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US 8,412,418 B2Granted
Industrial machine
AssigneeTopcon Corporation
InventorsKaoru Kumagai, Atsushi Tanahashi, Hitoshi Otani
Life of this patent
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AssigneeTopcon Corporation
InventorsKaoru Kumagai, Atsushi Tanahashi, Hitoshi Otani
Estimating the term…
An industrial machine comprises an industrial machine main unit, a construction working implement installed on the industrial machine main unit, two cameras each mounted at a known position with respect to a machine center of the industrial machine main unit, at least three targets being installed on the working implement so that the targets are within visual field of each of the two cameras, and an arithmetic processing device. The arithmetic processing device is used for extracting the images of at least three targets in common to the images from stereo-images taken by the two cameras, for obtaining a three-dimensional position of each target image, and for calculating a position and a posture of the working implement with respect to the industrial machine main unit based on the three-dimensional position obtained.
An industrial machine, comprising an industrial machine main unit, a construction working implement installed on said industrial machine main unit, two cameras each mounted at a known position with respect to a machine center of said industrial machine main unit, at least three targets being installed on said working implement so that the targets are within visual field of each of said two cameras, wherein one of said targets comprises a GPS device, said GPS device adapted to determine a coordinate position, and an arithmetic processing device for extracting images of at least three targets in common to the images from stereo-images taken by said two cameras, for obtaining a three-dimensional position of each target, for calculating a position and a posture of said working implement with respect to the industrial machine main unit based on the three-dimensional position obtained and said coordinate position of said GPS device, and for controlling said working implement based on said position and posture.
A method for controlling the posture and position of a working implement of an industrial machine, said industrial machine comprising an industrial machine main unit and said working implement installed on said industrial machine main unit, said method comprising:
A method for controlling the posture and position of a working implement of an industrial machine, said industrial machine comprising an industrial machine main unit and said working implement installed on said industrial machine main unit, said method comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.
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From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.
Interpretation of pictures: by comparison of two or more pictures of the same area
Scraper blade mounted forwardly of the tractor on a pair of pivoting arms which are linked to the sides of the tractor, e.g. bulldozers: with the…
For positioning the blade, e.g. hydraulically: using electromagnetic, optical or acoustic beams to determine the blade position, e.g. laser beams
Using electromagnetic waves other than radio waves: determination of attitude
About 4 years of term left · ends 29 Oct 2030 (estimated)
The present invention is an industrial machine that can detect a position and a posture of a working implement of the industrial machine with respect to the industrial machine main unit. For instance, the present invention relates to a construction machine such as bulldozer, power shovel, etc. In particular, the invention relates to a construction machine, in which it is possible to detect the position and the posture of the construction working implement such as soil-pushing blade, bucket, etc. with respect to a construction machine main unit.
In civil engineering operation, e.g. in ground-leveling operation by using bulldozer, it is indispensable to accurately identify the position and the posture (such as tilting) of a ground-leveling implement (bulldozer blade) with respect to a ground surface to be leveled for the purpose of accomplishing the ground-leveling operation with high accuracy. Also, it is essential to accurately detect the position and the posture (such as tilting) of the ground-leveling implement for the purpose of carrying out the ground-leveling operation as initially planned without depending on a sense of an operator of the construction machine.
In the past, a construction machine for detecting height and position of the ground-leveling implement has been known and disclosed in JP-A-2005-337741.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view to show a case where the present invention is applied on a bulldozer;
FIG. 2 is a block diagram to show an approximate arrangement of a posture detecting system according to the present invention;
FIG. 3 is a flowchart to explain an operation of a position detection and a posture detection according to the present invention;
A description will be given below on the best mode for carrying out the present invention by referring to the attached drawings.
First, referring to FIG. 1, a description will be given on an example of a construction machine, in which the present invention is carried out.
In FIG. 1, a bulldozer 7 is shown as a construction machine, and the bulldozer 7 is provided with a bulldozer blade 8 mounted on its front surface as a construction working implement. The blade 8 is disposed at a forward end of an arm 15, which is attached on a bulldozer main unit 14. The blade 8 is so designed that the blade 8 can be rotated in directions along four axes with respect to the bulldozer 7 so that the blade 8 can have various types of postures to match a multi-functional purposes.