Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Vehicle control – guidance – operation – or indication – Construction or agricultural-type vehicle
Reexamination Certificate
2001-09-14
2004-08-17
Chin, Gary (Department: 3661)
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Vehicle control, guidance, operation, or indication
Construction or agricultural-type vehicle
C701S029000, C701S033000, C340S438000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06778893
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for controlling construction machines by judging an abnormality such as a failure of the construction machines and processing the abnormality, such as repairing, according to the judged result.
2. Description of the Related Art
Construction machines such as hydraulic excavators, dump trucks, bulldozers and wheel loaders are often operated continuously at a worksite in order to complete the construction within the construction term demanded by a contractor. Therefore, where a construction machine has an abnormality such as a failure, it is necessary to quickly make a repair or the like to make downtime as short as possible. Besides, it is difficult to provide an alternative construction machine into the worksite immediately because the construction machine costs high, its models and quantity kept in a motor pool and the models and quantity to be rent are limited.
At present, the construction machines require substantially the same maintenance cost (parts cost, wages, etc.) as the initial selling price, making the maintenance cost high.
Therefore, it is necessary to make an early and accurate judgment about an abnormality such as a failure which occurs in a construction machine and to make arrangements for parts soon and to repair swiftly, in order to reduce the maintenance cost and to improve the rate of operation at a construction site. For example, the maintenance cost can be reduced and the repair time can also be made short by properly changing or adjusting appropriate parts before the engine is heavily damaged.
Accordingly, it is conventional for a maintenance person (maintenance person) to go to the construction machine to visually check it or to connect a personal computer to it so to download data related to the construction machine written into the memory within the construction machine, thereby obtaining information (service meter's clocking value, fuel consumption, engine speed, etc.) about the construction machine. Data collected from a plurality of construction machines are stored in the memory of the computer in Administration Department of a manufacturer of the construction machines to control the plurality of construction machines.
But, the aforesaid method has a disadvantage that collection of information is troublesome and an efficiency of collecting information is not good as the number of construction machine increases because information is collected manually.
Recently, it is seen in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 8-144312 (hereinafter called the first publication) and Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 11-144312 (hereinafter called the second publication) that it is attempted to obtain information about construction machines automatically by communications means without depending on people.
The invention described in the first publication sends detected data of an operating state of a construction machine, an error code based on the detected data and an error code based on a visual inspection to Management Division of a manufacturer or the like through a communications device to show the error codes on a display screen on the side of Management Division, so that the abnormality of the construction machine is determined by a person, and a repair or the like is asked to a maintenance person.
Meanwhile, the second publication temporarily stores an error code based on the detected data of an operating state of a construction machine, and detected data immediately before the error code, namely snapshot data, into the memory mounted in the construction machine, sends the data stored in the memory to Management Division of a manufacturer or the like through a communications device, automatically judges the abnormality of the construction machine on the side of Management Division in view of the error code and the snapshot data, and requests a repair or the like to a maintenance person if the construction machine is judged abnormal.
According to the invention described in the first embodiment, the abnormality is judged depending on a person. Therefore, it has a disadvantage that the judgment is variable.
According to the invention described in the second publication, it does not have a disadvantage that the judgment is variable. But, because the abnormality is judged based on the error code and the snapshot data only, the judgment may not be made accurately. In other words, the error code and the snapshot data are data obtained from the detected values by the sensors disposed in the construction machine. But, the abnormality in the construction machine can be determined for the first time by combining the sensor-detected values, the visually checked results and the results of analyzing oil, etc.
Therefore, it is a first object of the present invention to enable an accurate judgment of the abnormality by adding information other than the sensor-detected values.
According to the inventions described in the first and second publications, the occurrence of an error code is basically judged that an abnormality has occurred.
But, the error code does not always mean an actual abnormality. In other words, the error code is generated by a controller within the construction machine. The controller is produced according to specifications so that it generates an error code even if the abnormality is minor in order to improve safety. For example, it is assumed that a construction machine has an overrun on a downward slope or the like. In this case, whenever the engine speed has over-revolutions, an error code indicating the overrun is generated even if the abnormality such as an engine damage or a brake damage has not occurred. And, it often happens that Management Division judges from the error code that there is an abnormality, and dispatches a maintenance person to the site, but the abnormality is not so serious as to require an urgent repair.
Conversely, when it is specified to generate an error code only when an abnormality actually occurs, the generation of the abnormality is not found previously, and the construction machine must be repaired after its breakdown, probably resulting in large downtime.
As described above, the prior art judges univocally whether there is an abnormality or not, so that is has disadvantages that a state with low urgency is judged abnormal and a state with high urgency is overlooked.
Therefore, it is a second object of the present invention to enable the judgment of an abnormality degree, namely a degree of urgency, and to enable proper processing of the abnormality according to the judged result.
The inventions described in the first and second publications judge an abnormality on the basis of information about a construction machine on the side of Management Division of a manufacturer or the like, and when it is judged abnormal, dispatches a maintenance person to the site to make a repair. In other words, the judged result as abnormal is information useful not only for Maintenance Division which makes a repair but also for Management Division, Sales Division and Production Division. Besides, abnormality-judging levels are different among Maintenance Division, Management Division, Sales Division and Production Division. For example, Maintenance Division needs to rush to the site to check an abnormality of a construction machine before the occurrence of a failure. Therefore, Maintenance Division needs information about even a slight abnormality. For Production Division, information about a miner abnormality is not significant but information about an abnormality with some seriousness is important because Production Division has to make a design change or the like. Management Division needs information about an abnormality having high possibility. Conversely, Maintenance Division may not make a repair quickly if information is limited to a serious abnormality. For Management Division, information about a minor abnormality is useless, and useful information might be disregarded as a result.
Thus, the level of information reques
Murakami Taku
Murase Megumi
Taninaga Tadashi
Chin Gary
Komatsu Ltd.
Varndell & Varndell PLLC
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