Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Navigation
Reexamination Certificate
1998-07-20
2001-02-27
Hafer, Robert A. (Department: 3712)
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Navigation
C701S001000, C701S025000, C701S026000, C701S041000, C701S050000, C701S070000, C701S206000, C701S207000, C701S210000, C701S217000, C701S221000, C701S301000, C434S305000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06195610
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to an unmanned vehicle, and particularly to a teaching method and an apparatus for an unmanned vehicle which travels along a course.
BACKGROUND ART
Conventionally, an unmanned dump truck driving system is known as a system for transporting earth and sand by a dump truck for use, for instance in a quarrying site or the like of a large area. An example of an unmanned dump truck driving system is as described below. Teaching the traveling course to the unmanned dump truck is conducted by a specified method, and the coordinate data on the traveling course at each predetermined distance and each predetermined time are stored in a storage unit. At the time of automatic traveling, the unmanned dump truck confirms the current position where the dump truck is actually traveling at each predetermined sampling time, and computes the deviation between the actual position and the aforementioned traveling course data previously stored. Then, in order to reduce the deviation, the traveling control of steering, vehicle speed, start and halt of the unmanned dump truck is conducted, and the unmanned dump truck is controlled so as to run along the traveling course previously stored.
For example, Japanese Laid Open Patent Application No. 5-297942 discloses an unmanned dump truck driving system provided with an unmanned crawler dump truck, a loader, and a fixed station as shown in FIG.
26
. Explaining the system based on
FIG. 26
, an unmanned crawler dump truck
91
and a fixed station
93
are respectively provided with bidirectional automatic tracking devices
94
and
95
. The bidirectional automatic tracking devices
94
and
95
are automatically controlled by a control circuit section (not shown) so as to always receive light waves, which are sent to each other, on the front thereof. Thereby the distance and the direction of the unmanned crawler dump truck
91
, with the fixed station
93
being set as a reference position, can be measured. Based on the measured results, a control device, not illustrated, in the fixed station
93
computes the current position of the unmanned crawler dump truck
91
as coordinate data in the driving system. The computed current position data are transmitted to the unmanned crawler dump truck
91
side by the medium of a data transmitter (not illustrated). Further, a loading position P
1
at which the loader
92
loads the unmanned crawler dump truck
91
with earth and sand, or the like, and an unloading position P
2
at which earth and sand, or the like loaded is discharged are provided in the driving system.
An automatic traveling course
96
for the unmanned crawler dump truck
91
to reciprocate between the loading position P
1
and the unloading position P
2
is obtained by teaching. The course data of the automatic traveling course
96
for which teaching is conducted are stored in the storage unit (not illustrated) of the unmanned crawler dump truck
91
. When the unmanned crawler dump truck
91
conducts automatic traveling, the control device of the unmanned crawler dump truck
91
gives instructions to traveling control means (not illustrated) to control the steering, vehicle speed, start, and halt so as to reduce the deviation between the current position of the unmanned crawler dump truck
91
which is traveling and the course data in the aforementioned storage unit. In this way, the unmanned crawler dump truck
91
conducts automatic traveling along the automatic traveling course
96
between the loading position P
1
and the unloading position P
2
, for which teaching has been conducted.
The teaching of the automatic traveling course
96
is conducted as described in the below. The operator of the dump truck gets into the driver's seat, and at first moves the crawler dump truck
91
to the loading position P
1
to set the loading position P
1
as a starting point. Thereafter, the automatic tracking devices
94
and
95
of the unmanned crawler dump truck
91
and the fixed station
93
, are actuated, and each of them is automatically controlled so as to always receive the light waves, which both of the automatic tracking devices
94
and
95
send to each other, on the front thereof. The fixed station
93
computes the coordinate data of the current position of the unmanned crawler dump truck
91
at this time, and the current position data is transmitted to the unmanned crawler dump truck
91
side and stored in the storage unit.
Next, the operator operates the unmanned crawler dump truck
91
at a predetermined vehicle speed (for example, about 5 km/h) along the desired automatic traveling course
96
. At this time, the control device of the unmanned crawler dump truck
91
conducts sampling at each predetermined interval (for example, 50 cm, or less) of the automatic traveling course
96
, and the traveling coordinate data at each sampling point are stored in the storage unit in the unmanned crawler dump truck
91
. The coordinate data is also stored at the unloading position P
2
similarly to the above, and further the automatic traveling course
96
from the unloading position P
2
up to the loading position P
1
is also stored. After the teaching is completed, the unmanned crawler dump truck
91
conducts automatic traveling based on the course data in the storage unit.
However, in the aforementioned conventional teaching method, when a traveling course is changed, teaching has to be conducted again by operating the entire traveling course once again. For example, the change of the loading position P
1
or the like is frequently required, therefore the change of the teaching has to be frequently conducted. In addition, strict positioning and vehicle attitude are required at the loading position P
1
and the unloading position P
2
, therefore it is necessary to redo teaching many times under certain circumstances. Even in this case, teaching has to be redone by conducting teaching operation of the entire traveling course. Therefore, a great deal of time is spent on the change. In addition, the other dump trucks cannot operate while the change of teaching is made. Therefore, it is necessary to temporarily stop the operation of the unmanned vehicle driving system, thereby causing a disadvantage of reducing the availability of the unmanned vehicle driving system.
When conducting teaching of a simple reciprocating traveling course as in the aforementioned conventional method, the halt position at the time of conducting the teaching route is consistently considered as an earth discharging position, and earth can be discharged at this halt position at the time of automatic operation. However, when a plurality of dump trucks
3
run on the same automatic traveling course
96
, standby is conducted to prevent interference with and collision against one another, or switching of moving forward [from/to] and/or reversing is conducted before the loading position P
1
and the unloading position P
2
. Therefore, the traveling course becomes complicated. For this reason, it is necessary to conduct teaching of the functions (whether standby, switching moving forward [from/to] and/or reversing, discharging earth, and the like) at these halt positions in correspondence to the traveling course.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is made to eliminate the disadvantages of the aforementioned conventional art, and its object is to provide a teaching method and an apparatus of an unmanned vehicle traveling course by which the change of teaching of a traveling course can be made in a short time, teaching can be conducted easily without disturbing the other operating unmanned vehicles, and the operation items of the unmanned vehicle on the traveling course can be set with ease.
A teaching method of an unmanned vehicle traveling course according to the present invention is a teaching method of an unmanned vehicle traveling course including the steps of conducting teaching operation of an unmanned vehicle with human assistance along an automatic traveling course at the time of teach
Hafer Robert A.
Komatsu Ltd.
Rovnak John Edmund
Sidney & Austin
LandOfFree
Teaching method and apparatus of unmanned vehicle traveling... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Teaching method and apparatus of unmanned vehicle traveling..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Teaching method and apparatus of unmanned vehicle traveling... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2568896