Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Vehicle control – guidance – operation – or indication – Construction or agricultural-type vehicle
Patent
1998-07-20
2000-10-17
Chin, Gary
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Vehicle control, guidance, operation, or indication
Construction or agricultural-type vehicle
701 23, 701 25, 340988, G06F16500
Patent
active
061344931
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for preventing the entrance of an unmanned dump truck into a work area, so that interference and collision between vehicles are prevented, and the invention particularly relates to a method and an apparatus for preventing the entrance of an unmanned dump truck when the unmanned dump truck enters the inside of a loading area where a loader works.
BACKGROUND ART
Conventionally, an unmanned dump truck driving system is well known as a system for transporting earth and sand by a dump truck in a wide range of quarries or the like. The examples of the aforementioned unmanned dump truck driving system are as described below. Teaching a traveling course of an unmanned dump truck has been previously conducted by a specified method, and the coordinate data at each predetermined distance on the traveling course, or at predetermined times, are stored in a storage device. During automatic traveling, the unmanned dump truck confirms the current position at each predetermined sampling time, and the deviation between the actual traveling position and the aforementioned traveling course data, as previously stored, is computed. The steering, vehicle speed, and starting and stopping of the unmanned dump truck are controlled to decrease the deviation, so that the unmanned dump truck is controlled to travel along the traveling course previously stored.
Normally, at specified positions in an unmanned dump truck driving system, a loading site is provided, in an excavating and quarrying site (commonly called a face, and hereinafter referred to as a face), where earth and sand or the like are loaded into the rear deck of the unmanned dump truck, and an earth discharging site (commonly called a hopper, and hereinafter referred to as a hopper) is provided where earth and sand or the like, which have been loaded, are discharged. A plurality of unmanned dump trucks travel between the loading site and the hopper along an automatic traveling course, and repeatedly conduct the operation of discharging the earth and sand or the like, which have been loaded by a loader at the loading site, into the hopper. In such an unmanned dump truck driving system, in many cases, a plurality of unmanned dump trucks are traveling in close proximity to one another in a working area, for example, a loading site, and it is important to prevent collision between these unmanned vehicles.
As a method relating to the prevention of collision, a method for controlling the traveling of an unmanned motor vehicle, such as an unmanned dump truck, is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 5127746. FIG. 5 shows a traveling control method, in a loading area 91 around a face, where a loader (working vehicle) 92 works. The unmanned dump truck 3 has position detecting means (not illustrated) for detecting its current position in a coordinate system on an automatic traveling course 96. The unmanned dump truck 3 travels automatically, with the speed, steering, and the like being controlled by a control means (not illustrated), so as to decrease the deviation obtained by comparing the course data, previously determined by teaching or the like, to the current position detected by the position detecting means. In one embodiment, a plurality of unmanned dump trucks 3, 3a, and 3b are traveling on the same automatic traveling course 96. The unmanned dump truck 3 transmits its current position to other unmanned dump trucks 3a and 3b by means of a transmitter (not illustrated), and receives the current positions of the other unmanned dump trucks 3a and 3b by means of a receiver (not illustrated), so that they recognize the positions of each other.
At the face, the loader 92 loads the unmanned dump truck 3a at a predetermined position. FIG. 5 shows a situation in which the unmanned dump truck 3a stops at a loading position 2. At this point, it is assumed that the other unmanned dump trucks 3 and 3b are approaching the loading position 2, traveling on the automatic traveling c
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Chin Gary
Komatsu Ltd.
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