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US 9,309,631 B2Granted
Enhanced control of road construction equipment
AssigneeCaterpillar Trimble Control Technologies LLC
InventorsJason Grier Lindsay Hill, Helen C. Cutler, Stephen A. Miller, Chad C. Apple, James Robert McKaskill, Alan Sharp
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Novel tools and techniques for controlling road-forming machines, such as paving machines, graders, and the like. Some techniques allow a control system of a road-forming machine to transition from receiving position data from one positioning device to receiving data from another without ceasing operation and/or while limiting any resulting discontinuity in the formed road surface to within acceptable tolerances.
Claims25
A road-forming machine, comprising:
- a locomotion system configured to move the road-forming machine;
- a road-forming system configured to form a road surface continuously as the road-forming machine moves;
- a communication interface to provide communication with a plurality of position measurement devices;
- and
- a control system comprising a processor, a non-transitory storage medium, and a set of instructions executable by the processor, the set of instructions comprising:
- instructions to receive position data from two or more position measurement devices, including a first position measurement device and a second position measurement device;
- instructions to control operation of the road-forming system based on determined positions of the road-forming system and a model stored on the non-transitory storage medium;
- instructions to determine a first position of the road-forming system based on position data received from the first position measurement device;
- instructions to transition from the first position measurement device to the second position measurement device without interrupting movement of the road-forming machine or formation of the road surface and without introducing a discontinuity in the formed road surface greater than a specified threshold value;
- and
- instructions to determine a second position of the road-forming system based on position data received from the second position measurement device.
8 more elements
A control system for a road-forming machine, the control system, comprising:
- one or more processors;
- and
- a non-transitory computer readable medium in communication with the one or more processors, the computer readable medium having encoded thereon a set of instructions executable by the computer system to perform one or more operations, the set of instructions comprising:
- instructions to receive position data from two or more position measurement devices, including a first position measurement device and a second position measurement device;
- instructions to control operation of a locomotion system of the road-forming machine and a road-forming system of the road-forming machine to form a road surface continuously, based on determined positions of the road-forming system and a model stored on the non-transitory computer readable medium;
- instructions to determine a first position of the road-forming system based on position data received from the first position measurement device;
- instructions to transition from the first position measurement device to the second position measurement device without interrupting movement of the road-forming machine or formation of the road surface and without introducing a discontinuity in the road surface greater than a specified threshold value;
- and
- instructions to determine a second position of the road-forming system based on position data received from the second position measurement device.
6 more elements
A method, comprising:
- forming a road surface with a road-forming machine, the road-forming machine comprising:
- a locomotion system configured to move the road-forming machine;
- a road-forming system configured to form a road surface continually as the road-forming machine moves;
- a communication interface to provide communication with a plurality of position measurement devices;
- and
- a control system configured to control operation of the road-forming machine;
- receiving, with the control system, position data from two or more position measurement devices, including a first position measurement device and a second position measurement device;
- controlling, with the control system, operation of the locomotion system and the road-forming system based on determined positions of the road-forming system and a model stored on the non-transitory storage medium;
- determining, with the control system, a first position of the road-forming system based on position data received from the first position measurement device;
- transitioning, with the control system, from the first position measurement device to the second position measurement device without interrupting movement of the road-forming machine or formation of the road surface and without introducing a discontinuity in the formed road surface greater than a specified threshold value;
- and
- determining a second position of the road-forming system based on position data received from the second position measurement device.
9 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.