System and method of monitoring and adjusting blade pitch to inhibit blade damage
AssigneeCaterpillar Inc.
InventorsMichael C. Gentle, Ethan M. Tevis, Nathaniel K. Harshman
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
System and method for inhibiting damage to a moldboard of a mobile work machine including a blade pitch sensor, a camera configured to detect the blade cutting edge, and a controller configured to determine a maximum allowable pitch of the blade based upon current width of the cutting edge determined from a camera signal. The controller determines if the current measured pitch is greater than the maximum allowable pitch of the blade based upon characteristics of the mobile work machine and the current width of the cutting edge to prevent damage to the moldboard.
Claims20
A mobile work machine, the mobile work machine having given machine parameters and comprising:
- a frame,
- a plurality of wheels supporting the frame, one or more of the plurality of wheels being driven,
- a blade extending from the frame toward a surface underlying the mobile work machine, the blade including a cutting edge, the cutting edge being disposed along a lower edge of the blade,
- one or more blade tilt cylinders configured to articulate the blade to a plurality of pitch angles,
- a blade pitch sensor configured to detect a current pitch of the blade,
- a camera, the camera configured to detect the cutting edge, and
- a control system to control damage to the blade, the control system including at least one controller configured to:
- receive image data,
- determine a current width of the cutting edge based on the image data, and
- determine a maximum allowable pitch angle of the blade based on one or more machine parameters of the machine and based on the current width of the cutting edge, wherein exceeding the maximum allowable pitch angle is associated with a damage condition of the blade.
A system for controlling damage to a blade of a motor grader, the blade including a cutting edge, the cutting edge being disposed along a lower edge of the blade, the motor grader further including one or more blade tilt cylinders configured to articulate the blade to a plurality of pitch angles, the system comprising:
- a blade pitch sensor configured to detect a current pitch of the blade,
- a camera that is configured to detect the cutting edge, and
- a control system including a controller configured to:
- receive image data associated with the camera,
- determine a current width of the cutting edge based on the image data, and
- determine a maximum allowable pitch angle of the blade based on one or more machine parameters of the motor grader and based on the current width of the cutting edge, wherein exceeding the maximum allowable pitch angle is associated with a damage condition of the blade.
A method of controlling damage to a blade of a motor grader, the blade including a cutting edge, the cutting edge being disposed along a lower edge of the blade, the motor grader further including one or more blade tilt cylinders configured to articulate the blade to a plurality of pitch angles, the method including:
- determining a current width of the cutting edge based on image data associated with a camera of the motor grader that is configured to detect the cutting edge,
- determining a maximum allowable pitch angle of the blade based on one or more machine parameters of the motor grader and based on the current width of the cutting edge, wherein exceeding the maximum allowable pitch angle is associated with a damage condition of the blade,
- determining a current pitch angle of the blade,
- determining that the current pitch angle exceeds the maximum allowable pitch angle;
- and
- based on determining that the current pitch angle exceeds the maximum allowable pitch angle, at least one of causing an action to be performed or indicating that an action is to be performed, in relation to the current pitch angle, to avoid the damage condition.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.