stylus relative to three orthogonal machine axes and the magnitude of the three dimensional deflection vector; c. a deflection controller having as inputs a desired value and an actual value which is said magnitude of the three dimensional deflection vector; d. a second vector analyzer having as inputs two voltages derived from the outputs of said sensing system which define two desired feed directions in a plane in which work is desired to be done and providing output voltages which correspond to the sine and cosine of the deflection angle of that plane; e. a computing circuit associated with said second vector analyzer having as one input a voltage indicating a desired rotation angle φ* said angle being the angle between a feed drive plane containing two of the machine axes and a plane in which work is desired to be done, said computing circuit having as additional inputs the outputs of said second vector analyzer and providing as outputs the respective cosines of the three dimensional deflection vector in a plane rotated by said angle φ from said feed drive plane and also providing an output proportional to the tangent of φ*; f. first, second and third multipliers each having as one input the output voltage of said deflection controller and the second input respectively separate ones of the cosine outputs of said first vector analyzer and forming as outputs three correction signals; g. fourth, fifth and sixth multipliers having as first inputs the desired feeding velocity and as second inputs respectively the cosine outputs of said computing circuit; h. means for summing the respective outputs of said first, second and third and fourth, fifth and sixth multipliers and providing the respective results as velocity control signals to the feed drive for the individual axes; i. a rotation angle controller for correcting the direction angle of the velocity vector having as a desired value input said output proportional and tan φ*, the output voltage of which is coupled as an additional input for one axis of the means for developing velocity control signals; and j. a divider having as input signals voltages representing the actual feeding velocities in said feed plane for forming the quotient thereof, said quotient output being provided as an actual value input to said rotation angle controller.

Claim 7

Apparatus according to claim 4 wherein said computing circuit includes means for generating the sine, cosine and tangent of said rotation angle φ*.

Claim 8

Apparatus according to claim 5 wherein said computing circuit includes two multipliers each having as one input one output of said vector analyzer and as a second input the sine and cosine outputs of said means for generating the sine and cosine and said angle φ* and an inverter having as an input the other output of said vector analyzer, the respective outputs of said two multipliers and said inverter providing said respective cosines of said three dimensional deflection vector.

Claim 9

Apparatus according to claim 4 wherein said computing circuit includes; a. first and second function generators each having as an input a voltage said voltage representing the desired rotation angle φ* and having as respective outputs voltages representing the cosine and sine of said angle; b. an inverter having as its input one output of said second vector analyzer; and c. seventh and eighth multipliers each having as one input one of the output voltages of said second vector analyzer and as second inputs the outputs of said first and second function generators respectively; and means for providing inputs to said second vector analyzer comprising: d. ninth and tenth multipliers having as first inputs said cosine component and said sine component voltages respectively and each having as a second input a different one of the output voltages of the two of said sensing systems for said feed drive plane; e. means for summing the outputs of said ninth and tenth multipliers and coupling said sum as an input to said second vector analyzer, the second input to said second vector analyzer being the output of the third sensing system.

Claim 10

Apparatus according to claim 4 and further including coordinate selection means for selecting the two feed velocity axes which define said feed drive plane.

Claim 11

Apparatus according to claim 8 wherein said coordinate selection means comprise a switch for selectively coupling different pairs of said actual feeding velocities as inputs to said divider and for coupling the output of said rotational angle controller as an additional input to different ones of said means for developing velocity control signals.