Connector mating determination system

Abstract

To improve the accuracy of connector fitting determination without using an imaging device.SOLUTION: A connector fitting determination system includes a first data acquisition device that is attached to a working arm of a connector fitting worker and acquires vibration data during work, a second data acquisition device that acquires voice data or finger pressure data of the connector fitting worker while working, and a determination device that performs connector fitting determination on the basis of the vibration data and the voice data or the pressure data.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to a connector fitting determination system.

Background Art

[0002] Patent Document 1 discloses a conventional connector fitting determination system that determines whether a connector is properly fitted based on vibration data of a vibration sensor attached to the arm of an operator performing the connector fitting operation. In this conventional connector fitting determination system, in order to improve the determination accuracy of connector fitting, based on the working posture of the operator photographed by an imaging device, specific components related to the fitting operation are extracted from the vibration data, or the start and end of the connector fitting operation by the operator are determined.

Prior Art Documents

Patent Documents

[0003]

Patent Document 1

Summary of the Invention

Problems to be Solved by the Invention

[0004] In the above-described conventional connector fitting determination system, in order to improve the determination accuracy of connector fitting, it was necessary to photograph the operator's hands with an imaging device. However, for example, when performing a fitting operation of a connector arranged in a narrow space or inside a vehicle body part in a vehicle assembly process, the operator's hands may be hidden by surrounding parts, and even if the imaging device is attached to the operator's head, the operator's hands cannot be photographed, and there is a problem that the determination accuracy of connector fitting cannot be improved.

[0005] The present invention has been made paying attention to such problems, and an object thereof is to improve the determination accuracy of connector fitting without using an imaging device. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] To solve the above problems, a connector mating determination system according to one aspect of the present invention comprises: a first data acquisition device attached to the working arm of a connector mating worker to acquire vibration data during work; a second data acquisition device to acquire voice data of the connector mating worker during work or finger pressure data of the connector mating worker during work; and a determination device that performs connector mating determination based on the recorded vibration data and the voice data or pressure data. [Effects of the Invention]

[0007] According to this aspect of the present invention, by acquiring audio data or finger pressure data during operation in conjunction with vibration data, the accuracy of connector mating determination can be improved without using an imaging device. [Brief explanation of the drawing]

[0008] [Figure 1] This is a schematic diagram of the connector's configuration. [Figure 2] This is a schematic diagram of a connector mating determination system according to the first embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 3] This is a flowchart illustrating the contents of the connector mating determination process according to the first embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 4] This figure shows an example of vibration data acquired during connector mating work. [Figure 5] This figure shows audio data acquired during connector mating work and the results of FFT analysis performed on that audio data. [Figure 6] This is a schematic diagram of a connector mating determination system according to a second embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 7] This is a flowchart illustrating the contents of the connector mating determination process according to the second embodiment of the present invention. [Modes for carrying out the invention]

[0009] Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. In the following description, similar components will be given the same reference numerals.

[0010] (First Embodiment) Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of connector 1 according to one embodiment of the present invention. Figure 1(A) shows connector 1 before mating. Figure 1(B) shows connector 1 in the mated state. Figure 1(C) shows connector 1 in the partially mated state.

[0011] Connector 1 comprises a first connector 1A provided at the end of the first harness 11, and a second connector 1B provided at the end of the second harness 12, which is inserted into the insertion opening of the first connector 1A and mates with the first connector 1A.

[0012] When the second connector 1B is properly fitted into the first connector 1A, it enters the mating state shown in Figure 1(B), and a locking mechanism 13 is activated to prevent the second connector 1B from falling out of the first connector 1A. The locking mechanism 13 can be configured, for example, as shown in Figure 1, to include a locking projection 14 formed on the second connector 1B and a locking portion 15 formed on the first connector 1A that locks the locking projection 14, but is not limited to this configuration.

[0013] On the other hand, if the second connector 1B is not properly fitted into the first connector 1A, the locking mechanism 13 will not function properly (the locking projection 14 will not be engaged with the locking portion 15), resulting in a partially mated state, as shown in Figure 1(C). If connector 1 remains in a partially mated state, there is a risk that the second connector 1B may fall out of the first connector 1A. Therefore, it is necessary to be able to detect whether connector 1 is fully mated (in other words, whether connector 1 is partially mated).

[0014] However, since the connector 1 is in a conductive state even in the half-fitted state, it is difficult to detect the connector 1 in the half-fitted state by a continuity inspection. In the conventional example described above, it was determined whether the connector 1 was in the fitted state based on the vibration data of the vibration sensor attached to the working arm of the connector fitter. However, in order to improve the determination accuracy, it was necessary to photograph the operator's hand. However, for example, when performing the fitting operation of the connector 1 arranged in a narrow space or inside the vehicle body in the vehicle assembly process, etc., the operator's hand may be hidden by surrounding parts, etc., and even if an imaging device is attached to the operator's head, it may not be possible to photograph the operator's hand.

[0015] Therefore, in the present embodiment, the audio data during the connector fitting operation is acquired together with the vibration data, and the determination accuracy is improved by determining whether the connector 1 is in the fitted state based on the vibration data and the audio data during the connector fitting operation.

[0016] FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of a connector fitting determination system 100 according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

[0017] The connector fitting determination system 100 includes a vibration sensor 2, a microphone 3, and a determination device 4.

[0018] The vibration sensor 2 is attached to a working arm such as the hand or wrist of a connector fitter, for example, to acquire vibration data during the connector fitting operation. In the present embodiment, the vibration sensor 2 is attached to the wrist of the hand having the second connector 1B (the hand that performs the insertion operation of the connector 1). The vibration data acquired by the vibration sensor 2 is transmitted to the determination device 4 via a wireless transmitter (not shown) connected or integrated with the vibration sensor 2. The wireless communication device can be attached to, for example, the working arm to which the vibration sensor 2 is attached.

[0019] The microphone 3 is attached to a working arm such as the hand or wrist of a connector fitting operator, for example, to acquire voice data during the connector fitting operation. In the present embodiment, the microphone 3 is attached to the working arm opposite to the working arm to which the vibration sensor 2 is attached. However, the microphone 3 may be attached to the same working arm as the working arm to which the vibration sensor 2 is attached. Further, the microphone 3 does not necessarily have to be attached to the connector fitting operator, and may be attached to any place where the voice during the connector fitting operation can be acquired. The voice data acquired by the microphone 3 is transmitted to the determination device 4 via a wireless transmitter (not shown) connected or integrated with the microphone 3. The wireless communication device can be attached to, for example, the working arm to which the microphone 3 is attached.

[0020] The determination device 4 is an ECU (Electronic Control Unit) including a communication unit 41, a storage unit 42, and a processing unit 43.

[0021] The communication unit 41 includes an interface circuit for connecting the determination device 4 to each wireless communication device. The communication unit supplies the data (vibration data and voice data) received from each wireless communication device to the processing unit 43.

[0022] The storage unit 42 has a storage medium such as an HDD (Hard Disk Drive), an SSD (Solid Disk Drive), or a semiconductor memory, and stores various computer programs, data, etc. used in the processing by the processing unit 43.

[0023] The processing unit 43 has one or more CPUs (Central Processing Unit) and its peripheral circuits. The processing unit 43 executes various computer programs stored in the storage unit 42, and is, for example, a processor. Hereinafter, the connector fitting determination process performed by the processing unit 43, and thus the determination device 4, will be described with reference to FIGS. 3 to 5.

[0024] Figure 3 is a flowchart illustrating the contents of the connector mating determination process according to this embodiment. The determination device 4 executes this routine repeatedly at predetermined calculation cycles.

[0025] In step S1, the determination device 4 determines whether the amplitude value of the vibration data is equal to or greater than a predetermined first threshold. As shown in Figure 4, if the amplitude value of the vibration data is equal to or greater than the first threshold, the determination device 4 proceeds to step S2 to determine whether the vibration was caused by the activation of the locking mechanism 13 of the connector 1. On the other hand, if the amplitude value of the vibration data is less than the first threshold, the determination device 4 terminates the current process.

[0026] In step S2, the determination device 4 performs an FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) analysis on the audio data before and after the point in time when the amplitude value of the vibration data exceeds the first threshold, and also performs a filter process to extract frequency components in a specific frequency band (in other words, a filter process to remove frequency components other than the specific frequency band), and determines whether or not the amplitude value in the specific frequency band is above a predetermined second threshold. The reason for this will be explained below with reference to Figure 5.

[0027] Figure 5 shows audio data (Figure 5(A)) acquired when connector mating work was performed in an ideal environment free from ambient noise and vibration, and the results of FFT analysis performed on that audio data (Figure 5(B)).

[0028] As shown in Figure 5(B), the inventors' diligent research has revealed that the audio data generated when the connector mating operation is performed contains a large number of frequency components in a specific frequency band, regardless of whether connector 1 is fully mated or partially mated. Therefore, by setting a second threshold as shown in Figure 5(B), it can be said that there is a high probability that the connector mating operation has been performed when the amplitude value of the specific frequency band exceeds the second threshold.

[0029] Therefore, if the amplitude value of the specific frequency band is greater than or equal to the second threshold, the determination device 4 in this embodiment determines that there is a high probability that the amplitude value of the vibration data in step S1 was greater than or equal to the first threshold due to the connector mating operation, and proceeds to the process in step S3. On the other hand, if the amplitude value of the specific frequency band is less than the second threshold, the determination device 4 determines that the reason the amplitude value of the vibration data in step S1 was greater than or equal to the first threshold was not due to the connector mating operation, and terminates the process.

[0030] In step S3, the determination device 4 inputs vibration data from around the time the amplitude value exceeds the first threshold into the classifier to determine whether the connector 1 is in a mated state or a partially mated state.

[0031] The classifier can be a support vector machine that has been trained using vibration data acquired when the connector 1's locking mechanism 13 is activated during connector mating work in an ideal environment free from ambient noise and vibration, i.e., when connector 1 is in a mated state. The classifier is trained to output the result of the connector mating work, i.e., whether connector 1 is in a mated state or a partially mated state, when vibration data is input. In this embodiment, the classifier is trained after the vibration data has been converted into a Mel spectrogram. Therefore, the determination device 4 in this embodiment obtains the result of the connector mating work by inputting the vibration data into the classifier after converting it into a Mel spectrogram. The determination result can be notified to the worker or supervisor by displaying it on a screen or playing an audible message as needed.

[0032] The connector mating determination system 100 according to this embodiment, as described above, comprises a vibration sensor 2 (first data acquisition device) attached to the working arm of a connector mating worker to acquire vibration data during work, a microphone 3 (second data acquisition device) to acquire voice data of the connector mating worker during work, and a determination device 4 that performs a mating determination of the connector 1 based on the vibration data and voice data.

[0033] In this way, by acquiring audio data along with vibration data, the accuracy of the mating determination of connector 1 can be improved compared to when only vibration data is used. Furthermore, audio data offers a high degree of flexibility in acquisition and can be easily obtained even if the operator's hands are obscured by surrounding parts, thus improving the versatility of the system.

[0034] In this embodiment, the determination device 4 is configured to perform a mating determination of the connector 1 based on vibration data if the amplitude value of the frequency component in a specific frequency band obtained from the audio data is equal to or greater than a second threshold (predetermined value).

[0035] As mentioned above, the audio data generated when the connector mating operation is performed contains many frequency components in a specific frequency band. Therefore, with this configuration, the mating of connector 1 can be determined based on vibration data only when there is a high probability that the connector mating operation has been performed. This improves the accuracy of the connector mating determination and also reduces the processing load on the determination device 4.

[0036] In this embodiment, the determination device 4 is configured to acquire frequency components of a specific frequency band from audio data before and after the point in time when the amplitude value of the vibration data exceeds a predetermined first threshold (determination criterion value).

[0037] This allows for a mating determination of connector 1 based on vibration data and audio data when vibrations exceeding a certain level are detected, thereby improving the accuracy of the determination.

[0038] (Second Embodiment) Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. This embodiment differs from the first embodiment in that it acquires finger pressure data during connector mating work together with vibration data, and determines whether the connector 1 is in a mated state based on the vibration data and pressure data during connector mating work. The differences will be described below.

[0039] Figure 6 is a schematic diagram of the connector mating determination system 100 according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

[0040] The connector mating determination system 100 according to this embodiment includes a pressure sensor 5 that acquires the contact pressure of the fingers during the connector mating operation, instead of a microphone 3.

[0041] The pressure sensor 5 is attached, for example, to the pad of the thumb or index finger of a glove, and acquires pressure data from the contact pressure when an object is grasped or pressed with the finger. The pressure data acquired by the pressure sensor 5 is transmitted to the determination device 4 via a wireless transmitter connected to or integrated with the pressure sensor 5. The wireless communication device can be attached, for example, to the glove to which the pressure sensor 5 is attached.

[0042] The pressure waveform obtained from the pressure data of each finger when performing connector mating work is a pressure waveform unique to connector mating work. Therefore, if the pressure waveform obtained from the pressure data before and after the point in time when the amplitude value of the vibration data exceeds the first threshold is a pressure waveform unique to connector mating work, it can be determined that there is a high possibility that the amplitude value of the vibration data exceeded the first threshold due to the connector mating work. In this embodiment, the accuracy of the determination is improved by inputting the vibration data into the classifier only if the pressure waveform obtained from the pressure data before and after the point in time when the amplitude value of the vibration data exceeds the first threshold is a pressure waveform unique to connector mating work.

[0043] Figure 7 is a flowchart illustrating the content of the determination process according to this embodiment. The determination device 4 executes this routine repeatedly at a predetermined calculation cycle. Note that the content of the processes in steps S1 and S3 is the same as in the first embodiment, so the explanation is omitted here.

[0044] In step S21, the determination device 4 determines the degree of agreement between the pressure waveform obtained from the pressure data of each finger when the connector mating operation is performed and the pressure waveform specific to the connector mating operation. If the degree of agreement is equal to or greater than a predetermined value, the process proceeds to step S3. On the other hand, if the degree of agreement is less than the predetermined value, the determination device 4 terminates the current process.

[0045] The connector mating determination system 100 according to this embodiment, as described above, comprises a vibration sensor 2 (first data acquisition device) attached to the working arm of a connector mating worker to acquire vibration data during work, a pressure sensor 5 (second data acquisition device) to acquire finger pressure data of the connector mating worker during work, and a determination device 4 that performs a mating determination of the connector 1 based on the vibration data and pressure data. Specifically, the determination device 4 is configured to perform a mating determination of the connector 1 based on the vibration data if the degree of agreement between the pressure waveform obtained from the pressure data and a predetermined pressure waveform specific to connector mating work is greater than or equal to a predetermined value, and to acquire a pressure waveform from the pressure data before and after the point in time when the amplitude value of the vibration data becomes greater than or equal to a first threshold (determination criterion value). With this configuration as well, the same effects as in the first embodiment can be obtained.

[0046] Although embodiments of the present invention have been described above, these embodiments only represent a part of the application examples of the present invention, and are not intended to limit the technical scope of the present invention to the specific configurations of the above embodiments.

[0047] For example, in the above embodiment, the computer program executed in the determination device 4 may be provided in the form of a computer-readable portable recording medium, such as a semiconductor memory, a magnetic recording medium, or an optical recording medium. [Explanation of Symbols]

[0048] 1 Connector 2. Vibration sensor (first data acquisition device) 3. Microphone (Second data acquisition device) 4 Judgment device 5. Pressure sensor (second data acquisition device) 100 Connector Mating Determination System

Claims

1. A first data acquisition device is attached to the working arm of a connector mating worker to acquire vibration data during the work, A second data acquisition device that acquires audio data of the connector mating worker during their work, A determination device that performs connector mating determination based on the vibration data and the audio data, Equipped with, The determination device is If the amplitude value of the frequency component in a specific frequency band obtained from the aforementioned audio data is greater than or equal to a predetermined value, the connector mating determination is performed based on the vibration data. Connector mating detection system.

2. The determination device is The frequency components of a specific frequency band are obtained from the audio data before and after the point in time when the amplitude value of the vibration data exceeds a predetermined threshold value. The connector mating determination system according to claim 1.

3. A first data acquisition device attached to the working arm of a connector mating worker to acquire vibration data during work, A second data acquisition device for acquiring finger pressure data during the operation of the connector mating worker, A determination device that performs connector mating determination based on the vibration data and the pressure data, Equipped with, The determination device is A pressure waveform is obtained from the pressure data before and after the point in time when the amplitude value of the vibration data exceeds a predetermined judgment criterion value. If the degree of agreement between the pressure waveform obtained from the aforementioned pressure data and a predetermined pressure waveform specific to the connector mating operation is greater than or equal to a predetermined value, the mating of the connector is determined based on the vibration data. Connector mating detection system.

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