JP2000192514A - Automatically operating construction machine and operating method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To correct displacement between an automatically operating construction machine and an object of work, shorten the time required for correction, and prevent increase of the cycle time by smoothly performing the entire work. SOLUTION: A teaching position memorized by instruction is sequentially read out to repeat the action for taking a tour from digging to release soil of a shovel. In that case, this machine is installed on an automatically operating construction machine main body, and is provided with position measurement means 61, 1041 for measuring a digging position and a release soil position, and a position correcting means 1043 for correcting a digging position taught by a measured digging position and a taught release soil position taught by measured release soil position respectively. By the position measurement means, the digging position is measured before turning end to the taught digging position, and the release soil position is measured at arbitrary time before turning end to the taught release soil position.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automatic operation construction machine and an operation method thereof, and more particularly to an automatic operation construction machine for automatically loading work machines such as dump trucks and crushers and an operation method thereof.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Normally, at a crushed stone site, loading work on a dump truck or a crusher by a construction machine such as a hydraulic shovel or the like is performed by excavating earth and stone from a predetermined place and using a dump truck vessel or a hopper of a crusher. It is a monotonous and repetitive task of dumping to a fixed place. Such a monotonous and repetitive operation is painful for the operator, and there is a growing desire to perform the operation automatically without human intervention.

Conventionally, as one method of automating such a loading operation, an excavation position and a dumping position are taught, and a turning operation is mainly performed between these positions without running a hydraulic excavator. You are doing repetitive work. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 9-195321 discloses a technique in which a series of operations from excavation to earth removal are automatically performed by repeating an operation taught by a hydraulic excavator.

However, in this technique, there is a possibility that the automatic driving shovel itself may be displaced due to a jack-up caused by excavation or an inertial force of turning. Also, the dump truck does not always stop at the same place,
There is also a problem that the dump truck cannot be loaded at an appropriate position to be unloaded. Therefore, in order to solve this, an image pickup means such as a video camera is installed on an automatic driving shovel, and a predetermined dumping position of a working machine as a target such as a dump truck is calculated from the imaged data and dumped. Can be considered. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-88625
In the official gazette, there is a technology that mounts a stereo vision system on a wheel loader, measures the distance to the excavation target location, performs excavation, and measures the distance to the excavation target location and performs earth removal. It has been disclosed.

[0005]

However, according to the above-mentioned prior art, as an operation procedure, a distance to an excavation site is measured, and after the distance calculation is completed, the robot is moved to perform an excavation operation, and then, is released. The operation of measuring the distance to the soil location, and performing the unloading operation after the distance calculation is completed is repeated. Generally, the distance measurement by image processing takes a long time to calculate, and when the work is performed according to the above-described procedure, the work time increases by the time required for the distance measurement as compared with the work by the operator. However, there is a problem that the cycle time is reduced.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to solve the above-mentioned problems before starting work at a target location.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an automatic driving construction machine and a driving method thereof, in which a camera is directed to a target place and required measurement is performed to reduce a cycle time.

[0007]

The present invention employs the following means in order to solve the above-mentioned problems.

In an automatic operation construction machine which repeatedly reads out teaching positions stored and taught and repeats an operation of excavating one cycle from excavation to earth excavation, the excavator is installed in the main body of the automatic operation construction machine, excavation position and earth excavation. Position measuring means for measuring a position, and a position correcting means for correcting the excavation position taught by the measured excavation position, and the unearthing position taught by the measured excavation position, respectively, the position The measurement of the excavation position by the measuring means is performed at an arbitrary time before the end of the turn to the taught excavation position and the measurement of the unloading position is performed at an arbitrary time before the end of the turn to the taught dumping position.

Further, in the automatic driving construction machine according to the first aspect, the position measuring means includes a rotating means capable of turning with respect to the main body of the automatic driving construction machine, and a digging position and an earth discharging position to be measured. Means for storing a turning angle of the corresponding turning means, wherein when the main body of the automatic driving construction machine reaches the stored turning angle, the excavation position or the earth discharging position is measured. And

In the automatic driving construction machine according to any one of claims 1 and 2, the distance measuring means includes at least one image pickup means and an image picked up by the image pickup means. And means for measuring the position of the target from the target.

Further, in an automatic operation method of an automatic operation construction machine for sequentially reading out teaching positions stored and teaching, and repeatedly performing an operation of excavating one cycle from excavation to earth excavation, the excavator is installed in the main body of the automatic operation construction machine. Measuring the excavation position at any time before the end to the taught excavation position or measuring the unloading position at any time before the end to the taught excavation position by the position measurement means And correcting the excavation position taught by the measured excavation position by the correction means, or correcting the taught position by the measured excavation position.

[0012]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a working mode of the automatic driving construction machine according to the present embodiment.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a debris storage 4 to be described later.
Construction machine body such as a self-driving shovel that excavates the debris 41 stored in the dump truck 3 and discharges it to a dump truck 3 described later, 2 is disposed at a position remote from the self-driving construction machine body 1 and is a self-driving construction machine body 1 is a remote operation device for remotely operating the automatic driving construction machine body 3 having a vessel 31
A dump truck for transporting the debris 41 discharged by the dump truck, 4 is a debris storage for storing debris excavated by the automatic driving construction machine body 1, and 42 is provided on the left and right sides of the debris storage 4 to indicate the range. There are four landmarks.

The self-driving construction machine body 1 includes a traveling body 11.
And a revolving body 12 rotatably provided on the traveling body 11
And a boom 14 provided on the revolving unit 12 so as to be capable of elevating.
And an arm 1 rotatably provided at the tip of the boom 14
5, a bucket 16 rotatably provided at the tip of the arm 15, an angle sensor 17 for detecting the elevation angle between the revolving unit 12 and the boom 14, and an angle for detecting the rotation angle between the boom 14 and the arm 15. Sensor 18, arm 15 and bucket 16
, An angle sensor 60 for detecting the turning angle of the revolving unit 12, a cab 13 provided on the revolving unit 12, and a dump truck 3 provided on the roof of the cab 13. A video camera 61 for imaging the vessel 31 and the debris storage 4 of the vehicle, and a camera platform 62 provided for turning the video camera 61 horizontally and vertically.
And a wireless device 63 for transmitting and receiving various data between the automatic driving construction machine body 1 and the remote control device 2.

In this embodiment, the video camera 61
Is installed on the roof of the driver's cab 13, but may be installed anywhere on the automatic driving construction machine body 1 if it is a place suitable for imaging.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a control mechanism mainly at the time of a regenerating operation of the automatic driving construction machine according to the present embodiment. In the figure, the same reference numerals as those shown in FIG. 2 indicate the same parts.

In FIG. 1, a remote operation device 2 includes a reproduction operation unit 21 for outputting a command for starting or stopping the reproduction operation of the automatic driving construction machine body 1 to a command interpreter unit 1003, which will be described later, during a reproduction operation; And a wireless device 22 for transmitting an operation command of the unit 21 to the vehicle-mounted device 10.

Reference numeral 10 denotes an apparatus mounted on the main body 1 of the automatic driving construction machine, 100 denotes an automatic driving controller mainly constituted by a computer and performs various controls for performing automatic driving, and 101 denotes a servo control unit 1006 to be described later. Auxiliary control valve driven by a drive signal output from
Reference numeral 02 denotes a main control valve which is controlled by a hydraulic signal output from the auxiliary control valve 101 and controls the amount of oil flowing into the actuator 103. Reference numeral 103 denotes a revolving unit 12, a boom 14, an arm 15, and a bucket of the automatic driving construction machine body 1. 16
An actuator for operating each cylinder and the swing motor; 104, a correction value calculating unit for outputting a correction value to a servo preprocessing unit 1005, which will be described later; and 1044, a monitor for confirming an image captured by a position measuring unit 1041, which will be described later. , 64 detects the horizontal and vertical rotation angles of the head 62 and controls the respective rotation angles. 65 denotes an operator of the head 62 via the head control unit 64. A pan head operation unit 66 for operating the rotation angle in the horizontal direction and the vertical direction teaches during teaching, and teaches teaching position data in a teaching position storage unit 1001 and teaching commands in a teaching command storage unit 1002 described later. An operation unit.

At the time of teaching, the teaching operation section 66 teaches the attitude of the automatic driving construction machine main body 1, and the operator makes the monitor 1044 indicate the dumping position before the excavation operation. The excavation position is in front of the monitor 10
The attitude of the camera platform 62 is operated by the camera platform operation unit 65 so as to be reflected on the camera 44. The posture at this time is stored in the teaching position storage unit 1001 as the teaching position of the camera platform.

The automatic operation controller 100 includes a teaching position storage unit 1001 for storing teaching position data created according to a teaching operation from the teaching operation unit 66 during teaching and teaching position data of the camera platform 62 at each teaching position. A teaching command storage unit 1002 that stores a teaching command created by being operated at times, and a command signal for sequentially reading out the teaching commands from the teaching command storage unit 1002 and causing the teaching position output processing unit 1004 to output the teaching position data. And a command interpreter unit 1003 for outputting a moving speed and the like between the teaching position data, and a teaching position output process for outputting the teaching position data stored in the teaching position storage unit 1001 according to a command from the command interpreter unit 1003. From the unit 1004 and the teaching position output processing unit 1004 Correction value will be described later in the position data interpolated between the force and the taught position data interpolation processing to calculator 1
Auxiliary control of a servo preprocessing unit 1005 that adds the correction value output from the unit 043 and outputs it as target position data, and a drive signal that compares the feedback value from the current position calculation unit 1007 with the input value and corrects the deviation. It comprises a servo control unit 1006 that outputs to the valve 101 and a current position calculation unit 1007 that calculates the current position of the automatic driving construction machine body 1 based on detection signals from the angle sensors 17 to 19 and 60.

The correction position calculation unit 104 is a video camera 6
1, a position measuring unit 1041 for measuring a target position according to a command from the command interpreter unit 1003 or the teaching operation unit 66, and a position of the automatic driving construction machine body 1 and the dump truck 3 at the time of teaching. Reference teaching position storage unit 1042 for storing the relationship and the positional relationship between the automatic driving construction machine body 1 and the debris storage 4 at the time of teaching.
And the calculation result of the position measurement unit 1041 and the reference teaching position storage unit 1 according to a command from the command interpreter unit 1003.
And a correction value calculation unit 1043 for calculating a correction value of the target position from the reference position stored in the reference position 042.

Next, the processing procedure of position measurement in the position measurement unit 1041 shown in FIG. 1 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

At the time of reproduction operation, an image signal picked up by the video camera 61 is input to the position measuring unit 1041. The image signal captured by the position measurement unit 1041 is subjected to noise removal by a filter in step 301, and edges are extracted in step 302 using an edge extraction operator. Next, a straight line is extracted from the edge extracted in step 303 by using a method such as Hough transform. In step 304, from the straight line extracted in step 303 and the edge extracted in step 302, the end points and intersections of the line segments in the image are detected. Next, step 305
In, the shape of the object is recognized from the object model registered in advance and the line segment information obtained in step 304. When the shape can be recognized, the position of a feature point on the vessel 41 is calculated in step 306.

FIG. 4 shows the shape and characteristic points S1, S2, S3, S4 of the vessel 41 recognized by the position measuring unit 1041.
Here is an example. Here, in order to simplify the feature point extraction, a light source or the like may be attached to the vessel 31 of the dump truck 3 as a mark for clarifying the feature point, and the feature point may be extracted based on a difference in brightness.

As shown in FIG. 5, the calculation of the positions of the feature points is generally carried out when at least the distance between the three feature points of the object such as the vessel 41 is known. Of these points in the screen
If S4 is known, the position of each point in the space can be obtained by a known calculation method described later. Where 70
Xo, Yo, and Zo shown in FIG. 3 are target coordinate systems set for the target of the vessel 41, and this coordinate system may be anywhere in the space, but here, one of the feature points S1 to S4.
Is the origin of the target object coordinate system. 71
Xc, Yc, and Zc are camera coordinate systems with the center of the lens of the camera 61 as the origin. Xw, Yw, 72 shown in FIG.
Zw is a control coordinate system serving as a reference for automatically controlling the automatic driving construction machine body 1. A known calculation method is disclosed in IEICE Transactions D-IIVol. J72-D-II No. 9pp144
1-11447 are known. In FIG. 6, the position measurement unit 1041 has four feature points S1 ′, S1 of the debris storage 4.
The example of the mark 42 recognized as 2 ', S3', and S4 'is shown. Again, since the positional relationship of each mark 42 is known,
The mark 42 is captured by the video camera 61, and the position of the debris storage 4 can be calculated by the same method as described above.

Next, in step 307, a target position in the camera coordinate system 71 is calculated from the position information of the calculated feature points. Then, in step 308, a conversion from the camera coordinate system 71 to the control coordinate system 72 is performed to calculate a target position in the control coordinate system 72.

Next, a processing procedure for excavation and dumping work of the automatic driving construction machine according to the present embodiment and for calculating a correction value of the excavation and dumping position will be described with reference to a flowchart shown in FIG.

FIG. 8 used in the following description is a plan view showing a working mode of the automatic driving construction machine according to the present embodiment. When turning to the excavation teaching position is completed, FIG.
As shown in FIG. 8A, the video camera 61 is controlled so that the front faces in the direction of the debris storage 4, and the video camera 61 faces in the direction of the vessel 31.
As shown in (b), it is indicated that the video camera 61 is controlled so that the front faces the vessel 31 and the video camera 61 faces the debris storage 4.

First, in step 701, the automatic driving construction machine main body 1 turns to the excavation teaching position by the command interpreter unit 1003 of the automatic driving controller 100 in accordance with the teaching command stored in the teaching command storage unit 1002. At this time, the teaching position output processing unit 1004 sends the excavation teaching position of the automatic driving construction machine body 1 and the teaching position of the pan head 62 to the servo preprocessing unit 1 respectively.
005 and the pan head controller 64. When this turning is completed, as shown in FIG. 8A, the front of the automatic driving construction machine main body 1 faces the direction of the debris storage 4 and the video camera 61 faces the direction of the vessel 31. When the end of the turn is detected in step 702, the unloading position is imaged in step 713. Next, in step 703, the correction value of the excavation position calculated by the correction position calculation unit 1043 is taken into the servo preprocessing unit 1005 to correct the excavation position, and excavation is performed in step 704. When the excavation is completed, in step 705, the vehicle turns to the earth-discharge teaching position. Also at this time, the teaching position output processing unit 1004 sends the teaching position of the automatic driving construction machine body 1 and the teaching position of the pan head 62 to the servo preprocessing unit 10 respectively.
05 and the pan head controller 64. When the turning is completed, as shown in FIG. 8B, the front of the main body 1 of the automatic driving construction machine faces the direction of the vessel 31 and the video camera 61 faces the direction of the debris storage 4. When the end of the turn is detected in step 706, step 71 is executed.
At 0, the excavation position is imaged. This step 703-
While 706 is being executed, in parallel with this processing, the correction position calculation unit 104 takes an image of the unloading position in step 713 by using the above-described method, calculates the unloading position in step 714, and releases the unloading position in step 715. The correction value of the soil position is calculated. Next, in step 707, the correction value of the unloading position calculated by the correction position calculation unit 1043 is taken into the servo preprocessing unit 1005 to correct the unloading position, and in step 708, the unloading is performed. When the unloading is completed, in step 701, the vehicle turns to the excavation teaching position, and the operation is repeated. Again, steps 707-702
Is executed in parallel with this processing, the correction position calculation unit 104 captures an image of the excavation position in step 710, calculates the excavation position in step 711, and discharges the soil in step 712 in the same manner as described above. A position correction value is calculated.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the calculation of the correction value of the taught excavation position is performed in parallel with the time of the unloading operation, and the calculation of the correction value of the taught excavation position is performed by the excavation. Since it was performed in parallel with the work, the position measurement calculation immediately before excavation or immediately before unburden required for the correction of the excavation position or the unburden position was eliminated, and the function to correct the excavation position and the unburden position was eliminated. It is possible to prevent an increase in work cycle time in the provided automatic driving construction machine. In the present embodiment, the calculation of the correction value of the taught excavation position is performed in parallel with the excavation work, and the calculation of the correction value of the taught excavation position is performed in parallel with the excavation work. However, the present invention is not limited to such an aspect, and at least the correction value calculation of each position is performed so that the excavation work or the earth removal work proceeds smoothly so that the excavation work or the earth removal work can be started. It may be performed before the end.

[0032]

As described above, according to the present invention, even if a displacement occurs for some reason or a target object is deviated from a predetermined position, the shovel can determine an appropriate target position to perform work. It can be grasped and automatic driving can be performed with high accuracy.

The calculation of the correction value is performed during another working time, for example, the timing of the imaging for the position measurement is, for example, the unloading position before the excavation operation and the excavation position before the unloading operation. The whole can be smoothly performed, and an increase in cycle time can be prevented.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a control mechanism during a regeneration operation of an automatic driving construction machine according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a working mode of the automatic driving construction machine according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of position measurement by a position measuring unit 1041 shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a shape of a vessel 31 and feature points S1, S2, S3, and S4 recognized by a position measuring unit 1041 shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a day target coordinate system 7 set for a target such as a vessel.
0 is a diagram showing a camera coordinate system 71 having the origin at the lens center of the television camera, and a control coordinate system 72 serving as a reference for automatically operating the automatic driving construction machine body.

FIG. 6 shows a position measuring unit 1041 shown in FIG.
It is a figure showing mark 42 recognized as feature points S1 ', S2', S3 ', S4'.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of excavation and earth removal work and calculation of a correction value of the excavation and earth removal position of the automatic driving construction machine according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a view showing the orientation of the camera 71 at the time of the unloading operation and the excavation operation of the automatic driving construction machine body 1 according to the present embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Automatic driving construction machine main body 10 In-vehicle device 100 Automatic driving controller 1001 Teaching position storage unit 1002 Teaching command storage unit 1003 Command interpreter unit 1004 Teaching position output processing unit 1005 Servo pre-processing unit 1006 Servo control unit 1007 Current position calculation unit 101 Auxiliary control Valve 102 Main control valve 103 Actuator 104 Correction position calculation unit 1041 Position measurement unit 1042 Reference teaching position storage unit 1043 Correction value calculation unit 1044 Monitor 2 Remote operation device 21 Reproduction operation unit 22, 63 Radio 3 Dump truck 31 Vessel 4 Debris storage Place 41 Debris 42 Debris storage area landmark 61 Video camera 62 Pan head 64 Pan head control part 65 Pan head operation part 66 Teaching operation part

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An automatic operation construction machine which repeatedly reads out teaching positions memorized and stored and repeats an operation of excavating one cycle from excavation to earth excavation. Position measuring means for measuring the unloading position, excavation position taught by the measured excavation position,
And a position correcting unit for correcting the unloading position taught by the measured unloading position, respectively, wherein the measurement of the excavation position by the position measuring unit is performed before the end of turning to the taught excavation position and before unloading. The automatic driving construction machine is characterized in that the position is measured at any time before the end of turning to the taught dumping position. 2. The position measuring means according to claim 1, wherein said position measuring means comprises a turning means capable of turning with respect to said automatic driving construction machine main body, and said turning means corresponding to an excavation position and an earth discharging position to be measured. Means for storing a turning angle, wherein when the main body of the automatic driving construction machine reaches the stored turning angle, the excavation position or the earth discharging position is measured. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein
The automatic driving construction machine according to claim 1, wherein the distance measuring unit includes at least one image capturing unit and a unit that measures a position of a target from an image captured by the image capturing unit. . 4. An automatic operation method for an automatic operation construction machine in which a teaching position memorized and taught is sequentially read out and an excavator makes a round from excavation to earth unloading repeatedly. The excavation position is measured at any time before the end to the taught excavation position, or the excavation position is measured at any time before the end to the taught excavation position by the position measurement means. Automatically correcting the excavation position taught by the measured excavation position by the position correction means or correcting the taught position by the measured excavation position. Driving How to operate construction machinery.