EP0536174B1

EP0536174B1 - Control means for cleaning vehicle

Info

Publication number: EP0536174B1
Application number: EP91910577A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Richard M. 30 Lavenham Court Bradley; Peter G. Thompson; Edwin G. Coombs
Original assignee: SCHMIDT WINTERDIENST- und KOMMUNALTECHNIK GmbH
Current assignee: SCHMIDT WINTERDIENST- und KOMMUNALTECHNIK GmbH
Priority date: 1990-06-08
Filing date: 1991-06-07
Publication date: 1995-01-04
Anticipated expiration: 2011-06-07
Also published as: WO1991019046A1; DE69106517D1; GB9012781D0; ES2068591T3; GB2244742A; DE69106517T2; ATE116703T1; EP0536174A1; GB2244742B

Abstract

A self-propelled cleaning vehicle has cleaning gear including sweeping brushes, suction nozzle and associated equipment including spray nozzles for spraying clean water, and a wander hose. Control of the cleaning gear requires individual control of brush positions, altitude and loading, suction fan, water sprays, and other equipment. Control of all these functions is provided by means of a joystick having at its upper end an associated panel of finger or thumb-operable buttons or the like. These select cleaning gear programmes and change the function controlled by the joystick. In this way, the joystick provides means whereby arm and thumb control of a single lever enables detailed control of a multiplicity of functions to be provided. <IMAGE>

Description

This invention relates to a cleaning vehicle in accordance with the preamble of claim 1. The invention is applicable to cleaning vehicles comprising matter removal means such as brush gear and/or suction gear and to other vehicles having multiple functions requiring driver control. An example of such a cleaning vehicle is a self-propelled vehicle for cleaning roads and/or runaways and/or pavements and/or carrying out industrial cleaning and sweeping operations. Such vehicles have suction gear including a suction nozzle with brush gear in the form of side brushes rotating about upwardly extending axes and serving to sweep matter laterally inwardly into the path of the nozzle.
More particularly, the invention relates to control means for effecting control of the cleaning gear of the vehicle, particularly the brush gear.
Previously known systems for controlling brush gear and analogous equipment include the use of control levers actuating, for example, spool valves of hydraulic systems whereby slave hydraulic rams are appropriately controlled.
However, such an agreement while capable of providing adequate control of one particular function is of very limited utility when one considers the multiplicity of functions which there are to control in a modern cleaning vehicle, these including brush raise and lower, brush tilting, brush downward loading, brush lateral movement, water spraying in front of the brushes, etc.
In order to simplify the control of these cleaning functions, and, if desired, other functions of the vehicle, or mulitple functions in other vehicles, it would be desirable to provide a control system which could be operated by just one control element.
There is disclosed in US specification 4,237,629 an apparatus for controlling the operation of a snowplough, in which a joystick is provided with a single end push-button and a slideable hand grip, also in the region of the end of the joystick. The hand grip and the push-button provide for actuation, each, of one additional function of the snowplough, in order to supplement the four functions controlled by angular movement of the joystick, namely raising, lowering, adjusting to the right, and adjusting to the left. The push-button and the hand grip control two additional switches for actuating the two further functions. Thus, a total of six functions can be controlled.
To operate the cutting gear and/or suction gear on a self-propelled mower a joystick is disclosed in CH-A-570751, which is arranged for rotatable and angular movement and which comprises push-buttons for individually actuating specific functions of the mower.
Furtheron, with a joystick apparatus as described in GB-A-2178143 for a case where operating inputs around three axes are needed, the input mode corresponding to one axis can be changed over by merely operating a push button switch.
In the case of cleaning vehicles and other vehicles having multiple functions, there is a need for simple control of a much larger range of functions than could possibly be provided by the, basically, arithmetic approach of adding switches to control additional functions.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide cleaning and other vehicles in which a driver's control element permits single-handed control of a whole range of functions, in a simple manner.
According to the invention there is provided a cleaning vehicle as defined in the accompanying claims. The solution which corresponds to claim 1 is providing for an angularly movable joystick also having a plurality of finger (or thumb) operable control elements thereon which predetermine a multitude of functions being operable with the same hand which controls the joystick.
In a preferred embodiment a cleaning vehicle comprises a vehicle body and ground wheels. Matter removal means is positionable in working relation to a surface to be cleaned, to remove matter therefrom, and control means is provided to control operation of the matter removal means.
The joystick is pivotably mounted to effect control of the fuction of the matter removal means by angular movement of the joystick. The control elements thereon are operable to change the funtion of the matter removal means which is controlled by angular movement of the joystick. Thus, there is provided a cleaning vehicle in which control of the fuctions of the matter removal means is effected by pivotal movement of a joystick having finger (or thumb) operable control elements thereon to change the functions controlled by the joystick.
The control elements enable selection of a variety of functions of the vehicle. This variety may comprise a much larger range of functions than could be provided just by adding all possible switching operations on said joystick.
In addition to the functions which may be selected by control elements on the joystick there may be associated with the joystick a programme control switch enabling selection of any one of a number of control programs provided by a control module.
An embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which :

Fig. 1 shows an elevation view of joystick apparatus for effecting control of the cleaning gear and
Fig. 2 shows a plan view of brush control switches provided on a face of the joystick of Fig. 1, the direction of viewing being indicated by arrow XVI in Fig. 1.

As shown in Figs. 1 and 2 of the drawings, control means 160 to control operation of the brush gear and other cleaning gear/matter removal means functions of a cleaning vehicle comprises a joystick 162 which is pivotally mounted on a self-centring resilient bush 164 so as to effect control of the functions of the matter removal means by angular movement of the joystick.
There is provided below the main body 166 of the joy stick, a projecting rod 168 which extends through a microswitch assembly 170 and there effects the requisite electrical switching functions for the purposes described below. Rod 168 has a threaded end portion 172 on which a nut 174 and a captive coiled compression spring 176 are received to maintain the operational relationship between the joystick 162 itself and the micro-switch 170. A control cable 178 leads from the micro-switch to an electrical control module for the brush gear and matter removal equipment.
A flexible gaiter 180 connects the bottom end of the main body 166 of the joystick and the structure 182 supporting bush 164 and micro-switch 170.
Joystick 162 also has a series of finger (or thumb)operable control elements or buttons 184 provided on a pad 186 thereon in the region of the upper end 188 thereof.
Each of the buttons 184 is operable with the same hand which actuates the joystick, to change the functions of the matter removal means which are controlled by angular movement of the joystick. Thus the buttons 184 are mounted on a micro-switch assembly 190 having an associated cable 192 leading to the control module.
Associated with the joystick is a program control switch 194 having a rotary control element 196 enabling selection of any one of six control programs provided by the control module 198.
As shown diagramatically in Fig. 1, control module 198 provides control instructions to the fan which generates suction in the matter storage tank, and to the nozzle, and to the clean water spray equipment, and to the rotary cleaning brushes.
In the tabulation of fuctions set out below, there is indicated which functions are operating in each of six exemplary programs:
After selecting the required program, the joystick is moved forwards to energise the relevant items. This action effects electrical 'latching' of the relevant functions so that when the joystick is released and spring-returns to centre, the relevant functions continue to operate.
In addition to the simple manual control of a multitude of functions in the above manner, simply by angular movement of the joystick, the buttons 184 on the joystick provide additional modification of the controls effected. Thus for example, the five buttons may provide the following functions:

1 Brush back pressure and nozzle debris button:
- A. By moving joystick forwards, back pressure on the brushes is inhibited giving a harder scrub. When the joystick set is released, back pressure returns to the level set by the control module; and
- B. By moving the joystick backwards, the nozzle is raised either to a 'small debris' position or a 'larger debris' position.
2 Brush lateral movement button: movement of the joystick to the left and right.
3 Unison brush movement button: in this position the brushes are latched so that left or right movement of the joystick moves both brushes in the same direction.
4 Opposed brush movement button: in this mode, movement of the joystick effects lateral movement of the brushes in opposite directions.
5 Cancel button: when this button is depressed all functions revert to their 'parked' or off conditions. Thus this effects electrical un-latching of all functions.

Many other arrangements could be provided including control of other additional or alternative functions, including the vehicle transmission.

Claims

A self-propelled cleaning vehicle (10) comprising:
a) matter removal means positionable in working relation to a surface to be cleaned, to remove matter threfrom;

b) control means (160) to control operation of said matter removal means;

c) said control means comprising a pivotally mounted joystick (162) to effect control of said matter removal means by angular movement of the joystick;

d) said joystick (162) also having a plurality of finger (or thumb) operable control elements thereon, said control elements and said joystick being operable with the same hand which controls the joystick;
characterized in that
e) said operable control elements (184) thereon predetermine a multitude of functions controlled by the joystick.
A cleaning vehicle according to claim 1 with said matter removal means comprising brush gear pivotally mounted for lateral movement towards and away from the fore/aft centre-line of the vehicle,
characterized in that
said control means comprises brush gear positioning means which upon actuation thereof positions said brush gear in a defined starting position with respect to the centre-line of the vehicle (10), from which it can be moved by actuation of said joystick (162).
A cleaning vehicle according to claim 1,
characterized in that
associated with the joystick (162) is a program control switch (194) enabling selection of any one of a number of control programs provided by a control module (198).
A cleaning vehicle according to claim 3,
characterized in that
said control module (198) provides control instructions to a succion fan, to a succion nozzle, to water spray equipment and/or to brush gear.
A cleaning vehicle according to claim 3,
characterized in that
by an action of the joystick (162) electrical latching of the relevant program functions is effected, so that when the joystick is released and spring-returns to the center the relevant functions continue to operate.
A cleaning vehicle according to claim 1,
characterized in that
with said finger (or thumb) operable control elements (184) additional modifications of the functions controlled by the pivotal movement of the joystick are effected.
A cleaning vehicle according to claim 1,
characterized in that
upon activation of one of said finger (or thumb) operable control elements (184) movement of the joystick (162) is programmed to control the back pressure and thereby the ground pressure of the brush gear.
A cleaning vehicle according to claim 1,
characterized in that
upon activation of one of said finger (or thumb) operable control elements (184) movement of the joystick is programmed to control the raising of the nozzle either to a "small debris" position or a "larger debris" position.