JP6889027B2 - Steering device for construction machinery - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a steering device for steering a construction machine capable of traveling by steering with a rotary handle.

Conventionally, a technique for remotely steering a construction machine by using an externally external steering device has been proposed for an existing construction machine. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a steering technique using a device for remotely steering a tilting lever. If a steering device can be externally attached to the steering unit of an existing construction machine and electronically controlled, remote control can be achieved with a small investment without replacing the construction machine itself.

In addition, in recent years, unmanned construction has been in the limelight again based on the flow of "i-construction" promoted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism and recovery / reconstruction measures from severe disasters. On the other hand, according to this type of steering device, it can be used for remote control of construction machinery, automatic steering operation, etc. when performing unmanned construction in a disaster recovery or a poor environment.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 11-303128

However, since the technique described in Patent Document 1 remotely steers a tilting lever, when the existing construction machine includes a steering portion having a rotary handle, the pre-equipped rotary handle portion is not modified. In addition, there is room for consideration in performing remote steering by attaching an external steering device to the steering unit.

Therefore, the present invention has been made by paying attention to such a problem, and can easily refer to the rotary handle previously equipped in the steering portion of the construction machine without modifying the rotary handle portion. An object of the present invention is to provide a steering device for construction machinery, which is attached to a steering unit and capable of steering control of a rotary handle.

In order to solve the above problems, the remote steering device for construction machinery according to one aspect of the present invention is a steering device used for a traveling construction machine provided with a rotary handle provided with a handle grip in the steering portion. It has a base that can be attached to the steering unit and a grip catcher that is integrally mounted on the base and can be connected to the handle grip, and the grip catcher can be rotated to a position corresponding to the steering amount with respect to the rotating handle. It is characterized by including a grip rotation mechanism provided in the above and a steering mechanism capable of controlling the steering amount by the grip rotation mechanism. The handle grip may be retrofitted as long as it is before the steering device is attached.

Here, in the steering device for a construction machine according to one aspect of the present invention, the steering mechanism is an automatic steering operation based on a predetermined program from outside the construction machine or a remote steering operation according to a steering amount input by an operator. A remote controller that transmits a control signal for executing the above, a communication device that is mounted on the base side and can receive a control signal from the remote controller, and a controller body that is mounted on the base side. It is preferable that the controller main body executes the steering process corresponding to the automatic steering operation or the remote steering operation in response to the control signal received by the communication device.

According to the steering device for construction machinery according to one aspect of the present invention, the steering mechanism can control the steering amount by the grip rotation mechanism, and the grip rotation mechanism allows the grip catcher to be connected to the handle grip of the rotating handle. Further, since the handle grip can be rotated to a position corresponding to the steering amount with respect to the rotating handle, the rotating handle can be controlled by using the handle grip.

As a preferred embodiment of the steering device for construction machinery according to one aspect of the present invention, the base is provided with a plurality of support legs erected on the steering portion, and each support leg is provided with each support leg. It is preferable that the portion to be attached to the steering portion is provided with an attachment / detachment mechanism that can be attached / detached by hand without using a tool. With such a configuration, a attachment / detachment mechanism that can be attached / detached by hand without using a tool is provided. Therefore, if the steering device is not required and normal operation is desired, the steering device can be easily attached / detached. can do.

Further, as a preferred embodiment of the steering device for construction machinery according to one aspect of the present invention, the base is integrally equipped with the grip rotation mechanism, and the base is mounted on the steering portion to cause the grip rotation mechanism. It is preferable to further include a manual steering mechanism capable of manually steering the rotary handle while the steering wheel is still attached to the handle grip.
With such a configuration, the manual steering mechanism allows the rotary handle to be manually steered while the base is mounted on the steering portion and the grip rotation mechanism is mounted on the handle grip. The rotary handle can be operated manually while the wheel is installed in the steering wheel of the construction machine.

Therefore, according to the steering device for construction machinery according to one aspect of the present invention, which also includes the above-mentioned preferred embodiment, the rotary handle portion preliminarily equipped in the steering portion of the construction machine is not modified. It can be easily attached to and detached from the steering unit, and the rotary handle can be directly steered, remotely steered, or automatically steered while attached to the steering wheel.

As described above, according to the present invention, the rotary handle previously equipped in the steering portion of the construction machine can be easily attached to the steering portion to steer the rotary handle without modifying the rotary handle portion. ..

It is a schematic side view of the vibrating roller which is one Embodiment of the construction machine equipped with the steering device which concerns on one aspect of this invention. It is a schematic front view of the steering part provided in the driver's cab of the vibrating roller of FIG. It is a figure explaining the attachment / detachment part of the attachment / detachment mechanism (the part A of FIG. 2), FIG. It is a figure explaining the coupling part of the grip rotation mechanism (the part B of FIG. 2).

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings as appropriate. Here, the construction machine of the present embodiment is an example of a macadam type vibrating roller used for compaction construction of a road surface or the like. The vibrating roller is provided with a rotary handle in the steering portion, which requires a total rotation amount of more than 360 ° for steering. The remote steering device of the present embodiment is an example in which the steering portion of the vibrating roller is detachably equipped.

The drawings are schematic. Therefore, it should be noted that the relationship, ratio, etc. between the thickness and the plane dimension are different from the actual ones, and there are parts where the relationship and ratio of the dimensions are different between the drawings. In addition, the embodiments shown below exemplify devices and methods for embodying the technical idea of the present invention, and the technical idea of the present invention describes the material, shape, structure, and arrangement of constituent parts. Etc. are not specified in the following embodiments.

As shown in FIG. 1, the vibrating roller X of the present embodiment has a vehicle body K and a frame F having a U-shape in a plan view, and the vehicle body K and the frame F are mutually connected via a center pin C. It is equipped with a connected articulated vehicle. A driver's cab D having a seat S is provided above the vehicle body K. In the driver's cab D, a steering portion P having a rotary handle H is arranged in front of the seat S.

A pair of left and right right rolls R and a left roll L are coaxially arranged on the vehicle body K side, and a center roll M is arranged at a position between the pair of rolls R and L on the frame F side. Each roll R, L, M includes a vibration mechanism that vibrates each roll R, L, M, which is not shown below, a vibration hydraulic motor that drives the vibration mechanism, and a traveling hydraulic motor that rotates each roll. Is equipped with.

Further, the vehicle body K is equipped with a steering drive mechanism (not shown below) that is driven hydraulically. The steering drive mechanism includes a pair of steering hydraulic cylinders provided between the vehicle body K and the frame F, a hydraulic pilot type operation valve that operates proportionally according to the steering amount of the rotary handle H, and an operation valve thereof. A working valve that proportionally controls the pair of steering hydraulic cylinders according to the amount of pilot pressure oil introduced from, a main oil passage to which the pressure oil of the hydraulic pump driven by the engine is supplied, and a pilot valve for the operation valve. It has a pilot oil passage for supplying pressure oil.

The operation valve is capable of outputting the operation pilot pressure generated according to the operation amount of the rotary handle H to the pressure receiving portion of the operation valve. The operating valve is configured to proportionally control the flow (flow direction and flow rate) of the pressure oil from the main oil passage to the pair of steering hydraulic cylinders according to the operating pilot pressure. As a result, the pair of steering hydraulic cylinders expand and contract according to the amount of operation of the rotary handle H, and the vehicle body K and the frame F can rotate with the center pin C as a support axis to steer the vibrating roller X. It has become.

Here, the steering device 10 is detachably attached to the steering portion P of the vibrating roller X. Hereinafter, the steering device 10 will be described in detail.
As shown in an enlarged view of the main part in FIG. 2, the steering device 10 of the present embodiment includes a rectangular flat plate-shaped base 1. At the four corners of the base 1, four support legs 8 are provided so as to project downward. The lower end of each support leg 8 is a mounting portion 8j that is bent into a substantially L shape and has mounting holes formed.

FIG. 3 shows a portion of the existing fixing means (details of the A portion in FIG. 2) for fixing the operation panel Pn of the steering portion P. As shown in FIG. 3A, in the example of the present embodiment, the fixing bolt N is used as the existing fixing means for fixing the operation panel Pn at an appropriate position. In the present embodiment, the four support legs 8 of the steering device 10 are mechanically fixed by using the mounting portion S of the existing fixing bolt N.

In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 3B, the attachment / detachment mechanism 40 is configured by using the one-touch fixing bracket 7 that can be operated by hand as the mechanical fixing means of the support legs 8. The one-touch fixing bracket 7 includes a base stud 7j and a one-touch lever 7t formed on the upper part of the base stud 7j so as to be removable by hand.
The base stud 7j is provided with a male screw at the lower portion, and the male screw is screwed to the female screw of the mounting portion S after removing the fixing bolt N. The base stud 7j is formed with an inverted truncated cone-shaped mounting portion whose diameter increases toward the upper part. The one-touch lever 7t has a built-in restraint claw that moves in the axial direction according to the rotation angle of the manual rotation lever provided on the upper part.

When fixing each support leg 8, a mounting hole formed in the mounting portion 8j of the support leg 8 is inserted into the inverted truncated cone-shaped mounting portion of the base stud 7j from above, and then the mounting portion 8j is mounted from above. The one-touch lever 7t is fitted to the mounting portion of the base stud 7j so as to sandwich the mounting portion 8j. Then, by manually rotating the manual rotation lever of the one-touch lever 7t in the restraint direction, the restraint claw inside the one-touch lever 7t "wedges" with respect to the outer surface of the inverted truncated cone-shaped mounting portion of the base stud 7j. Moves in the restraint direction by the action of. As a result, in the steering device 10 of the present embodiment, the base 1 can be easily attached to and detached from the steering portion P of the vibrating roller X by the attachment / detachment mechanism 40 without modifying the rotary handle H portion. ..

Returning to FIG. 2, the steering motor 3 is mounted in the center on the back surface of the base 1, and the controller 30 is mounted in the vicinity of the steering motor 3. The steering motor 3 is, for example, a stepping motor for both axes. The output shaft of the steering motor 3 is integrally formed with both upper and lower shafts, and of the two shafts, the upper output shaft projects to the upper surface side of the base 1 through a through hole in the center of the base 1. , Its tip is connected to the central axis 2j of the manual handle 2.

On the other hand, the output shaft protruding below the steering motor 3 is connected to the base end portion of the steering arm 4 provided in the horizontal direction at a position facing the rotary handle H. A grip catcher 5 is provided at the tip of the steering arm 4 at a position facing the handle grip G on the rotation handle H side, and constitutes a coupling portion of the grip rotation mechanism 50.

FIG. 4 shows a coupling portion of the grip rotation mechanism 50 (details of portion B in FIG. 2). As shown in the figure, the grip catcher 5 has a cylindrical covering portion 5n having an inner diameter larger than the outer diameter of the handle grip G and capable of covering the handle grip G from above. When the grip rotation mechanism 50 is attached, the covering portion 5n of the grip catcher 5 is inserted into the cylindrical handle grip G, and thereafter, the gaps K between the two are formed through a cushioning material such as urethane. Wear it to prevent backlash in the mounting part.

As a result, in the grip rotating mechanism 50 of the present embodiment, the grip catcher 5 is connected to the handle grip G of the rotating handle H, and the grip catcher 5 can be rotated to a position corresponding to the steering amount with respect to the rotating handle H. There is. In the figure, the separation distance D1 is the distance between the axis CL2 of the output shaft of the steering motor 3 on the steering device 10 side and the center of the grip catcher 5, and the separation distance D2 is the axis of the rotary handle H. This is the distance between CL1 and the center of the handle grip G. Further, the mounting error ΔD is the amount of misalignment existing in the axis CL1 of the rotary handle H and the axis CL2 of the output shaft of the steering motor 3.

As described above, the grip rotation mechanism 50 of the present embodiment can absorb the mounting error ΔD at the coupling portion of the grip rotation mechanism 50. Therefore, the rotary handle H can be steered by using the handle grip G without precisely positioning the position where the steering device 10 is attached to and detached from the steering portion P with respect to the axial center CL1 of the rotary handle H of the vibrating roller X. It is attached to.

Further, in the grip rotation mechanism 50 of the present embodiment, the steering motor 3 makes the other shaft end from any of the shaft ends protruding vertically when the steering motor 3 is not excited. It can be rotated. As a result, in the present embodiment, if the manual steering mechanism 70 is configured and the steering motor 3 is in a non-excited state, the manual steering wheel 2 is turned while the steering device 10 is still installed in the steering unit P. By the dynamic operation, the rotary handle H can be manually steered via the output shaft of the steering motor 3.

Returning to FIG. 2, the control mechanism 60 of the steering device 10 of the present embodiment transmits necessary data such as a control signal between the controller 30 provided on the vibrating roller X side and having the communication device 31 and the communication device 31. It is provided with a remote controller 20 that exchanges data by wireless communication. The control mechanism 60 of the present embodiment corresponds to the "steering mechanism" described in the means for solving the above problems.
Specifically, the controller 30 has a communication device 31 capable of receiving a control signal from the remote controller 20 and a controller main body 32. In the controller body 32, the connector 6t of the power cable 6A is connected to the battery (not shown) mounted on the vehicle body K side of the vibrating roller X, and the required power is supplied to the steering motor 3. It is connected via a cable 6B capable of supplying and exchanging control signals.

The remote controller 20 transmits a control signal to the controller 30 from outside the vibrating roller X to execute an automatic steering operation based on a predetermined program or a remote steering operation according to the steering amount input by the operator. .. In the controller 30, the communication device 31 receives the control signal, and the controller body 32 executes the steering process corresponding to the automatic steering operation or the remote steering operation according to the received control signal, and is steered by the grip rotation mechanism 50. Control the amount. It should be noted that the execution of the automatic steering operation can be realized by applying the autonomous driving control technology (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2016-126625) already proposed by the inventors of the present application.

In the control mechanism 60 of the present embodiment, a plurality of frequency channels are divided and assigned, and one of the frequency channels is selected as a channel to be used and used for wireless communication. For example, a specific low power type wireless communication in the 429 MHz band is used, carrier sense is performed among a plurality of frequency channels, and one frequency channel is arbitrarily selected from free channels and used.

The remote controller 20 of the present embodiment has a tilting steering lever for steering the vibrating roller X, a plurality of selection switches for operating each actuator of the vibrating roller X, and an operating speed of the vibrating roller X. It has a speed lever to control. Then, from the remote controller 20, during remote roller work by the operator, in addition to information on the tilt direction and tilt amount of the tilt type steering lever, each actuator of the vibrating roller X is operated by the operator by operating the selection switch and the speed lever. Predetermined operation data, which is an execution command for operating the controller 30, is transmitted to the communication device 31 of the controller 30.

Further, from the side of the controller 30, feedback data necessary for steering and roller work is transmitted from the communication device 31 to the remote controller 20. As a result, in the control mechanism 60 of the present embodiment, data necessary for steering and roller work is exchanged between the controller 30 on the construction machine side and the remote controller 20, and the controller body 32 is an actuator by the remote controller 20. It is possible to control each actuator of the vibrating roller X according to the operation data such as the selection and the operation amount.

Next, the operation and the effect of the steering device 10 of the present embodiment will be described.
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the steering device 10 of the present embodiment is mounted on the steering unit P of the vibrating roller X. Here, as described above, the steering device 10 of the present embodiment has a detachable mechanism 40 that can be attached to and detached from the steering portion P of the vibrating roller X. That is, since the mounting portion 8j of each support leg 8 of the base 1 can be manually attached and detached by the one-touch fixing bracket 7 using the mounting portion S of the existing fixing bolt N, the operator can use the steering device 10. If it is unnecessary and you want to perform normal operation, you can easily attach and detach the steering device 10.

When the steering device 10 of the present embodiment controls steering, when the operator turns the ignition key of the vibrating roller X “ON”, electric power is supplied to the controller 30 from the battery on the vehicle body K side, and the controller 30 performs predetermined steering. The program starts. Further, when the operator turns the start switch of the remote controller 20 to "ON", carrier sense is performed, one frequency channel is arbitrarily selected from the vacant channels, and the wireless communication environment is set.

When performing remote control, the operator operates the tilting direction and tilting amount of the tilting steering lever by the remote controller 20 after setting the wireless communication environment, and also operates a plurality of selection switches and speed levers. , Predetermined operation data that is an execution command for operating each actuator of the vibrating roller X is transmitted to the communication device 31 of the controller 30. The controller 30 controls each actuator including the steering of the vibrating roller X based on the received operation data.

Here, according to the steering device 10, a control mechanism 60 capable of controlling the steering amount by the remote controller 20 and the controller 30 is configured, and the control mechanism 60 is a steering motor of the grip rotation mechanism 50. By driving 3, the steering amount by the grip rotation mechanism 50 can be controlled.
The grip rotating mechanism 50 is configured such that the grip catcher 5 can be connected to the handle grip G of the rotating handle H, and the handle grip G can be rotated to a position corresponding to the steering amount with respect to the rotating handle H. Therefore, the handle grip G can be used to remotely control the rotary handle H without precisely positioning the position where the steering device 10 is attached to and detached from the steering portion P with respect to the rotation center of the rotary handle H of the vibrating roller X. Steering according to automatic steering operation is possible.

Then, the manual steering mechanism 70 utilizes both ends of the steering motor 3 which is a double-axis stepping motor, and when the steering motor 3 is in a non-excited state, the steering device 10 is still installed in the steering unit P. Since the rotary handle H can be manually steered by the manual handle 2, the rotary handle H can be manually operated while the steering device 10 is installed on the rotary handle H portion of the vibrating roller X.

As described above, according to the steering device 10, the rotary handle H previously equipped in the steering portion P of the vibrating roller X, which is a construction machine, can be retrofitted without modifying the rotary handle H portion. It can be easily attached and detached. Further, according to the steering device 10, the rotary handle H can be steered by manual operation, remote control, or automatic operation while it is still attached to the steering unit P. It should be noted that the steering device according to the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and it goes without saying that various modifications can be made without departing from the gist of the present invention.

For example, the steering device according to the present invention is not limited to the vibrating roller, and can be applied to the steering portion of various existing construction machines as long as it is a traveling construction machine having a rotating handle in the steering portion. The rotary handle can be steered externally, and it can be applied to unmanned construction sites and large-scale earthworks sites.
As a construction machine, in addition to a vibrating roller, for example, a wheel loader or the like, which is a construction machine that is steered by a rotation operation with a rotation handle, and in particular, a rotation handle mechanism that does not reach 100% operation amount unless a rotation operation of 360 ° or more is performed. It is suitable for those having.

1 Base 2 Manual handle (manual steering mechanism)
3 Steering motor (control mechanism, manual steering mechanism)
4 Steering arm (grip rotation mechanism)
5 Grip catcher (grip rotation mechanism)
6A, 6B cable 7 One-touch fixing bracket (detachment mechanism)
8 Support legs (detachment mechanism)
10 Steering device 20 Remote controller 30 Controller 31 Communication device 32 Controller body 40 Detachment mechanism 50 Grip rotation mechanism 60 Control mechanism (steering mechanism)
70 Manual steering mechanism D Driver's cab G Handle grip H Rotating handle N Fixing bolt (existing fixing means)
P Steering part Pn operation panel S Fixing bolt mounting part X Vibration roller (construction machinery)
CL1 Handle axis CL2 Steering axis

Claims (3)

A steering device used in a runnable construction machine equipped with a rotary handle equipped with a handle grip in the steering section.
It has a base that can be attached to the steering unit and a grip catcher that is integrally mounted on the base and can be connected to the handle grip, and the grip catcher can be rotated to a position corresponding to the steering amount with respect to the rotating handle. It is provided with a grip rotation mechanism provided in the above and a steering mechanism capable of controlling the steering amount by the grip rotation mechanism .
The steering mechanism
A remote controller that transmits a control signal for executing automatic steering operation based on a predetermined program or remote steering operation according to a steering amount input by an operator from outside the construction machine, and a remote controller mounted on the base side. It has a communication device capable of receiving a control signal from the remote controller and a controller main body equipped on the base side.
The controller main body is a steering device for construction machinery, which executes steering processing corresponding to the automatic steering operation or the remote steering operation in response to the control signal received by the communication device. The base includes a plurality of support legs erected on the steering portion, and each support leg can be attached and detached by hand without using a tool at a portion where each support leg is attached to the steering portion. The steering device for construction machinery according to claim 1 , wherein a mechanism is provided. The base is equipped integrally with the grip rotation mechanism, and the rotation handle is manually steered while the base is mounted on the steering portion and the grip rotation mechanism is still mounted on the handle grip. The steering device for construction machinery according to claim 1 or 2 , further comprising a possible manual steering mechanism.

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