WO2023105944A1

WO2023105944A1 - Work machine

Info

Publication number: WO2023105944A1
Application number: PCT/JP2022/039125
Authority: WO
Inventors: 慎二郎山本; 進也井村
Original assignee: 日立建機株式会社
Priority date: 2021-12-10
Filing date: 2022-10-20
Publication date: 2023-06-15

Abstract

The purpose of the present invention is to provide a work machine capable of preventing falling due to the operator's carelessness or mistake in traveling operation. For this purpose, a traveling control device sets an area in which a lower traveling body is likely to travel as a traveling area on the basis of relative angle information from a relative angle detection device, sets an area which the lower traveling body is prohibited from entering as an entry-prohibited area on the basis of surrounding environment information from an environment recognition device, and invalidates the operation of a traveling operation device if the traveling area and the entry-prohibited area have an overlapping area.

Description

working machine

The present invention relates to a working machine having a lower traveling body and an upper revolving body.

In a work machine having a lower traveling body and an upper revolving body, the front of the upper revolving body and the front of the lower traveling body do not match due to the relative angle between the lower traveling body and the upper revolving body. As a result, the operator may mistakenly perform the traveling operation to move forward or backward. In addition, the place where the work is performed is not necessarily flat, and when the work is performed on a slope or a high place, there is a possibility that the machine will fall due to an erroneous operation of the traveling operation. Patent Literature 1 proposes a method of preventing erroneous operations by displaying the relative angle (turning angle) of the upper rotating body with respect to the lower traveling body at a position that is easy for the operator to see. On the other hand, Patent Document 2 proposes a method of extracting information on slopes and cliffs around the machine using a stereo camera attached to the machine and notifying the operator of the information.

JP-A-2001-73414 Japanese Patent No. 6386213

According to

Patent Documents

1 and 2, the relative angle between the lower traveling body and the upper revolving body or the information of the surrounding slopes and cliffs are displayed on a display device or the like so that the operator can easily recognize them. However, the operator does not always look at the display device, and often concentrates on the operation of the work machine. Therefore, it is not possible to prevent overturning due to erroneous traveling operation only by displaying the information to the operator. In addition, if all traveling operations are prohibited when there is a slope or cliff in the surrounding area, it will be impossible to travel in a low-risk direction, resulting in a problem of reduced safety.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and its object is to provide a working machine that can prevent overturning due to operator's carelessness or erroneous travel operation.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a lower traveling body, an upper revolving body rotatably mounted on the lower traveling body, a traveling operation device for instructing the operation of the lower traveling body, and the traveling body. A work machine comprising: a traveling control device for controlling the operation of the lower traveling body in accordance with an operation of an operating device; an environment recognition device for recognizing the environment around the machine, wherein the travel control device determines a travel area in which the undercarriage may travel, based on the relative angle information from the relative angle detection device. and based on the surrounding environment information from the environment recognition device, an area into which the undercarriage is prohibited to enter is set as an entry prohibited area, and an overlapping area exists between the traveling area and the entry prohibited area. In that case, the operation of the traveling operation device shall be invalidated.

According to the present invention configured as described above, when the operator is unaware of the existence of the no-entry area, or when the operator recognizes the existence of the no-entry area but performs an erroneous traveling operation, the lower travel can be prevented. It is possible to prevent the body from entering the restricted area. As a result, it is possible to prevent overturning due to operator's carelessness or erroneous travel operation.

According to the work machine according to the present invention, it is possible to prevent overturning due to operator's carelessness or erroneous travel operation.

1 is a side view of a hydraulic excavator according to a first embodiment of the present invention; FIG. It is the figure which looked at the hydraulic excavator from upper direction. It is a figure which shows the structure of the traveling control system mounted in the hydraulic excavator. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a no-entry area set by a no-entry area setting unit; FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a traveling area when the relative angle of the upper rotating body to the lower traveling body is 0 degrees; FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a traveling area when the relative angle of the upper rotating body to the lower traveling body is 180 degrees; It is a flowchart which shows the process of a driving|running|working determination part. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a method of determining whether or not an overlapping area exists between a travel area and an entry prohibition area; FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a method of setting a no-entry area in the second embodiment of the present invention;

Hereinafter, a hydraulic excavator will be taken as an example of a working machine according to an embodiment of the present invention, and will be described with reference to the drawings. In addition, in each figure, the same code|symbol is attached|subjected to the same member, and the overlapping description is abbreviate|omitted suitably.

FIG. 1 is a side view of a hydraulic excavator according to the first embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the hydraulic excavator 1 includes a lower traveling body 2, an upper revolving body 3 mounted on the lower traveling body 2 so as to be able to turn 360 degrees, and a front side of the upper revolving body 3 that can be vertically and longitudinally moved. and a working device 4 that is rotatably connected. The upper revolving body 3 is driven to revolve in the left-right direction by a revolving device 5 . The lower traveling body 2 can travel in the front-rear direction by the traveling device 6 . The travel device 6 is driven by a travel drive device 7 (shown in FIG. 3) such as a hydraulic motor.

A cab 8 is provided on the front left side of the upper revolving body 3 . In the cab 8, a traveling control lever 9 for instructing the operation of the lower traveling body 2, a work operating lever (not shown) for instructing the operation of the upper revolving body 3 and the working device 4, and the like are arranged. there is An angle sensor 10 as a relative angle detection device for detecting the relative angle (swing angle) of the upper swing structure 3 with respect to the lower traveling structure 2 is attached near the swing axis X of the upper swing structure 3 . In this embodiment, the relative angle is 0 degree when the front of the lower traveling structure 2 and the front of the upper rotating structure 3 match (the state shown in FIG. 1).

The working device 4 includes a boom 11 connected to the front center of the upper rotating body 3 so as to be vertically rotatable, an arm 12 connected to the tip of the boom 11 so as to be vertically rotatable, and A bucket 13 is connected to the tip of an arm 12 so as to be rotatable in the vertical and longitudinal directions, a boom cylinder 14 that drives the boom 11, an arm cylinder 15 that drives the arm 12, and a bucket cylinder 16 that drives the bucket 13. and

FIG. 2 is a diagram of the hydraulic excavator 1 viewed from above. An environment recognition device 17 is installed near each upper corner of the upper revolving body 3 . The environment recognition device 17 is arranged so that the object detection range 18 covers the periphery of the upper rotating body 3 . The environment recognition device 17 is composed of, for example, a distance measuring sensor (LiDAR or the like), and can measure the terrain around the hydraulic excavator 1 . Note that the number and arrangement of the environment recognition devices 17 may be changed according to the vehicle class, working environment, and the like.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the configuration of the travel control system mounted on the hydraulic excavator 1. As shown in FIG. 3, the travel control system 100 includes a travel device 6, a travel drive device 7, a travel operation device 9, a relative angle detection device 10, an environment recognition device 17, a travel restriction function setting device 19, and a travel control device. and the device 20 . The travel control device 20 has an entry prohibited area setting unit 21 , a travel area setting unit 22 , a travel determination unit 23 , and a travel drive control unit 24 . The travel control device 20 has, for example, a CPU, a memory, a storage device, an input/output interface, etc. The CPU implements the functions of the processing units 21 to 24 by executing programs stored in the storage device.

Based on the surrounding environment information from the environment recognition device 17, the no-entry area setting unit 21 designates an area (a steep slope, a hole, etc.) where there is a possibility that the body may overturn when the lower traveling body 2 enters the no-entry area. set. FIG. 4 shows an example of an entry prohibited area. In the example shown in FIG. 4 , an entry prohibition area 30 is set behind the upper swing body 3 . Here, the no-entry area 30 is a two-dimensional area obtained by projecting the three-dimensional data of the topographical portion where the aircraft may overturn onto a plane orthogonal to the turning axis X (turning plane).

Returning to FIG. 3, the travel area setting unit 22 calculates an area (travel area) into which the lower traveling body 2 can enter, and sets it as the travel area. FIG. 5 shows an example of the travel area when the relative angle is 0 degrees, and FIG. 6 shows an example of the travel area when the relative angle is 180 degrees. 5 and 6, the travel area is composed of a forward travel area 31a and a reverse travel area 31b. The forward travel area 31a is a two-dimensional area obtained by projecting a three-dimensional area into which the lower traveling body 2 may enter when the traveling operation device 9 instructs forward traveling motion onto the turning plane. The reverse travel area 31b is a two-dimensional area obtained by projecting a three-dimensional area into which the lower traveling body 2 may enter when the traveling operation device 9 instructs a reverse traveling operation onto the turning plane. The shape and size of the running

regions

31a and 31b are appropriately set in consideration of the running mode (high speed, low speed) of the lower running body 2, environmental conditions, and the like. In the examples shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, the running

regions

31a and 31b are set in a fan shape in consideration of the meandering of the lower running body 2, respectively. In the example shown in FIG. 5, since the longitudinal direction of the upper rotating body 3 coincides with the longitudinal direction of the lower traveling body 2, the forward movement area 31a is set in front of the upper rotating body 3, and the forward movement area 31a is set behind the upper rotating body 3. A backward movement area 31b is set. In this case, since the front-rear direction seen by the operator and the front-rear direction of the lower traveling body 2 match, the operator is less likely to make a mistake in traveling operation. On the other hand, in the example shown in FIG. 6, since the longitudinal direction of the upper rotating body 3 is reversed with respect to the longitudinal direction of the lower traveling body 2, a backward movement area 31b is set in front of the upper rotating body 3, A forward movement area 31a is set to the rear of 3. As shown in FIG. In this case, since the front-rear direction seen by the operator does not match the front-rear direction of the lower traveling body 2, there is a high possibility that the operator will make a mistake in traveling operation.

Returning to FIG. 3 , when the travel restriction function is set to be effective by the travel restriction function setting device 19, the travel determination unit 23 determines the forward movement based on the positional relationship between the

travel areas

31a and 31b and the entry prohibition area 30. It determines whether the side travel operation and the reverse side travel operation are valid/invalid. The travel restriction function referred to here is a function that restricts the travel operation of the hydraulic excavator 1 according to the surrounding environment. The travel restriction function setting device 19 is an input interface for instructing the travel control device 20 to enable/disable the travel restriction function, and is composed of switches, a touch panel, and the like arranged in the cab 8 .

When the travel determination unit 23 determines that the forward travel operation is effective, the travel drive control unit 24 performs travel drive so that the travel device 6 is driven according to the forward operation amount of the travel operation device 9 . When it is determined that the traveling operation on the forward side is invalid, the traveling drive device 7 is controlled so that the driving of the traveling device 6 on the forward side is stopped. Similarly, when it is determined that the reverse travel operation is effective, the travel drive device 7 is controlled so that the travel device 6 is driven according to the operation amount of the travel operation device 9 on the reverse travel side. When it is determined that the traveling operation is invalid, the traveling drive device 7 is controlled so that the driving of the traveling device 6 on the reverse side is stopped.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the processing of the travel determination unit 23. FIG. Each step will be described in order below.

The travel determination unit 23 first determines whether or not the travel restriction function is valid (step S101). If it is determined NO in step S101 (the travel restriction function is disabled), it is determined that the travel operation is valid (step S102), and the flow ends. Thereby, the travel drive control unit 24 controls the travel drive device 7 so that the travel device 6 is driven according to the operation amount of the travel operation device 9 .

If it is determined YES (the travel restriction function is valid) in step S101, it is determined whether or not the no-entry area 30 is set by the no-entry area setting unit 21 (step S103). If it is determined NO in step S103 (no entry prohibition area 30 is set), it is determined that the traveling operation is valid (step S102), and the flow ends. Thereby, the travel drive control unit 24 controls the travel drive device 7 so that the travel device 6 is driven according to the operation amount of the travel operation device 9 .

If it is determined as YES (the no entry area 30 is set) in step S103, it is determined whether or not there is an overlapping area between the forward movement area 31a and the no entry area 30 (step S104). Here, a method of determining whether or not there is an overlapping area between the travel area (forward movement area 31a and reverse movement area 31b) and the no entry area 30 will be described with reference to FIG. The traveling

areas

31a and 31b are set in a coordinate system with the lower traveling body 2 as a reference, but the entry prohibition area 30 is set in a coordinate system with the upper revolving body 3 as a reference. Therefore, when determining whether or not there is an overlapping area between the

travel areas

31a and 31b and the no entry area 30, it is necessary to align one of the reference coordinate systems. In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 8, by rotating the traveling

areas

31a and 31b around the turning axis X by the relative angle θ, the traveling

areas

31a and 31b are entered in the coordinate system with the upper rotating body 3 as a reference. It is determined whether or not there is an overlapping area with the prohibited area 30 . In the example shown in FIG. 8 , there is an overlapping area between the backward movement area 31b and the no-entry area 30 .

Returning to FIG. 7, if it is determined NO in step S104 (there is no overlapping area between the forward movement area 31a and the entry prohibition area 30), it is determined that the forward traveling operation is valid (step S105). As a result, the travel drive control unit 24 controls the travel drive device 7 so that the travel device 6 is driven according to the amount of operation when the travel operation device 9 instructs the travel operation on the forward side.

If it is determined YES in step S104 (there is an overlapping area between the forward movement area 31a and the no-entry area 30), it is determined that the forward travel operation is invalid (step S106). As a result, the travel drive control unit 24 stops driving the travel drive device 7 when the travel operation device 9 instructs the travel operation on the forward side.

Following step S105 or step S106, it is determined whether or not there is an overlapping area between the backward movement area 31b and the entry prohibition area 30 (step S107).

If it is determined NO in step S107 (there is no overlapping area between the reverse travel area 31b and the entry prohibition area 30), it is determined that the reverse travel operation is valid (step S108), and the flow ends. As a result, when the traveling operation device 9 instructs the traveling operation on the reverse side, the traveling drive control unit 24 controls the traveling drive device 7 so that the traveling device 6 is driven according to the operation amount.

If it is determined YES in step S107 (an overlapping area exists between the reverse travel area 31b and the entry prohibition area 30), it is determined that the reverse travel operation is invalid (step S109), and the flow ends. Accordingly, the travel drive control unit 24 controls the travel drive device 7 so that the travel device 6 stops when the travel operation device 9 instructs the travel operation on the reverse side.

(summary)
In this embodiment, the lower traveling body 2, the upper revolving body 3 rotatably mounted on the lower traveling body 2, the traveling operation device 9 for instructing the operation of the lower traveling body 2, and the operation of the traveling operation device 9 a working machine 1 equipped with a traveling control device 20 for controlling the operation of the lower traveling body 2 in accordance with the relative angle detecting device 10 for detecting the relative angle θ of the upper revolving body 3 with respect to the lower traveling body 2; The traveling control device 20 is provided with an environment recognition device 17 for recognizing the surrounding environment of 1, and the travel control device 20 travels in the area where the lower traveling body 2 may travel based on the relative angle information from the relative angle detection device 10. Based on the surrounding environment information from the environment recognition device 17, an area into which the lower traveling body 2 is prohibited to enter is set as an entry prohibited area 30, and the traveling

areas

31a and 31b and the entry prohibited area are set. 30, the operation by the traveling operation device 9 is invalidated.

According to the present embodiment configured as described above, when the operator is unaware of the existence of the no-entry area 30, or when the operator recognizes the existence of the no-entry area 30 but performs an erroneous traveling operation, , the lower running body 2 can be prevented from entering the entry prohibition area 30. - 特許庁As a result, it is possible to prevent overturning due to operator's carelessness or erroneous travel operation.

Further, the travel control device 20 in the present embodiment has

travel regions

31a and 31b, which indicate the possibility of the lower travel body 2 entering when the travel operation device 9 instructs the travel operation device 9 to move the lower travel body 2 forward. A forward travel region 31a and a reverse travel region 31b into which the lower travel body 2 may enter when the traveling operation device 9 instructs the lower travel body 2 to travel backward are set. If there is an overlapping area with the entry prohibition area 30, the forward travel operation by the travel operation device 9 is invalidated, and if there is an overlap area between the reverse travel area 31b and the entry prohibition area 30, the travel operation device 9 invalidates the reverse travel operation. As a result, only the running motion in the direction to enter the entry prohibited area 30 is restricted, and the running motion in the direction not to enter the entry prohibited area 30 is allowed, so that the reduction in work efficiency can be suppressed.

A hydraulic excavator 1 according to a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a method of setting the no-entry area 30 in this embodiment. In FIG. 9 , the environment recognition device 17 is composed of a distance measuring sensor such as LiDAR, and is installed above the upper revolving structure 3 so as to be inclined toward the ground contact surface 40 of the lower traveling structure 2 . The travel control device 20 sets the underbody space 41 below the ground plane 40 by a predetermined height H, and overlaps the space where no object is detected in the object detection range 18 with the underbody space 41. A prohibited entry space 42 is set, and a two-dimensional area obtained by projecting the prohibited entry space 42 onto the turning plane is set as a prohibited entry area 30 (shown in FIG. 4). In the example shown in FIG. 9, there is a slope behind the upper revolving body 3, and an entry-prohibited space 42 is set at a predetermined height H below the slope.

(summary)
The environment recognition device 17 in this embodiment is a distance sensor that measures the distance to an object existing around the work machine 1 .

According to the present embodiment configured as described above, the working machine 1 equipped with the distance measuring sensor as the environment recognition device 17 can achieve the same effect as the first embodiment.

Further, the distance measuring sensor 17 in this embodiment is installed on the upper rotating body 3 so as to be inclined toward the ground contact surface 40 of the lower traveling body 2. The area where it was not possible is set as an entry prohibited area 30. - 特許庁As a result, the area where the distance measuring sensor 17 has failed is set as the entry prohibition area 30, so that the setting omission of the entrance prohibition area 30 due to the distance measuring sensor 17 failing can be prevented.

Further, the travel control device 20 in this embodiment sets a region lower than the ground contact surface 40 of the lower traveling body 2 as the space 41 below the body, and the space below the body 41 and the space where the range sensor 17 cannot measure the distance. is set as an entry-inhibited space 42 , and a two-dimensional area obtained by projecting the entry-inhibited space 42 onto a plane orthogonal to the pivot axis X of the upper rotating body 3 is set as an entry-inhibited area 30 . Thus, by setting the machine body lower space 41 below the lower traveling body 2 by a height that prevents the work machine 1 from overturning, the traveling operation can be performed only on slopes and steps where there is a possibility of overturning. Since it is limited, it is possible to suppress a decrease in work efficiency.

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail above, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and includes various modifications. For example, the application of the present invention is not limited to hydraulic excavators, but can be applied to general work machines having a lower traveling body and an upper revolving body. Moreover, the above-described embodiments have been described in detail in order to explain the present invention in an easy-to-understand manner, and are not necessarily limited to those having all the described configurations. Furthermore, it is also possible to add part of the configuration of another embodiment to the configuration of one embodiment, to delete part of the configuration of one embodiment, or to replace it with part of another embodiment. It is possible.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Hydraulic excavator (work machine), 2... Lower traveling body, 3... Upper rotating body, 4... Working device, 5... Swing device, 6... Traveling device, 7... Traveling drive device, 8... Cab, 9... Traveling operation Lever (travel operation device) 10 Angle sensor (relative angle detection device) 11 Boom 12 Arm 13 Bucket 14 Boom cylinder 15 Arm cylinder 16 Bucket cylinder 17 Ranging sensor (Environment Recognition Device) 18... Object Detection Range 19... Travel Limiting Function Setting Device 20... Travel Control Device 21... Prohibited Area Setting Part 22... Traveling Area Setting Part 23... Traveling Judging Part 24... Traveling Drive control unit 30 No entry area 31a Forward area (running area) 31b Reverse area (running area) 40 Ground plane 41 Underbody space 42 No entry space 100 Running control system .

Claims

a lower running body;
an upper rotating body rotatably mounted on the lower traveling body;
a traveling operation device for instructing the operation of the lower traveling body;
A work machine comprising a travel control device that controls the operation of the undercarriage according to the operation of the travel operation device,
a relative angle detection device for detecting the relative angle of the upper rotating body with respect to the lower traveling body;
an environment recognition device that recognizes the environment around the work machine;
The travel control device is
setting an area in which the lower traveling body may travel as a travel area based on the relative angle information from the relative angle detection device;
setting an area into which the undercarriage is prohibited to enter as an entry prohibited area based on the surrounding environment information from the environment recognition device;
A working machine, wherein an operation by the travel operation device is invalidated when there is an overlapping area between the travel area and the no-entry area.
The work machine according to claim 1,
The traveling control device includes, as the traveling area, a forward traveling area into which the lower traveling body may enter when the traveling operation device instructs the traveling operation on the forward side of the lower traveling body, and the traveling operation area. setting a reverse travel area into which the lower traveling body may enter when a device instructs the lower traveling body to travel on the reverse side;
if there is an overlapping area between the forward movement area and the no-entry area, the forward traveling operation by the traveling operation device is invalidated;
A working machine, wherein when there is an overlapping area between the reverse travel area and the entry prohibition area, the travel operation on the reverse travel side by the travel operation device is disabled.
The work machine according to claim 1,
A working machine, wherein the environment recognition device is a distance sensor that measures a distance to an object existing around the working machine.
In the working machine according to claim 3,
The distance measuring sensor is installed on the upper rotating body so as to be inclined toward the ground surface of the lower traveling body,
The working machine, wherein the travel control device sets an area in which the range sensor cannot measure a distance as the no-entry area.
In the working machine according to claim 4,
The travel control device is
setting an area lower than the ground contact surface of the undercarriage as a fuselage lower space,
setting an overlapping space between the space below the fuselage and the space in which the distance measuring sensor could not measure a distance as a no-entry space;
A working machine, wherein a two-dimensional area obtained by projecting the prohibited-entry space onto a plane orthogonal to the pivot axis of the upper revolving body is set as the prohibited-entry area.