Electric jack load balancing method and device

[0001] This application claims priority from Provisional Application No. 60/619,768, filed Oct. 18, 2004 and entitled “Positioning Device for Mobile Platform Having DC Electric Jacks”.

[0002] Not Applicable

[0003] 1. Field of the Invention

[0004] This invention relates generally to an electric jack load balancing method and device for reducing the difference in load carried by each jack of a pair of electric motor-driven jacks while adjusting the attitude of a platform.

[0005] 2. Description of the Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98

[0006] Under ideal circumstances, the weight of a platform will be distributed equally amongst jacks that are adjusting the attitude of the platform by lifting and/or lowering the portions of the platform the respective jacks are connected to. If the platform and/or the load it is carrying is not balanced, one or more jacks will carry a significantly greater proportion of the load than the others, causing undue wear and tear on the more heavily-loaded jacks. System performance is best when the load is distributed equally. In practice, however, it is likely that platform loads will not always be balanced evenly. The uneven weight distribution that often results while adjusting the attitude of a platform over uniquely tilted ground is a significant problem.

[0007] It is desirable to alleviate this problem by balancing platform load amongst the jacks that are doing the work during an attitude-adjustment operation. If a given jack is bearing a significantly greater load than another, an attempt should be made to transfer the additional load onto the other jacks.

[0008] U.S. Pat. No. 5,143,386 issuedSep. 1, 1992, to Uriarte, discloses a leveling system including a plurality of jacks powered by respective electric jack motors and a controller that drives the jacks at different speeds depending on how much each must extend to level the platform. In other words, the controller adjusts individual jack speeds in accordance with which part of the platform is lowest. The controller determines how far each platform corner is from level by signals received from counters that track jack extension and interprets individual electrical jack motor current draw values exceeding one fixed, predetermined current value as indicating jack ground contact. After detecting ground contact of all jacks, the controller then continues to monitor all electric jack motor current draw values during subsequent leveling until it detects that all the jack motors are drawing higher than a predetermined low current setting indicating a level platform attitude requiring deactivation of all the jacks. However, while a leveling system constructed according to the Uriarte patent would be able to monitor the current draws of the jacks, it would be unable to use that information to prevent one or more of those jacks from carrying significantly more load than the others during leveling operations.

[0009] What is needed is an electric jack load balancing system that can prevent one or more jacks from carrying significantly more load than the others during leveling operations.

[0010] In accordance with the invention, an electric jack load balancing device is provided for reducing the difference between loads carried by the jacks of a pair of electric jacks while the jacks are adjusting the attitude of a platform. The device includes a controller configured to monitor the power draws of two jack motors and to modify the operation of the jack motors in such a way as to reduce the difference between loads carried by the jacks.

[0011] The invention also includes a method for reducing the difference in load carried by each jack of a pair of electric jacks while the jacks are adjusting the attitude of a platform. According to this method one can reduce the difference in load carried by each jack of a pair of electric jacks by monitoring the power draws of the electric jack motors of the pair of electric jacks, comparing the ratio of the power draws of the electric jack motors to a predetermined desirable power draw ratio, and, when the jack motor power draw ratio differs from the desirable power draw ratio, modifying the operation of the jacks in such a way as to reduce the difference between their actual power draw ratio and the predetermined desirable power draw ratio.

[0021] In this document the term “platform” refers to a body, such as the one shown at 10 in FIG. 2, which is to be raised relative to the ground 11 and its attitude adjusted in preparation for performing some operation or for accommodating certain activities to be carried out on the platform. The term “jack” refers to a mechanism for raising heavy objects by means of force applied with a lever, screw, or press. In this paper, the jacks, as shown at 12 in FIGS. 1 and 2, are of a type driven by motors 14 powered by direct electrical current (DC electrical power) as shown in FIG. 1. The term “tilt sensor” refers to a sensor, such as the sensor shown at 16 in FIG. 3, that's designed to detect the angle of tilt between a vertical axis through the sensor 16 and Earth gravity. The term “dual axis tilt sensor” refers to a tilt sensor capable of detecting the angle between the sensor and the Earth's gravity in two axes, each perpendicular to the other. In FIGS. 4–7 a dual axis tilt sensor is shown at 18.

[0022] A electric jack load balancing device for reducing the difference in loads carried jacks of a pair of DC electric jacks while the jacks are adjusting the attitude of a mobile platform is generally shown at 20 in FIG. 1. The device 20 is incorporated in a mobile platform attitude adjustment system 22 that is, in turn, mountable to a mobile platform 10 whose attitude is to be adjusted. As shown in FIG. 1 the device 20 is electrically connected to each jack 12 of two pairs 13 of jacks. The jacks 12 of the jack pairs 13 are mounted at spaced locations around the mobile platform 10 whose attitude is to be adjusted.

[0023] The device 20 includes a controller 23 that is also the controller for the platform attitude adjustment system 22. In other words, jack pair load balancing is a function of the platform attitude adjustment system 22 that prevents any one jack from carrying a disproportionately large share of the load while adjusting platform attitude. Details relating to the construction and operation of a platform attitude adjustment device employing such a controller can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 6,584,385, which issued Jun. 24, 2003 to Ford et al., and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/318,820 (published as 20030135312), both of which are assigned to the assignee of the present invention, and are incorporated herein by reference.

[0024] As shown in FIG. 1, the controller 23 receives signals 24 representing platform attitude from the dual-axis tilt sensor 18 through an analog-to-digital converter 26. The controller 23 also receives feedback signals 28 from each of a plurality of jacks 12 from current sensors 30 through the analog-to-digital converter 26. While FIG. 1 shows two ADC blocks, it's understood that the device 20 may use either two analog-to-digital converters or single analog-to-digital converter including an ADC conversion circuit capable of individually converting signals from different signal sources, e.g., by internally multiplexing signals received via a plurality of channels.

[0025] The controller 23 is capable of sending control signals 32 to the jacks 12 through a first I/O port 34, a relay control 36, and respective H-bridge relays 38. The controller 23 is also capable of sending control signals 40 to the dual-axis tilt sensor 18 through a second I/O port 42. The controller 23 includes a central processing unit 44, a software-implemented digital signal processor 46, and control algorithms 48. A battery 50 provides electrical power to the jacks 12 through the H-bridge relays 38 as well as to the controller 23.

[0026] The controller 23 is programmed to monitor the respective power draws of jack motors 14 driving the two jacks 12 of each jack pair 13 and to modify the operation of the jack motors 14 in such a way as to reduce the difference between the loads, i.e., to “balance” the loads, carried by the jacks 12 of each pair 13 while the jacks 12 are in the process of lifting and/or adjusting attitude of a platform 10.

[0027] The controller 23 is programmed to detect disproportionate jack loading between the jacks 12 of each jack pair 13 by comparing the ratio of the power draws of the two jack motors 14 of each pair 13 to a predetermined minimum desirable power ratio, and, should the ratio of the power draws not meet the minimum desirable power ratio, to modify the operation of the jacks 12 in such a way as to increase the actual power draw ratio to exceed the predetermined minimum desirable ratio for each jack pair 13. More specifically, the controller 23 is programmed to slow the operation of whichever jack motor 14 is driving the more heavily loaded jack 12 in each pair 13, allowing the other jack 12 of each pair 13 to pick up additional load and allowing the jacks 12 in each jack pair 13 to return to a condition of relative balance.

[0028] The following parameters are empirically measured before load balancing is accomplished according to this method:

[0029]

Tin-rush	Motor current in-rush time. Motor in-rush is a phenomenon
	that occurs for a short period of time (the motor in-rush
	period) immediately after motor actuation while coils of a
	DC electric motor are energizing. This period is
	characterized by an extremely large spike in current draw.
	This parameter should be measured over a suitably large
	sample of motors 14 to be used in the target application.
	The parameter should be set larger than the worst case
	in-rush period measured, to account for motors 14 outside
	the sample pool.
Tstabilization	Motor load/power stabilization time. This represents the
	amount of time that a jack drive mechanism needs to
	operate a jack 12 before a power loading measurement
	made by the automatic controller 23 is considered stable.
	This parameter must necessarily be at least as large as
	Tin-rush.
	The intent of this parameter is to allow the loading of the
	motor 14 to stabilize after the in-rush period has expired.
	This parameter may not be necessary on some
	implementations.
Kbalance	minimum desirable power draw ratio between jacks 12 that
	are operating together. Platform loading is considered
	balanced if the ratio of low power draw to high power
	draw is greater than this constant.
	Put ⁢ ⁢ another ⁢ ⁢ way ⁢ : ⁢ ⁢ if ⁢ ⁢ P low P high > K balance ⁢ ⁢ then ⁢ ⁢ the ⁢ ⁢ loading ⁢ ⁢ is considered ⁢ ⁢ balanced .
	This parameter is set to a value that suits the desired
	loading profile in the target application. The parameter
	range is 0 to 1. When Kbalance is set to a value of 1, both
	jacks 12 in a jack pair 13 must be drawing the same
	amount of power for that jack pair 13 to be considered
	balanced. When Kbalance is set to zero, the jacks
	12 are always considered balanced (effectively disabling
	the feature).
Tout-of-balance	Motor load out-of-balance confirmation debounce time.
	This value represents the amount of time that the motor
	load ratio must be less than Kbalance before concluding that
	the motors 14 are out of balance.
	The parameter is used to prevent false activation of the
	balancing method caused by brief discrepancies in motor
	loading.
	The parameter should be set taking into account behavior
	of the target motor over a wide variety of control voltages,
	platform loads, and ground conditions.
Krecover	Balance recovery ratio. This parameter is equal to a desired
	power draw ratio between two jacks 12 that must be
	achieved before re-activating a more heavily loaded jack of
	the jack pair 13, and is used to determine how much load
	the less-heavily-loaded jack must pick up before
	re-activating the more-heavily-loaded jack of the jack
	pair 13.
	The parameter range is 0 to 1. With 0 meaning that the
	less-heavily-loaded jack of a jack pair 13 must pick up no
	load before switching the more-heavily-loaded jack back
	on, and 1 meaning that the less-heavily-loaded jack must
	pick up 100% of the load difference before switching the
	more-heavily-loaded jack back on.
Trecover	Balance recovery confirmation time. This value represents
	the amount of time that the less-heavily-loaded motor of a
	jack pair 13 must be operated on its own before concluding
	that the system has returned to balance.
	The parameter is used to prevent false balance detection
	caused by brief discrepancies in motor loading.

[0030] In practice, the motor current in-rush time (T_in-rush), the motor load/power stabilization time (T_{stabilization}), the minimum desirable power draw ratio (K_balance), the motor load out-of-balance confirmation debounce time (T_{out-of-balance}), the balance recovery ratio (K_recover), and the balance recovery confirmation time (T_recover) for the intended application are predetermined and stored in the device 20. It's preferable to store these parameters in non-volatile reprogrammable memory 35 such as EEPROM to allow the parameters to be updated to reflect more accurate or recent calculations, or changed to adapt to different applications or conditions. This allows the latest parameter values to be programmed into the product at the end of the production line and/or modified after the product is built. This method is typically implemented on new products where it's advisable to allow for parameter changes that may be implemented during early production. It's also useful to implement this method during the development phase of a product, when parameters are being determined and change daily. However, some or all of the parameters may alternatively be hard-coded into program ROM. This is a lower cost solution that may be implemented on mature products for which parameter values have not changed for a long period of time and are not expected to change in the foreseeable future.

[0031] The difference in loads carried by the jacks 12 of a pair 13 of DC electric jacks 12 while the jacks 12 are adjusting the attitude of a mobile platform 10 can be reduced by programming the controller 23 to initially assume that the pair 13 of jacks 12 are in balance with regard to how much load each is carrying, and commanding respective drive motors 14 to drive their respective jacks 12 in extension. As shown at decision point 60 and action point 62 in the flow chart of FIG. 8, if both motors are active the controller 23 measures the power consumption of each jack. The controller 23 does this by first measuring the DC voltage (V) driving the electric motor for each jack. The controller 23 filters the voltage reading for the motor into a stable RMS value (V_rms=RMS(V)) using a cutoff frequency set appropriately for the application. The controller 23 then measures the current draw (I) of the electric motor and filters the current draw into a stable RMS value (I_rms=RMS(I)), using a cutoff frequency set appropriately for the application. The controller 23 then calculates the power draw of the motor according to the equation P=V_rms×I_rms. The controller 23 filters the power draw calculation into a stable RMS value (P_rms=RMS(P)), using a cutoff frequency set appropriately for the application.

[0032] As shown at decision point 64 of FIG. 8, the controller 23 will not attempt to balance the loads between the jacks 12 unless the power draws of the jack motors have stabilized. More specifically, the controller 23 is programmed to disregard any power spike generated during a motor in-rush period, defined as being the period between motor actuation time and the motor current in-rush time (T_actuation<T_in-rush), by ignoring measured power, resetting RMS measurements accordingly, aborting the remainder of the balancing procedure and returning, instead, to the point in this procedure where the controller 23 is driving both of the jacks 12 while measuring the amount of power each is consuming. The controller 23 is also programmed to ignore power measured for each jack until reaching stabilization time, i.e., as long as motor actuation time is less than the motor current in-rush time (T_actuation<T_{stabilization}) the controller 23 will ignore power measurements, abort the remainder of method, and restart at the point where the controller 23 is driving the jacks 12 and measuring their power consumption.

[0033] If the controller 23 determines that the jacks 12 are out of balance after motor actuation time has exceeded the stabilization time, then, as shown at action point 66, the controller 23 then determines which jack of the pair 13 has the largest load of the two jacks 12. More specifically, if the RMS power draw of a first one of the two jack motors 14 is greater than or equal to the RMS power draw of a second of the two jack motors 14 (P_rms1≧P_rms2) then the controller 23 sets P_high=P_rms1 and P_low=P_rms2. If the RMS power draw of the first of the two jack motors 14 is less than the RMS power draw of the second jack motor (P_rms1<P_rms2) then the controller 23 sets P_high=P_rms2 and P_low=P_rms1. If the ratio of the lower RMS power draw to the higher RMS power draw is greater than the minimum desirable power draw ratio

[0034] $\left(\frac{P_{\mathrm{low}}}{P_{\mathrm{high}}}>K_{\mathrm{balance}}\right)$
(system balanced) then the controller 23 resets a confirmation timer value (T_debounce) to zero as shown at action point 69. The confirmation timer value (T_debounce) is stored in a confirmation timer of the controller 23 and records the time that the ratio of the power draws of the electric jack motors 14 remains less than the predetermined minimum desirable power draw ratio. If, as shown at decision point 68, the ratio for the lower RMS power draw to the higher RMS power draw is less than the minimum desirable power draw ratio

[0035] $\left(\frac{P_{\mathrm{low}}}{P_{\mathrm{high}}}<K_{\mathrm{balance}}\right)$
(system out of balance) then the controller 23 increments the confirmation timer value (T_debounce) by the appropriate time unit as shown at action point 70. As long as the confirmation timer value is less than the motor load out-of-balance confirmation debounce time (T_debounce<T_{out-of-balance}) for a jack pair 13 then the controller 23 will consider the jacks 12 of that jack pair 13 to be in balance and will allow both the jacks 12 of that pair to be driven again as shown at decision point 72. As is also shown at decision point 72, however, if the confirmation timer value exceeds the motor load out-of-balance confirmation debounce time (T_debounce>T_{out-of-balance}) then the controller 23 will consider the jacks 12 of that jack pair 13 to be out of balance and will modify the operation of one or both of the jacks 12 of the pair 13 in such a way as to increase their actual power draw ratio above the predetermined minimum desirable power draw ratio (K_balance). More specifically, and as shown at action step 74, the controller 23 commands the jack driving mechanism for the most heavily loaded jack to stop driving its associated jack. The controller 23 then calculates a balance recovery confirmation threshold power value (P_threshold) by adding to the power draw of a less heavily loaded jack of each jack pair 13 the product of the balance recovery ratio and the difference between the power draws of the two jacks 12 of each jack pair 13 (P_threshold=P_low+K_recover×(P_high−P_low)). The controller 23 continues driving only the less heavily loaded jack of each jack pair 13 while measuring the power consumption of the less heavily loaded jack, as shown at action step 76, until the jacks 12 have returned to balance.

[0036] As shown at decision point 78 of FIG. 8, the controller 23 determines if the jacks 12 have returned to balance by determining whether the RMS power consumption value of the less heavily loaded jack has equalled or exceeded the balance recovery confirmation threshold power value (P_rms<P_threshold) for the duration of a confirmation debounce period defined as the period from when the more-heavily-loaded jack is shut down until the balance recovery confirmation time (T_recover) has expired. More specifically, if the rms power draw of the less heavily loaded jack is less than the balance recovery threshold power value (P_rms<P_threshold) then the controller 23 resets the confirmation timer (T_debounce) to zero as shown at action point 80. If the RMS power draw is greater than the balance recovery threshold power value (P_rms>P_threshold), the controller 23 increments the confirmation timer value (T_debounce) by the appropriate time unit as shown at action point 82. If confirmation timer indicates that the confirmation timer value is less than the balance recovery confirmation time (T_debounce<T_recover) then the controller 23 will still consider the jacks 12 to be out of balance and the controller 23 will return to the point in the process where only the less heavily loaded jack is being driven after determining an out-of-balance condition. If, at action point 84, the confirmation timer indicates that the confirmation timer value is greater than the balance recovery confirmation time (T_debounce>T_recover) and the power draw of the less heavily loaded jack generally equals or exceeds the balance recovery confirmation threshold power value (P_rms>P_threshold), then the controller 23 will recognize the jacks 12 to have returned to balance. At this point the jacks 12 have returned to balance and the controller 23 reactivates the stopped motor as shown at action point 86 and returns to the point in the process where the controller 23 is driving both jacks 12 of the jack pair 13 while monitoring the power draw of each. In other words, until the balance recovery confirmation time has expired, the controller 23 neglects any period of reduced power draw by the less heavily loaded jack. This process continues until the controller 23 has driven the platform 10 into a desired attitude.

[0037] As a result, a device 20 constructed according to the invention distributes the weight of a platform more equally amongst jacks that are adjusting the attitude of the platform, preventing one or more jacks from carrying a significantly greater proportion of the load than the others, thereby improving system performance and reducing wear and tear that the more heavily-loaded jacks would otherwise suffer.

[0038] This description is intended to illustrate certain embodiments of the invention rather than to limit the invention. Therefore, it uses descriptive rather than limiting words. Obviously, it's possible to modify this invention from what the description teaches. Within the scope of the claims, one may practice the invention other than as described.