Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Vehicle control – guidance – operation – or indication – Automatic route guidance vehicle
Reexamination Certificate
2001-05-04
2002-12-31
Cuchlinski, Jr., William A. (Department: 3661)
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Vehicle control, guidance, operation, or indication
Automatic route guidance vehicle
C701S200000, C701S201000, C073S17800T
Reexamination Certificate
active
06502016
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a vehicle guidance device, and more particularly to a device which is suitably applied when an unmanned off-road dump truck is guided to travel on a work site such as a mine.
BACKGROUND ART
In a mine of a large area, an unmanned vehicle guidance traveling system for guiding to travel an unmanned vehicle such as an unmanned off-road dump truck is becoming commercially practical in order to liberate from hard work, to reduce a production cost and to decrease a fuel cost or the like.
The above unmanned vehicle is provided with a position measuring device for measuring its traveling position by GPS (global positioning system). Meanwhile, a monitor station which monitors a plurality of unmanned vehicles has position data of traveling courses along which the unmanned vehicles shall travel determined and stored by measuring a work site or by teaching. Upon receiving the position data of the traveling courses from the monitor station by radio communications or the like, the unmanned vehicle measures its own position (and direction) by the position measuring device mounted on it, compares the measured current position with its sequential positions on the traveling course and controls to steer the vehicle so to sequentially reach the respective positions on the traveling course.
As a method of obtaining the position data of a traveling course, for example a teaching method, which stores the traveling route of a teaching vehicle which is actually traveled, is commonly used.
The teaching vehicle actually travels to obtain position data of a route from a travel starting point to a target point or a route from a travel starting point to a travel termination point via a target point so that the unmanned vehicle shall pass through the target point. There is also method of generating a traveling course from position data of a target position obtained by teaching only the position data of the target position.
As shown
FIG. 12
, this mine has earth unloading area
21
where unmanned vehicle
13
works to carry and unload earth and sand, namely performs an earth unloading work. Position data of traveling course
27
having target earth unloading points
26
′ in the earth unloading area
21
are obtained by the teaching method. When the target earth unloading points
26
′ in the earth unloading area
21
are not many (about 10 points), the frequency of the teaching work can be little, and time and man-hour required to generate the traveling course can be little.
Actually, the. earth unloading area
21
in a large-area mine or the like is vast, and the target earth loading points
26
′ in the earth unloading area
21
are so many of about hundreds of points. Therefore, to obtain the position data of the traveling course
27
for each of the multiple earth unloading points
26
′,
26
′ . . . in the earth unloading area
21
by the teaching work, the frequency of teaching work becomes many, and time and man-hour required for generation of the traveling course become huge. Therefore, work efficiency is heavily degraded.
But, conventionally known publications do not describe a technology that time and man-hour for generating a traveling course are reduced so to enhance work efficiency where an earth unloading area has many target earth unloading points and the traveling course is generated so to pass through the target earth unloading points.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-187238 descries an invention which enhances the work efficiency by controlling the order that a vehicle accesses a plurality of earth unloading points. But, it does not disclose the enhancement of the work efficiency by easily preparing the traveling course to the multiple target earth unloading points in the earth unloading area.
Besides, it is necessary to dispose the target earth unloading points
26
′ uniformly and closely as much as possible within the earth unloading area
21
in order to efficiently perform the earth unloading work and subsequent leveling work. But, it is practically hard to obtain the position data of the target earth unloading points
26
′ by a manual teaching work so that the target earth unloading points
26
′ are uniformly and closely arranged as much as possible within the earth unloading area
21
.
The method of obtaining the position data of the target points also includes a method of receiving position data from a vehicle such as a wheel loader located at a target point in addition to the teaching method. But, even such a method cannot receive position data of the target earth unloading points
26
′ from the vehicle if the vehicle such as a wheel loader is not present in the earth unloading area
21
.
The present invention was achieved in view of the aforesaid circumstances. And, it is an object of the invention to enhance work efficiency in generating a traveling course by enabling to readily generate the traveling course for each of a plurality of target points in a target area without requiring much time and man-hour when an earth unloading area (target area) to which the vehicle has to reach is provided without depending on a conventional method such as the teaching method. Besides, it is an object of the invention to enhance work efficiency of earth unloading and land-leveling works by uniformly and closely forming a plurality of target earth unloading points in the earth unloading area.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
A first aspect of the invention is a vehicle guiding device which receives position data of target points where a vehicle is to reach and guides the vehicle to travel to the target points according to the position data of the target points, the device comprising:
area data input means for inputting position data of a borderline of a target area where the vehicle is to reach;
target point generating means for generating position data of a plurality of target points in the target area according to the position data of the target area which are inputted to the area data input means; and
guidance means for sequentially guiding the vehicle to travel to the plurality of target points in the target area by sequentially giving the position data of the plurality of target points generated by the target point generating means.
According to the first aspect of the invention, the position data of the plurality of target points
27
′,
26
′ . . . in the target area
21
are generated according to the position data (position data of the borderline
20
) of the target area
21
which are entered the area data input means
3
as shown in
FIG. 1
, FIG.
5
and FIG.
7
. And, the generated position data of the plurality of target points
26
′,
26
′ . . . are sequentially given to sequentially guide the vehicle
13
to travel to the plurality of target points
26
′,
26
′ . . . in the target area
21
.
Thus, according to the first aspect of the invention, the position data of the plurality of target points
26
′ . . . are obtained automatically without depending on a conventional method such as the teaching method. In other words, when the target area
21
to which the vehicle
13
has to reach is given, the plurality of target points
26
′,
26
′ . . . are automatically generated in the target area
21
. Therefore, traveling course
27
can be generated easily without requiring much time and man-hour compared with the conventional teaching method. As a result, the efficiency of the traveling course generation work is improved remarkably.
A second aspect of the invention is directed to the first aspect of the invention, wherein the target area is an earth unloading area where earth and sand are unloaded.
According to the second aspect of the invention, the target area is the earth unloading area
21
where earth and sand are unloaded as shown in FIG.
12
.
A third aspect of the invention is directed to the second aspect of the invention, wherein the target point generating means arranges a plurality of target earth unlo
Kageyama Masato
Ozaki Tomonori
Cuchlinski Jr. William A.
Hernandez Olga
Komatsu Ltd.
Varndell & Varndell PLLC
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