The present invention relates to a work machine, such as a hydraulic excavator.
To perform work using a work machine, such as a hydraulic excavator, a hitherto known control system performs excavating shaping work semi-automatically by operating the work machine, correcting the operator's operation, using three-dimensional design data of a terrain profile.
Patent Document 1, for example, discloses a control system for a construction machine. When an operator performs an operation involving an arm, the control system for a construction machine determines that the operator attempts to perform shaping work and causes a boom to automatically operate so as to offset a velocity component perpendicular to a target surface of design data of a bucket distal end velocity resulting from the arm operation (hereinafter referred to as a perpendicular velocity).
The control system enables, in work involving excavation of a horizontal target surface disposed ahead of a machine body (leveling work), the operator to perform the excavating shaping work of the target surface through an operation of the arm only. Additionally, the operator can perform the semi-automatic excavating shaping work at an intended velocity by adjusting a velocity component parallel to the target surface of the bucket distal end velocity resulting from the arm operation (hereinafter referred to as an excavation velocity) such that rough excavation, in which a greater emphasis is placed on an amount of work done than on accuracy, is performed at a high velocity and finish excavation that requires higher accuracy is performed at a low velocity. This is because the excavation velocity is higher than the perpendicular velocity in an arm operation and the excavation velocity is lower than the perpendicular velocity in a boom operation, and the excavation velocity varies mainly depending on the arm operating velocity.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent No. 5548306
The work machine incorporating the control system disclosed in Patent Document 1 can, however, impair excavating shaping accuracy because of difficulties involved in performing the semi-automatic excavating shaping work at a velocity intended by the operator, depending on a positional relation between the machine body and the target surface.
When a vertical target surface ahead of the machine body is to be excavated, for example, operating the arm in a pull direction as in leveling work causes the bucket to depart from the target surface, thus disabling excavating. Operating the arm in a push direction opposite from the pull direction causes the bucket distal end velocity to be oriented upward, opposite from an excavating direction. In addition, the perpendicular velocity by the arm operation is higher than in the leveling work. Thus, even a slight variation in an operation amount of the arm results in a great variation in the perpendicular velocity. Meanwhile, the bucket distal end velocity by a boom lowering operation is oriented downward and coincides with the excavating direction, and the excavation velocity varies according to the boom operating velocity. Additionally, the perpendicular velocity by the boom lowering operation is lower than in the leveling work. The boom velocity thus varies greatly in order to offset the great variation in the perpendicular velocity occurring as a result of the variation in the operation amount of the arm. Accordingly, the variation in the excavation velocity increases, which makes it difficult for the operator to perform the semi-automatic excavating shaping work at the intended velocity, leading to impaired excavating shaping accuracy.
The present invention has been made to solve the foregoing problem, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a work machine that enables an operator to easily perform semi-automatic excavating shaping work at an intended excavation velocity.
To achieve the foregoing object, the present invention provides a work machine, including: a machine body; a work implement mounted rotatably on the machine body and including a plurality of driven members connected rotatably with each other; a plurality of actuators driving the plurality of driven members; a plurality of operation devices for operating the plurality of driven members; a posture detection device detecting a posture of the machine body and the plurality of driven members; a design data input device for inputting design surface information; and an information processing device controlling driving of the plurality of actuators in response to each of operation signals of the plurality of operation devices, the information processing device extracting position information of a target surface that serves as a work object from the design surface information, calculating a target velocity of a work point at a predetermined position on the work implement using each of the operation signals of the plurality of operation devices, calculating a distance between the work point and the target surface on the basis of posture information of the plurality of driven members and position information of the target surface, and correcting a velocity component perpendicular to the target surface of the target velocity according to the distance such that the work point does not penetrate the target surface. In the work machine, the information processing device performs, before calculating the target velocity, weighting on each of the operation signals of the plurality of operation devices according to contribution of the work point to a velocity component parallel to the target surface on the basis of the posture information of the plurality of driven members and the position information of the target surface.
In accordance with the present invention having the configurations as described above, weighting is performed on each of the operation signals of the operation devices such that a weight on the operation signal of the actuator contributing greatly to the excavation velocity (velocity component parallel to the target surface) increases and a weight on the operation signal of the actuator contributing slightly to the excavation velocity decreases, before the target velocity of the work point at a predetermined position on the work implement is calculated. Through the foregoing weighting, the correction according to the distance between the target surface and the work point is performed mainly on the operation signal of the actuator contributing slightly to the excavation velocity and the correction on the operation signal of the actuator contributing greatly to the excavation velocity is suppressed, so that the operator can easily perform semi-automatic excavating shaping work at the intended excavation velocity.
The work machine in accordance with the present invention enables the operator to easily perform the semi-automatic excavating shaping work at an intended excavation velocity.
Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings and using a hydraulic excavator as a work machine according to the embodiments of the present invention. In the drawings, like or corresponding parts are identified by identical reference numerals and descriptions for those parts will be omitted as appropriate.
The work implement 15 is mounted at a front portion of the upper swing structure 10 rotatably in a vertical direction. The upper swing structure 10 includes a cab. A track right operation lever device 1a, a track left operation lever device 1b, and operation devices are disposed inside the cab. The operation devices are intended for directing an operation of the work implement 15 and a swing operation of the upper swing structure 10. The operation devices include a right operation lever device 1c and a left operation lever device 1d.
The right operation lever device 1c outputs, for example, a signal directing an operation of a boom 11 (boom operation signal) in response to a lever operation in a fore-aft direction. The right operation lever device 1c outputs, for example, a signal directing an operation of a bucket 8 (bucket operation signal) in response to a lever operation in a left-right direction. Specifically, the right operation lever device 1c in the present embodiment constitutes a boom operation device for operating the boom 11 and a bucket operation device for operating the bucket 8.
The left operation lever device 1d outputs, for example, a signal directing an operation of the upper swing structure 10 (swing operation signal) in response to a lever operation in the fore-aft direction. The left operation lever device 1d outputs, for example, a signal directing an operation of an arm 12 (arm operation signal) in response to a lever operation in the left-right direction. Specifically, the left operation lever device 1d in the present embodiment constitutes a swing operation device for operating the upper swing structure 10 and an arm operation device for operating the arm 12.
The work implement 15 has an articulated structure and includes the boom 11, the arm 12, and the bucket 8 that serve as driven members connected rotatably with respect to each other. The boom 11 is connected with a front side of the upper swing structure 10 rotatably in the vertical direction. The arm 12 is connected with a distal end portion of the boom 11 rotatably in the vertical or fore-aft direction. The bucket 8 is connected with a distal end portion of the arm rotatably in the vertical or fore-aft direction. The boom 11 rotates with respect to the upper swing structure 10 in the vertical direction through extension and contraction of a boom cylinder 5. The arm 12 rotates with respect to the boom 11 in the vertical or fore-aft direction through extension and contraction of an arm cylinder 6. The bucket 8 rotates with respect to the arm 12 in the vertical or fore-aft direction through extension and contraction of a bucket cylinder 7.
To compute a position of any point in the work implement 15, the hydraulic excavator 600 includes a first posture sensor 13a, a second posture sensor 13b, a third posture sensor 13c, and a machine body posture sensor 13d. The first posture sensor 13a is disposed near a connection portion between the upper swing structure 10 and the boom 11 and detects an angle of the boom 11 relative to a horizontal plane (boom angle). The second posture sensor 13b is disposed near a connection portion between the boom 11 and the arm 12 and detects an angle of the arm 12 relative to the horizontal plane (arm angle). The third posture sensor 13c is disposed at a bucket link 8a, which connects the arm 12 with the bucket 8, and detects an angle of the bucket link 8a relative to the horizontal plane (bucket angle). The machine body posture sensor 13d detects inclination angles (a roll angle and a pitch angle) of the upper swing structure 10 relative to the horizontal plane. It is noted that the first posture sensor 13a to the third posture sensor 13c may each be a sensor detecting a relative angle.
The angles detected by the posture sensors 13a to 13d are input as posture signals to an information processing device 100, which will be described later. The posture sensors 13a to 13d constitute a posture detection device that detects a posture of the machine body and the work implement 15 of the hydraulic excavator 600.
The control valve 20 controls flow (flow rate and direction) of hydraulic fluid to be supplied from the hydraulic pump unit 2 to each of actuators including the swing hydraulic motor 4, the boom cylinder 5, the arm cylinder 6, the bucket cylinder 7, and the left and right track hydraulic motors 3b.
The information processing device 100 receives a boom operation signal and a bucket operation signal from the right operation lever device 1c, receives a swing operation signal and an arm operation signal from the left operation lever device 1d, receives first posture information, second posture information, third posture information, and machine body posture information from the first posture sensor 13a, the second posture sensor 13b, the third posture sensor 13c, and the machine body posture sensor 13d, respectively, and receives design surface information from a design data input device 18. The information processing device 100 then calculates a corrected velocity signal and transmits the corrected velocity signal to the control valve drive unit 200. The control valve drive unit 200 generates a control valve drive signal according to the corrected velocity signal to thereby drive the control valve 20.
The target surface setting section 110 extracts position information of the target surface that serves as a work object from the design surface information input from the design data input device 18 so as to be compatible with the position information from the posture sensors 13a to 13d. The target surface setting section 110 then outputs the position information to the target velocity calculation section 120 and the target velocity correction section 130. It is noted that, in extracting the position information of the target surface that serves as the work object, the target surface setting section 110 may assume, as the target surface, a design surface disposed vertically downward with respect to a distal end of the work implement 15 or, when no design surface exists vertically downward with respect to the distal end of the work implement 15, a design surface anterior to or posterior to the distal end of the work implement 15.
The target surface is represented by an angle and a height. Reference is now made to
Reference is made back to
Reference is made back to
Operations of the hydraulic excavator 600 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to
Section B in
Section B in
In accordance with the hydraulic excavator 600 according to the present embodiment having the configurations as described above, weighting is performed on each of the operation signals of the operation devices 1c and 1d such that a weight on the operation signal of the actuator contributing greatly to the excavation velocity (velocity component parallel to the target surface) increases and a weight on the operation signal of the actuator contributing slightly to the excavation velocity decreases, before the target velocity of the work point at a predetermined position on the work implement 15 (e.g., a bucket distal end) is calculated. Through the foregoing weighting, the correction according to the distance between the target surface and the work point is performed mainly on the operation signal of the actuator contributing slightly to the excavation velocity, and the correction on the operation signal of the actuator contributing greatly to the excavation velocity is suppressed, so that the operator can easily perform semi-automatic excavating shaping work at the intended excavation velocity.
A second embodiment of the present invention will be described with particular emphasis on differences from the first embodiment.
The velocity factor calculation part 123 calculates, on the basis of the posture information of the work implement 15 and the position information (an angle and a height) of the target surface, a component parallel to the target surface of a velocity factor (hereinafter referred to as a parallel velocity factor), where the velocity factor serves as a ratio of the velocity of the work point to a value of the operation signal when each of the actuators is operated individually. The velocity factor calculation part 123 then outputs the component to an operation signal correction part 121.
The operation signal correction part 121 corrects each of the operation signals of the operation devices 1c and 1d according to the parallel velocity factor and outputs the corrected operation signal to a work point velocity calculation part 122. Let “ax” denote the parallel velocity factor of the arm 12, “bx” denote the parallel velocity factor of the boom 11, “as” denote the operation signal of the arm 12, and “bs” denote the operation signal of the boom 11, and append ′ (prime) to the corrected operation signals. Then, calculations by the operation signal correction part 121 are given by the following expressions.
as′=as×ax/(ax+bx) [Math. 1]
bs′=bs×bx/(ax+bx) [Math. 2]
Through the foregoing corrections, the corrected operation signals are calculated such that a great weight is assigned to an actuator that contributes greatly to the velocity (parallel velocity) along the target surface of the work point. It is noted that the calculations performed by the operation signal correction part 121, given by expressions (1) and (2) above, are illustrative only and not limiting.
In accordance with the hydraulic excavator 600 according to the present embodiment having the configurations as described above, weighting is performed on each of the operation signals of the operation devices 1c and 1d according to the parallel velocity factor before the target velocity of the work point at a predetermined position on the work implement 15 (e.g., a bucket distal end) is calculated. Through the foregoing weighting, the correction according to the distance between the target surface and the work point is performed mainly on the operation signal of the actuator contributing slightly to the excavation velocity and the correction on the operation signal of the actuator contributing greatly to the excavation velocity is suppressed, so that the operator can easily perform semi-automatic excavating shaping work at the intended excavation velocity.
A third embodiment of the present invention will be described with particular emphasis on differences from the second embodiment.
The operation signal selection part 124 compares parallel velocity factors of the different actuators, and weighting is performed on each of the operation signals such that the weight on the operation signal of the actuator having the greatest parallel velocity factor is 1 and the weight on the operation signals of the other actuators is 0. As a result, in the excavation operation illustrated in
In accordance with the hydraulic excavator 600 according to the present embodiment having the configurations as described above, weighting is performed on each of the operation signals of the operation devices 1c and 1d such that the weight on the operation signal of the actuator having a great parallel velocity factor is 1 and the weight on the operation signals of the other actuators is 0 before the target velocity of the work point at a predetermined position on the work implement 15 (e.g., a bucket distal end) is calculated. Through the foregoing weighting, the correction according to the distance between the target surface and the work point is performed mainly on the operation signal of the actuator contributing slightly to the excavation velocity, and the correction on the operation signal of the actuator contributing greatly to the excavation velocity is suppressed, so that the operator can easily perform semi-automatic excavating shaping work at the intended excavation velocity.
It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments and may include various modifications. For example, the entire detailed configuration of the embodiments described above for ease of understanding of the present invention is not always necessary to embody the present invention. The configuration of each embodiment may additionally include another configuration, or part of the configuration may be deleted or replaced with another.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2017-246908 | Dec 2017 | JP | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/JP2018/042579 | 11/16/2018 | WO | 00 |