US 6,324,462 B1Granted

Speed controller for a self-traveling vehicle

AssigneeKomatsu Ltd.

InventorMasato Kageyama

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Abstract

A speed controller for a self-traveling vehicle, capable of traveling at high speed along curves, downhill roads, and uphill roads without colliding with an object detected by an object detecting means, is provided. Therefore, a speed controller, equipped in the self-traveling vehicle, previously stores a detection limit area A, of an object detecting means 1, and speed at the start of braking Vmax of every braking stop distance La, receives information on detection distance L from the object detecting means 1; information on a predetermined course Co from a course storage means 2; and information on a current position Po from a current position defining means 3, limits the detection distance L from the object detecting means 1 by the detection limit area A from the current position Po and the predetermined course Co from the current position Po; computes the speed at the start of braking Vmax with a limited detection distance Ln as the breaking stop distance La; and controls actual speed Va by operating a speed control actuator 4 to make the speed at the start of braking Vmax the upper limit.

Claims10

Dependent claims

A speed controller for a self-traveling vehicle comprising:

an object detecting means for detecting an object, in a traveling direction of said vehicle, and a distance to said object;
a course storage means for storing a predetermined course in a coordinate system;
a current position defining means for receiving coordinate information on said predetermined course from said course storage means and defining a current position of said vehicle on said predetermined course;
and
a speed control actuator,
wherein said vehicle is an unmanned vehicle;
wherein a detection limit area of said object detecting means is stored in advance, and speeds at the start of braking for respective braking stop distances are stored in advance;
wherein information on the detected distance from said object detecting means, information on the predetermined course from said course storage means, and information on the current position from said current position defining means are received respectively;
wherein the detection distance from said object detecting means to the object is a limited detection distance, which is limited by the detection limit area from the current position and the predetermined course from the current position;
wherein the speed at the start of braking is computed with the limited detection distance as the braking stop distance;
wherein actual vehicle speed is controlled by operating said speed control actuator to make the speed at the start of braking the upper speed limit;
and
wherein said speed controller stores a speed control program corresponding to said predetermined course and said vehicle travels on said predetermined course while being speed-controlled by said speed control program.

10 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.