Earth working – Automatic power control
Reexamination Certificate
1999-05-11
2001-06-19
Pezzuto, Robert E. (Department: 3671)
Earth working
Automatic power control
C037S348000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06247538
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to an automatic excavating and loading technology for automatically carrying out a series of processes for excavating excavation object, and loading a loading object with the resultant excavation.
BACKGROUND ART
An automation technology for excavating and loading has been adopted to such an artificial system environment as an asphalt plant. In this system, guide path wires are underlaid between a material storage yard to a hopper, and the materials in the material storage yard are loaded onto the hopper by moving such an automatic excavating machines as a power shovel and a wheel loader along these guide path wires.
The guiding system using guide path wires laid like this, however, is only suitable for a stationary type system in which a material storage yard, a hopper, etc. are installed at fixed positions, but cannot be used for a site where the working position constantly changes, such as a civil engineering work site which includes a rock crushing site, mine and land development. In such a civil engineering work site, loading objects are normally not a stationary type, such as a hopper, but are a mobile type, such as a dump truck, and in this case, because the dump truck does not always remain in the same position, a function to automatically recognize the position of the dump truck is necessary.
A conventional automatic excavating and loading technology which has been applied to a civil engineering work site in a natural environment, including an excavating site, mine and land development, is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid Open No. 5-297942.
In this conventional art, a current position of a crawler dump truck is computed in real-time, by a bi-directional tracking system comprising an automatic tracking unit disposed at the crawler dump truck and an automatic tracking unit disposed at a fixed station, and by a coordinate position computing system disposed at the crawler dump truck. The crawler dump truck automatically travels along the traveling path while comparing this computed current position with the traveling path coordinates which are set such that the loading position (excavating position) and the unloading position are connected. At the loading position (excavating position) where earth is loaded using a power shovel, the shape of excavation object for loading is measured by an ultrasonic sensor installed on the power shovel, and the working pattern of the power shovel is determined based on this, so that the excavation object is automatically loaded onto the crawler dump truck without any human operators.
In this conventional art, where the shape of excavation object is recognized by an ultrasonic sensor, the shape of excavation object, which is the object of excavation, cannot be accurately measured since the ultrasonic sensor can only measure a distance to one point. Also, an ultrasonic sensor, which can measure only a short distance, cannot be used for an excavation and loading operation where the moving range is large.
Also in this conventional art, a position of the mobile type loading object (in this case, a crawler dump truck) and a relative attitude of the excavator (in this case, a power shovel) with respect to the loading object, are not detected. Therefore, the position of the loading object and the relative attitude of the excavator with respect to the loading object cannot always be detected accurately at the excavator side. As a result, excavation object is frequently spilled, and in an extreme case, collision between the excavator and the loading object may occur.
With the foregoing in view, it is an object of the present invention to provide an automatic excavator which can carry out a series of operations, from excavation to loading, automatically and efficiently using one automatic machine.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an automatic excavator which can carry out an efficient excavation operation by increasing the amount of excavation object to be excavated at each excavation.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is an automatic excavator adapted to automatically carry out a series of processes for excavating an excavation object and loading a loading object with resultant excavation, comprising a measuring instrument for determining distances from the excavator to the excavation object and the loading object; excavation object recognition means for recognizing a three-dimensional shape of the excavation object on the basis of an output from the measuring instrument; target excavation position computing means for computing a target excavation position on the basis of the three-dimensional shape of the excavation object; target loading position computing means for computing a relative position of the loading object with respect to the excavator and a relative attitude of the excavator with respect to the loading object on the basis of an output from the measuring instrument, and computing a target loading position on the basis of the computed relative position; automatic positioning means for automatically positioning the excavator or a working machine in the computed target excavation position and target loading position; automatic excavation control means for automatically excavating the excavation object in the target excavation position; and automatic loading control means for automatically loading the loading object with the excavation in the target loading position.
According to such an invention, the excavator determines the target excavation position and the target loading position from the recognition result of excavation object and the loading object, and automatically carries out the excavation operation and the loading operation at the determined target excavation position and the target loading position, so that a series of operations from excavation to loading can be carried out automatically and efficiently using one automatic machine. Also in this invention, a three-dimensional shape of excavation object is measured and the target excavation position is determined on the basis of this shape data, so that the excavation operation can be carried out to an optimum excavation position and an efficient excavation operation can be implemented.
Also in the present invention, the automatic excavator adapted to automatically excavate excavation object comprises three-dimensional shape recognition means for recognizing a three-dimensional shape of the excavation object; identification means for identifying a protruding position of the excavation object on the basis of the recognized three-dimensional shape of the excavation object; and excavation means for automatically performing excavation regarding the identified protruding position of the excavation object as the target excavation position.
According to such an invention, a protruding position (tip of convex parts of the landform) of excavation object is identified on the basis of the recognized three-dimensional shape of the excavation object, and excavation is automatically carried out regarding the identified position as the target excavation position, therefore the amount of excavation each time can be increased and an efficient excavation operation can be implemented.
Also in the present invention, in the automatic excavation method for the excavator to automatically excavate excavation object, beacons indicating the range of the excavation of excavation object are disposed near the excavation object, and a visual sensor for picking up the image of the beacons is disposed at the excavator so that the excavator identifies the excavation range by processing the image data picked up by the visual sensor.
According to such an invention, the beacons indicating the range of the excavation of excavation object are disposed and the visual sensor disposed at the excavator side recognizes the beacons to identify the excavation range, therefore the excavation range can be identified without complicated and troublesome image processing, and a practical excavation system can be implemented at low cost.
Also
Hiyoshi Megumi
Ozaki Tomonori
Takeda Shu
Tojima Masanori
Diller Ramik & Wight
Komatsu Ltd.
Pezzuto Robert E.
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