An electric power-steering device has a speed-reducing mechanism (17) for reducing the speed of an output shaft (16) of an electric motor (15). The speed-reducing mechanism (17) has an internal gear (39) engaged and rotated with the output shaft (16) and an external gear (40) with which the internal gear (39) internally meshes. A drive pulley (41) rotatable together with the external gear (40) and a driven pulley (42) provided so as to surround a steering shaft are connected by an endless belt (43). Speed reduction is obtained by the internal gear (39) and the external gear (40), and the speed-reducing mechanism (17) as a whole achieves a high reduction ratio without greatly reducing the diameter of the drive pulley (41).

Electric power-steering device

A device for monitoring a rotating shaft is provided. The device measures strain in the shaft and provides angular velocity and torque in the shaft. The device includes a sensor, sensor conditioning circuitry, a microprocessor, and a transmitter, all located on a rotating shaft. The device obtains power by harvesting mechanical energy of the rotating shaft itself. Coils are provided rotating with the shaft and permanent magnets are mounted adjacent the rotating shaft so electrical energy is induced in the coils as they rotate through the magnetic field of the permanent magnets. A battery or capacitor is connected to the coils for storing energy. A microprocessor is connected to the sensors, the storage device, and the transmitter for managing power consumption and for monitoring the amount of electrical energy stored in the storage device and for switchably connecting the storage device to the transmitter when the stored energy exceeds a threshold.

Shaft mounted energy harvesting for wireless sensor operation and data transmission

A portable ventilator uses a Roots-type blower as a compressor to reduce both the size and power consumption of the ventilator. Various functional aspects of the ventilator are delegated to multiple subassemblies having dedicated controllers and software that interact with a ventilator processor to provide user interface functions, exhalation control and flow control servos, and monitoring of patient status. The ventilator overcomes noise problems through the use of noise reducing pressure compensating orifices on the Roots blower housing and multiple baffling chambers. The ventilator is configured with a highly portable form factor, and may be used as a stand-alone device or as a docked device having a docking cradle with enhanced interface and monitoring capabilities.

Portable ventilator system

An improved rotation angle detecting device that detects a rotation angle of a first member relative to a second member is proposed. The rotation angle detecting device includes a magnet unit fixed to the first member and a pair of magnetic sensors fixed to the second member to provide output signals whose phase is different from each other at 90 degrees in angle. The magnet unit includes a pair of disk plates that has the same magnetic poles at the same circumferential positions and is disposed at a prescribed axial distance and a shaft that is made of magnetic material to support the disk plates at the center thereof. The magnetic unit provides a uniform magnetic field in a space around the shaft between the pair of disk plates, and a pair of magnetic sensors is disposed in the space.

Rotation angle detecting device

An electric power steering apparatus has a steering mechanism SM having universal joints 4, 6 in a torque transmitting system, a steering toque detecting unit 14, a steering angle detecting, unit 18, a torque fluctuation detecting unit 43 for detecting a torque fluctuation due to the crossing angle α in the universal joints 4, 6 on the basis of the steering angle θ detected by the steering angle detecting unit 18 and any one of the steering torque T detected by the steering torque detecting unit, a current command value It and self-aligning torque SAT; and a current command value correcting unit 44 for correcting the current command value on the basis of the torque fluctuation detected by the torque fluctuation detecting unit 43 and the steering angle θ detected by the steering angle detecting unit 18.

Electric Power Steering Apparatus

Es wird ein Verfahren und eine Vorrichtung zur Messung des Winkels eines drehbaren Korpers, insbesondere eines um mehr als 360 DEG drehbaren Korpers, beschrieben. Dieser drehbare Korper wirkt dabei mit wenigstens zwei weiteren drehbaren Korpern zusammen, beispielsweise Zahnradern, deren Winkelposition mit Hilfe zweier Sensoren ermittelt wird. Aus den so ermittelten Winkelpositionen wird die Winkellage des drehbaren Korpers bestimmt. Damit eindeutige Aussagen moglich sind, ist es erforderlich, dass alle drei drehbaren Korper bzw. Zahnrader bestimmte vorgebbare Zahnezahlen aufweisen. Das Verfahren und die Vorrichtung lassen sich beispielsweise zur Ermittlung des Lenkwinkels eines Kraftfahrzeuges verwenden.

Verfahren und Vorrichtung zur Winkelmessung bei einem drehbaren Körper

A method and a device for measuring the angle of a rotatable body, in particular a body rotatable by more than 360°, are described. In this case this rotatable body cooperates with at least two further rotatable bodies, for example gear wheels, whose angular positions are determined with the aid of two sensors. The angular position of the rotatable body is determined from the angular positions detected in this way. So that unequivocal statements can be made, it is necessary for all three rotatable bodies or gear wheels to have defined predetermined numbers of teeth. The method and the device can be used, for example, for determining the steering angle of a motor vehicle.

Method and device for angular measurement of a rotatable body

The invention relates to a device for measuring an angle and/or a torque on a rotatable body. The angle of rotation is detected by means of magnetic or optical sensors. In a preferred embodiment, two devices (7, 8) are provided that are provided with two optically readable code traces respectively. The two code traces (1a, 1b or 2a, 2b) of a device (7 or 8) are embodied in the same way and are arranged in such a way that said devices are offset against each other so that allocated sensors (4) output a digital signal. The angle of rotation is calculated from the offset of the two digital signals. In another embodiment, a torsional element (5) having a known torsional stiffness is arranged between the two devices (7, 8). A torque that is transmitted by the rotatable body (3) can thus by calculated from the difference angle of the two devices (7, 8). The inventive device is preferably used in the steering axle of a motor vehicle.

Device for measuring the angle and/or the angular velocity of a rotatable body and/or the torque acting upon said body

An angle encoder for determination of an angle between a sensor device (4, 5, 6, 7) and a magnetic field, having a magnet (2) that generates the magnetic field, a number of Hall elements (4, 5, 6, 7) disposed in the magnetic field, and flux-conducting parts (3) made of ferromagnetic material disposed between the Hall elements and rotationally fixed in relation to them, wherein the magnet (2) is embodied so that it can rotate in relation to the Hall elements and the flux-conducting parts, wherein at least four Hall elements (4, 5, 6, 7) are provided.

Angle encoder with four hall sensors and method for angle determination of output signals of the four hall sensors

In this paper, we analyse the Anti-Hall (AH) method for offset reduction and the spinning-current method. The first method uses Hall plates with an inner and an outer boundary with multiple current injections at the same time. Simultaneously one obtains a magnetic field sensitive voltage at one contact pair and a magnetic-field independent voltage sensitive to an in-plane shear stress at another contact pair. The second method uses consecutive current injections in different orientations of a symmetric Hall plate and the average of the measurement results is the output signal. Both methods exploit the different symmetries of the Hall effect and various effects that contribute to the offset. Nevertheless, both methods have significant differences that can be understood with the reciprocity principle for macroscopic samples concerning the exchange of current and voltage leads on the Hall measurements. Numerical simulations of the potential distribution of the Anti-Hall structures were carried out with a lumped-discrete approach. Experimental data measured with both offset-reduction methods are shown.

Franz Jost

Papers

Verfahren und Vorrichtung zur Winkelmessung bei einem drehbaren Körper

Method and device for angular measurement of a rotatable body

Device for measuring the angle and/or the angular velocity of a rotatable body and/or the torque acting upon said body

Angle encoder with four hall sensors and method for angle determination of output signals of the four hall sensors

Offset reduction in silicon Hall sensors