JP7114559B2 - Terminals and programs for terminals for excavators and construction machines - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to excavators.

The distance between the transponder and the transceiver is obtained by transmitting and receiving microwaves between the worker wearing the transponder and the transceiver mounted on the excavator, and the worker approaches the excavator based on that distance. There is known a system for notifying an excavator operator of the excavator (see Patent Document 1).

JP-A-8-036050

However, since the above-described system needs to prepare dedicated transponders corresponding to the number of workers, there is a possibility that it may not be able to handle the number of different workers at each work site.

In view of the above, it would be desirable to provide a shovel that provides additional safety for workers working in the vicinity.

An excavator according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a traveling body, a revolving body mounted on the traveling body, an excavation attachment provided on the front side of the revolving body, a cabin provided on the left side of the excavation attachment, and information about a worker having a terminal within a predetermined distance around the excavator, wherein the terminal within the predetermined distance around the excavator is different from the driver's terminal held by the driver of the cabin. When it is determined that the worker terminal is owned by a nearby worker, the driver of the cabin is notified.

By means of the aforesaid measures, an excavator is provided which provides additional safety for workers working in the vicinity.

1 is a side view showing a configuration example of an excavator equipped with a safe work support system according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration example of a safe work support application; FIG. It is a top view of a shovel and its surroundings. 7 is a flowchart showing the flow of information notification processing; An example of the warning screen displayed on the display of a worker terminal is shown. An example of the warning screen displayed on the display of a driver's terminal is shown.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a side view of a shovel as a construction machine equipped with a safe work support system 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention. An upper revolving body 3 is mounted on a lower traveling body 1 of the excavator via a revolving mechanism 2 . A boom 4 is attached to the upper swing body 3 . An arm 5 is attached to the tip of the boom 4 , and a bucket 6 is attached to the tip of the arm 5 . Boom 4, arm 5 and bucket 6 constitute a digging attachment and are hydraulically driven by boom cylinder 7, arm cylinder 8 and bucket cylinder 9 respectively. Further, the upper swing body 3 is provided with a cabin 10 and mounted with a power source such as an engine. A transmitter 50 is attached to the upper portion of the upper rotating body 3 .

Also, FIG. 1 shows a state in which a driver D0 with a smart phone SP0 is in a cabin 10 of an excavator. Moreover, FIG. 1 shows a state in which a worker W1 with a smart phone SP1 and a worker W2 with a smart phone SP2 are working around a shovel.

The safe work support system 100 is a system for ensuring the safety of the workers W1 and W2 working around the excavator, and is mainly composed of a transmitter 50. FIG. The transmitter 50 is a device that transmits a shovel signal at a predetermined cycle when in an operating state. 11 (Wi-Fi (registered trademark)). The excavator signal is a signal for notifying the surroundings of the presence of the excavator. In this embodiment, the transmitter 50 transmits a shovel signal with a radio wave intensity that can be received by smartphones existing within a predetermined distance range centered on the shovel. The transmitter 50 is a battery-driven device that can be easily attached to and detached from the shovel. And it is configured to be in an active state at all times while attached to the shovel. It should be noted that the transmitter 50 may be configured to be activated in association with the activation of the shovel, to be in the operating state when the shovel is in operation, and to be in the stopped state when the shovel is stopped.

The excavator signal also includes the identification information of the transmitter 50 . The identification information of the transmitter 50 is, for example, a Bluetooth Device address, a MAC address, or the like. Therefore, the smartphone that receives the excavator signal can uniquely identify the transmitter 50 .

Next, each component of the safe work support application 60 installed in each of the smartphones SP0 to SP2 will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3. FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration example of the safe work support application 60. As shown in FIG. FIG. 3 is a top view of the shovel and its surroundings, and a dashed circle 50R represents the radio coverage range of the transmitter 50. As shown in FIG. Moreover, FIG. 3 shows a state in which an in-vehicle display 55, an in-vehicle radio 56, and an in-vehicle speaker 57 are installed in the cabin 10 of the excavator.

The safe work support application 60 is a program that operates on a smartphone and mainly includes an identification section 61 , a notification section 62 and a transmission section 63 .

The identification unit 61 is a functional element that identifies whether the smartphone that has received the excavator signal is the driver's terminal. In this embodiment, the identification unit 61 identifies whether the smart phone that received the excavator signal is the driver's terminal, based on the identification information of the transmitter 50 included in the excavator signal. Further, each smartphone stores in advance a correspondence table indicating a correspondence relationship between the identification information of the transmitter 50 and the information regarding the driver of the excavator to which the transmitter 50 specified by the identification information is attached. The information about the driver includes identification information of the smartphone owned by the driver (hereinafter referred to as "driver's terminal"), such as IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity), IMSI (International Mobile Subscriber Identity), etc. is.

Specifically, the identification unit 61 acquires the identification information of the driver's terminal by referring to the correspondence table. After that, the identification unit 61 compares the identification information of the driver's terminal with the identification information of the smart phone (hereinafter referred to as "self-terminal") in which it operates, and determines whether the two pieces of identification information match. . Then, if it is determined that they match, the identifying unit 61 identifies that the own terminal is the driver's terminal. Further, when it is determined that they do not match, the identifying unit 61 identifies that its own terminal is a terminal other than the driver's terminal (hereinafter referred to as "operator terminal").

In addition, when the driver terminal can acquire the identification information of the smartphone that can be the worker terminal, for example, when the shovel and the transmitter 50 are activated, each worker terminal indicates that the driver terminal is the driver terminal. to update the correspondence table stored in each worker terminal.

The identification unit 61 may access a predetermined information server via a network, refer to a correspondence table stored in the information server, and identify whether the own terminal is the driver's terminal. Also, the driver may update the correspondence table stored in the information server through the driver's terminal and register that his/her own terminal is the driver's terminal.

Moreover, although the above example relates to the case where the excavator driver is fixed, the excavator driver may be replaced each time. In this case, the identification unit 61 may identify whether the own terminal is the driver's terminal based on the radio wave intensity of the shovel signal. This is based on the fact that the smart phone possessed by the driver is located near the transmitter 50 (inside the cabin 10).

When using the information server, the identification unit 61 notifies the information server of the fact when identifying that the own terminal is the driver's terminal based on the radio wave intensity of the shovel signal, and the information server stores the information. The contents of the corresponding table may be updated. This is so that other smartphones can obtain the latest information when accessing the information server. Further, when the contents of the correspondence table are updated, the information server may notify each smartphone of the updated information, and update the contents of the correspondence table stored in each smartphone.

The notification unit 62 is a functional element that notifies the owner of the smartphone of various information. In the present embodiment, when the notification unit 62 receives the shovel signal and identifies the own terminal as the worker terminal, the notification unit 62 notifies the worker who owns the smartphone of the presence of the shovel nearby. . Specifically, the notification unit 62 displays an image such as a text message to that effect on the attached display of the own terminal, or outputs a voice message to that effect from the attached speaker of the own terminal. At that time, the notification unit 62 may use the vibration function of its own terminal. In addition, when receiving the worker signal, the notification unit 62 notifies the driver who owns the smart phone that the worker is nearby.

The worker signal is a signal that the worker terminal transmits to the driver terminal when the own terminal is identified as the worker terminal. The worker signal includes, for example, the identification number of the transmitter 50 included in the shovel signal received by the worker terminal, the position information of the worker terminal, and the like. The position information of the worker terminal is, for example, GPS information (information on latitude, longitude, and altitude) by the GPS function of the worker terminal.

In addition, the notification unit 62 grasps the positional relationship between the worker terminal and the driver terminal based on the position information of the worker terminal included in the worker signal and the position information of the own terminal which is the driver terminal, Image information representing the positional relationship may be displayed on the attached display.

Note that the smartphone SP0 possessed by the driver D0 may be automatically wirelessly connected or wired to the in-vehicle device in the cabin 10 of the excavator. Then, when the smartphone SP0 is connected to the in-vehicle device, the notification unit 62 may use the in-vehicle device to notify the driver. For example, in this embodiment, the smartphone SP0 is connected to the in-vehicle display 55 and the in-vehicle radio 56 by wireless communication conforming to Bluetooth (registered trademark), IEEE802.11, and the like. Therefore, the smartphone SP<b>0 can display various images on the in-vehicle display 55 and output sound from the in-vehicle speaker 57 through the in-vehicle radio 56 . Then, the notification unit 62 can display an image such as a text message indicating that there is a worker nearby on the in-vehicle display 55, and output a voice message to that effect from the in-vehicle speaker 57. .

The transmission unit 63 is a functional element that transmits various types of information to other smartphones. In this embodiment, the transmitter 63 transmits the worker signal to the driver's terminal through wireless communication conforming to Bluetooth (registered trademark), IEEE 802.11, or the like. Specifically, the transmission unit 63 identifies a transmission destination based on the identification information of the driver terminal acquired by the identification unit 61, and transmits the worker signal to the transmission destination.

Next, with reference to FIG. 4, an example of processing (hereinafter referred to as "information notification processing") in which the safe work support application 60 notifies the driver D0, the worker W1, and the worker W2 of information will be described. Note that FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the flow of the information notification process, and the safe work support application 60 repeatedly executes this information notification process at a predetermined cycle.

First, the safe work support application 60 determines whether it has received a shovel signal transmitted by the transmitter 50 attached to the shovel (step S1).

Then, when it is determined that the excavator signal has been received (YES in step S1), the identification unit 61 of the safe work support application 60 identifies whether the own terminal is the driver's terminal (step S2).

When the identifying unit 61 determines that the self terminal is not the driver terminal (NO in step S2), that is, when the self terminal is determined to be the worker terminal, the notification unit 62 of the safe work support application 60 is notified to the operator (step S3). Specifically, the notification unit 62 displays a warning screen indicating that a shovel is nearby on the display of its own terminal as the worker terminal. Note that FIG. 5 shows an example of a warning screen displayed on the display of the worker terminal. At this time, the notification unit 62 may output a voice message indicating that the excavator is nearby from the attached speaker of the worker terminal, or may activate the vibrator function.

After that, the transmission unit 63 of the safe work support application 60 transmits a worker signal to the driver terminal (step S4). Specifically, the transmission unit 63 transmits a worker signal including position information of the worker terminal to the driver terminal through wireless communication. The driver's terminal is identified based on the identification information of the driver's terminal acquired by the identifying unit 61 when identifying the driver's terminal.

On the other hand, when the identification unit 61 determines that the own terminal is the driver terminal (YES in step S2), the notification unit 62 determines whether or not a worker signal has been received from the worker terminal (step S5).

And when it determines with having received the worker signal from the worker terminal (YES of step S5), the notification part 62 notifies a driver|operator of a worker's existence (step S6). Specifically, the notification unit 62 displays a warning screen indicating that the operator is nearby on the attached display of the own terminal as the driver's terminal.

FIG. 6 shows an example of a warning screen displayed on the attached display of the driver's terminal. The warning screen in FIG. 6 displays a CG image of a shovel in its central portion. In addition, the positional relationship between the worker terminal and the shovel derived based on the positional information of the worker terminal included in the worker signal and the positional information of the own terminal, which is the driver terminal, is displayed. Note that the blinking image G1 in FIG. 6 represents the position of the smart phone SP1 possessed by the worker W1, and the blinking image G2 represents the position of the smart phone SP2 possessed by the worker W2. At this time, the notification unit 62 may output a voice message indicating that the workers W1 and W2 are near the excavator from the speaker attached to the own terminal, or may activate the vibrator function. In addition, when the own terminal is connected to the vehicle-mounted device in the cabin 10, the notification unit 62 may display a warning screen on the vehicle-mounted display 55, or output a voice message from the vehicle-mounted speaker 57. good.

With the above configuration, the safe work support system 100 causes the smartphones (operator terminals) SP1 and SP2 possessed by the workers W1 and W2 to receive excavator signals transmitted from the transmitter 50 toward the surroundings, thereby indicating the presence of the excavator. Notice. In this way, the safe work support system 100 can use standard communication functions of smartphones, which are commonly used as communication terminals, to notify workers working around the excavator of the presence of the excavator. In addition, the presence of the excavator can be notified to workers working around the excavator using their own smartphones. Therefore, there is no need to prepare a dedicated terminal such as a transponder. As a result, even if the number of workers differs from one work site to another, it is possible to easily secure the necessary number of worker terminals and to flexibly deal with the number of workers that differs from one work site to another. In addition, even if the number of excavators differs for each work site, the required number of operator terminals can be easily secured, and the number of excavators that differs for each work site can be flexibly handled. In addition, since various functions can be realized without going through an information server, it functions effectively even if the work site is located in a remote area where there is no base station nearby and where mobile phone communication services cannot be used.

The identification information of the transmitter 50 included in the excavator signal corresponds to the identification information of the smartphone (driver terminal) SP0 possessed by the driver D0 by the safe work support application 60 installed in the worker terminals SP1 and SP2. Attached. Therefore, the worker terminals SP1 and SP2 that have received the shovel signal can transmit worker information to the driver terminal SP0 and notify the driver terminal SP0 of the presence of the worker terminals SP1 and SP2.

Also, the worker information includes position information of the worker terminals SP1 and SP2. Specifically, the worker information includes information about the distance between the shovel and worker terminals SP1 and SP2. The content of the information about the distance is determined, for example, according to the radio wave intensity of the excavator signal received by the worker terminals SP1 and SP2. Also, the driver terminal SP0 grasps the positional relationship between the worker terminals SP1, SP2 and the driver terminal SP0 based on the position information of the worker terminals SP1, SP2 and the position information of the driver terminal SP0. The position information of the worker terminals SP1 and SP2 is based on, for example, GPS information obtained by the GPS function of the worker terminals SP1 and SP2, and the position information of the driver terminal SP0 is based on, for example, GPS information obtained by the GPS function of the driver terminal SP0. Informed. With this configuration, the safe work support system 100 can notify useful information suitable for each of the worker and the driver.

Also, the driver terminal SP0 may be connected to an output device such as an in-vehicle display 55 and an in-vehicle radio 56 mounted on the excavator. In this case, when the operator signal is received from the operator terminals SP1 and SP2, the driver terminal SP0 outputs information on the operator terminals SP1 and SP2 from its output device. Therefore, the safe work support system 100 can display a warning screen or the like on an in-vehicle display that is larger than the attached display of the driver terminal SP0. Also, the voice message can be output from the in-vehicle speaker with a louder output than the attached speaker of the driver's terminal SP0.

In addition, when the operator terminals SP1 and SP2 receive the excavator signal from the transmitter 50, they output information about the excavator to an attached output device such as an attached display and an attached speaker. Therefore, the safe work support system 100 can notify the workers who have the worker terminals SP1 and SP2 of the presence of the shovel, regardless of the notification of the information to the driver who has the driver terminal SP0.

Although preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail above, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications and substitutions can be made to the above-described embodiments without departing from the scope of the present invention. can be added.

For example, although in the above embodiment a single transmitter 50 is mounted on the shovel, multiple transmitters may be mounted. In this case, the safe work support system 100 differentiates the identification information of each transmitter, and the transmitters are located at positions separated from each other by a predetermined distance or more on the excavator (for example, the front right, front left, rear right, rear left, etc.) of the excavator. 4 points, etc.). With this configuration, the safe work support system 100 predefines the correspondence relationship between the mounting position and the identification information, so that the worker terminal can be detected based on the information about the distance between each transmitter and the worker terminal. You can specify where you are around the shovel.

Also, the safe work support system 100 has been described as a system for ensuring the safety of workers working around one shovel. However, the invention is not limited to this configuration. For example, the safe work support system 100 may be used to ensure the safety of workers working around each of the multiple excavators when multiple excavators are operating at the same work site. . In this case, a driver terminal for a specific excavator functions as a worker terminal for other excavators.

The safe work support system 100 is mounted on a self-propelled excavator having movable members such as a bucket, an arm, a boom, and a turning mechanism. However, the safe work support system 100 may be mounted on construction machines that do not have a turning mechanism, such as forklifts and asphalt finishers. Alternatively, the safe work support system 100 may be mounted on a construction machine such as an industrial machine or a stationary crane that has movable members but does not move by itself.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Lower traveling body 2... Revolving mechanism 3... Upper revolving body 4... Boom 5... Arm 6... Bucket 7... Boom cylinder 8... Arm cylinder 9... Bucket cylinder 10 Cabin 50 Transmitter 50R Range of radio waves 55 In-vehicle display 56 In-vehicle radio 57 In-vehicle speaker 60 Safety work support application 61 Identification unit 62 Notification unit 63 Transmission unit 100 Safe work support system D0 Driver G1, G2 Blinking image SP0, SP1, SP2 Smart phone W1, W2 ··worker

Claims (9)

an excavator,
a running body;
a revolving body mounted on the traveling body;
a drilling attachment provided on the front side of the revolving structure;
A cabin provided on the left side of the drilling attachment,
Information about a worker having a terminal within a predetermined distance around the excavator is provided for work around the excavator in which the terminal within the predetermined distance around the excavator is different from the driver's terminal held by the driver of the cabin. Notifying the driver of the cabin when it is determined that it is a worker terminal held by a person,
Excavator. receiving GPS information for each terminal present within a predetermined distance from the excavator;
The excavator of Claim 1. The information about the worker includes at least one of proximity of the worker, position of the worker, distance between the worker and the shovel, and identification information of the worker.
The excavator of Claim 1. Notifying the driver in the cabin of information about the worker via a terminal present in the cabin;
A shovel according to any one of claims 1 to 3. The terminal present in the cabin notifies the driver in the cabin of the information about the worker by sound, display, or vibration.
The excavator of Claim 4. A connection unit provided in the cabin for connecting means having a Wi-Fi (registered trademark) or Bluetooth (registered trademark) communication function;
and a notification unit provided in the cabin,
Notifying the driver in the cabin of information about the worker holding a terminal within a predetermined distance from the excavator via the connection unit and the notification unit;
A shovel according to any one of claims 1 to 5. A display provided in the cabin,
displaying information about each terminal on the display;
A shovel according to any one of claims 1 to 6. A terminal for a construction machine that ensures the safety of workers working around the construction machine,
It is determined that the worker terminal exists within a predetermined distance around the construction machine and is different from the driver terminal held by the driver of the cabin of the construction machine, and is held by a worker around the construction machine. receiving first information from a transmitter attached to the construction machine and notifying the presence of the construction machine, if
Terminal for construction machinery. A program installed in a terminal possessed by a worker who works around a construction machine,
A worker terminal that is present within a predetermined distance range around the construction machine, and that is different from the driver terminal held by the driver of the cabin of the construction machine and held by a worker around the construction machine. if it is determined that the construction machine exists, causing the terminal to notify the existence of the construction machine when the terminal receives first information from a transmitter attached to the construction machine;
Terminal program.

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