Control system for construction machines

• US 20020032511A1
• Filed: 09/14/2001
• Published: 03/14/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 09/14/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Megumi Murase, Tadashi Taninaga, Taku Murakami
• Original Assignee: Megumi Murase, Tadashi Taninaga, Taku Murakami
• Inventors: Murakami, Taku, Taninaga, Tadashi, Murase, Megumi
• Granted Patent: US 6,778,893 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/50
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/20 Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles

Abstract

Abnormality can be judged accurately by considering information other than a sensor-detected value. Determination of an abnormality degree, namely an urgency degree, is enabled, and an abnormality can be processed accurately according to the determined result. Only information really useful is given to the side of an administrator, and the communications cost is suppressed. Server unit 11 of manufacturer 10 judges the abnormality degree of a construction machine on the basis of a combination of all or two of first to third construction machine information D1, D2, D3 collected. The server unit 11 of the manufacturer 10 ranks the abnormality degree of the construction machine in respective levels of Rank 1 (Normal), Rank 2 (Warning), Rank 3 (Abnormal) and Rank 4 (Emergency) on the basis of the number of occurred times of error codes collected for the unit time.

Claims

1. A control system for a construction machine which collects information from the construction machine, judges an abnormality of the construction machine on the basis of the collected construction machine information, and processes the abnormality of the construction machine when it is judged abnormal to control the construction machine, comprising:

first information collecting means which are disposed within the construction machine and detect internal information to collect first construction machine information;

second information collecting means which analyze a subject to be analyzed taken from the construction machine to collect second construction machine information;

third information collecting means which collect third construction machine information by visually judging the construction machine; and

abnormality degree judging means which judge an abnormality degree of the construction machine on the basis of a combination of all or two of the first to third construction machine information collected by the first to third information collecting means, wherein;

the abnormality of the construction machine is processed depending on the abnormality degree judged by the abnormality degree judging means.

2. A control system for a construction machine which collects information from the construction machine, judges an abnormality of the construction machine on the basis of the collected construction machine information, and processes the abnormality of the construction machine when it is judged abnormal to control the construction machine, comprising:

information collecting means which collect the construction machine information; and

information processing means which rank an abnormality degree of the construction machine in a plurality of levels on the basis of the construction machine information collected by the information collecting means, wherein;

the abnormality of the construction machine is processed on the basis of information indicating the abnormality degree ranked by the information collecting means.

3. A control system for a construction machine which collects information from the construction machine, judges an abnormality of the construction machine on the basis of the collected construction machine information, and processes the abnormality of the construction machine when it is judged abnormal to control the construction machine, comprising:

information collecting means which collect the construction machine information; and

a single or plurality of terminal devices which are disposed on the side of an administrator who processes the abnormality of the construction machine, wherein;

the information collecting means, the terminal devices and a server unit are communicably connected by communications means;

information processing means which rank an abnormality degree in a plurality of levels on the basis of the construction machine information are disposed on the server unit;

the construction machine information collected by the information collecting means is sent to the server unit through the communications means;

the information processing means of the server unit rank the abnormality degree of the construction machine in a plurality of levels on the basis of the sent construction machine information; and

the server unit responds to a request from the single or plurality of terminal devices and sends information indicating the ranked abnormality degree to the requested terminal device through the communications means.

4. The control system for a construction machine according to claim 2 or 3, wherein:

the system is applied to control a plurality of construction machines, and

the information processing means set a ranking criterion for each of the construction machines and rank for every construction machine according to the set criterion.

5. The control system for a construction machine according to claim 2 or 3, wherein:

the construction machine information is time-series data which is variable with the passage of time, and

the information processing means rank an amount of change to an inclination, an absolute value or an initial value of the time-series data in a plurality of levels.

6. The control system for a construction machine according to claim 2 or 3, wherein:

the construction machine information is an error code indicating an error occurred within the construction machine, and

the information processing means rank a frequency of occurrence of the error code in a plurality of levels.

7. The control system for a construction machine according to claim 2 or 3, wherein:

the construction machine information is a compared result obtained by comparing an actual operating condition with a predicted value of an operating state of the construction machine, and

the information processing means rank the compared result in a plurality of levels.

8. A control system for a construction machine which collects information from the construction machine, judges an abnormality of the construction machine on the basis of the collected construction machine information, and processes the abnormality of the construction machine when it is judged abnormal to control the construction machine, comprising:

information collecting means which collect the construction machine information; and

a plurality of terminal devices which are disposed on the side of an administrator who processes the abnormality of the construction machine, wherein;

the information collecting means, the plurality of terminal devices and a server unit are communicably connected by communications means;

the information processing means, which rank an abnormality degree in a plurality of levels on the basis of the construction machine information and associate a rank of the abnormality degree to be sent with the plurality of terminal devices, are disposed on the server unit

the construction machine information collected by the information collecting means is sent to the server unit through the communications means;

the information processing means of the server unit rank the abnormality degree of the construction machine in a plurality of levels on the basis of the sent construction machine information and associate a rank of the abnormality degree to be sent with the plurality of terminal devices; and

the server unit responds to a request from the terminal device and sends abnormality degree information of a corresponding rank to the requested terminal device through the communications means.

9. A control system for a construction machine which collects information from the construction machine, judges an abnormality of the construction machine on the basis of the collected construction machine information, and processes the abnormality of the construction machine when it is judged abnormal to control the construction machine, comprising:

information collecting means which collect the construction machine information; and

a plurality of terminal devices which are disposed on the side of an administrator who processes the abnormality of the construction machine, wherein;

the information collecting means, the plurality of terminal devices and a server unit are communicably connected by communications means;

information processing means, which processes into information according to a level of the administrator of the terminal device on the basis of the construction machine information, are disposed on the server unit;

the construction machine information collected by the information collecting means is sent to the server unit through the communications means;

the information processing means of the server unit processes the sent contraction machine information into information according to a level of the administrator of the terminal device; and

the server unit responds to a request from the terminal device and sends the processed information according to a level of the administrator of the requested terminal device to the requested terminal device through the communications means.

10. The control system for a construction machine according to claim 9, wherein the server unit resends the processed information when data about the reception of the processed information is not sent back from the requested terminal device within a predetermined period.

11. A control system for a construction machine which collects information from the construction machine, judges an abnormality of the construction machine on the basis of the collected construction machine information, and processes the abnormality of the construction machine when it is judged abnormal to control the construction machine, comprising:

information collecting means which collect the construction machine information; and

a plurality of terminal devices which are disposed on the side of an administrator who processes the abnormality of the construction machine, wherein;

the information collecting means, the terminal devices and a server unit are communicably connected by communications means;

the server unit is provided with the information processing means which rank an abnormality degree in a plurality of levels on the basis of the construction machine information and storage means which rerank the rank of the abnormality degree made by the information processing means and store the reranked results;

the construction machine information collected by the information collecting means is sent to the server unit through the communications means;

the information processing means of the server unit rank the abnormality degree of the construction machine in a plurality of levels on the basis of the sent construction machine information;

the ranks of the abnormality degree made by the information processing means are reranked, and the reranked results are stored in the storage means; and

the server unit sends information indicating the reranked abnormality degree to the respective terminal devices through the communications means.

12. A control system for a construction machine which collects information from the construction machine, judges an abnormality of the construction machine on the basis of the collected construction machine information, and processes the abnormality of the construction machine when it is judged abnormal to control the construction machine, comprising:

information collecting means which collect the construction machine information; and

a plurality of terminal devices which are disposed on the side of an administrator who processes the abnormality of the construction machine, wherein;

the information collecting means, the terminal devices and a server unit are communicably connected by communications means;

the server unit is provided with information processing means which rank an abnormality degree in a plurality of levels on the basis of the construction machine information;

the construction machine information collected by the information collecting means is sent to the server unit through the communications means;

the information processing means of the server unit rank the abnormality degree of the construction machine in a plurality of levels on the basis of the sent construction machine information;

the server unit sends information indicating the ranked abnormality degree to a particular terminal device through the communications means;

the particular terminal device reranks the ranked abnormality degree for the sent information and sends to the server unit; and

the server unit sends information indicating the reranked abnormality degree to the respective terminal devices through the communications means.

13. The control system for a construction machine according to claim 11 or 12, wherein:

the plurality of terminal devices are ranked in a plurality of levels;

the abnormality degree ranked by the information processing means of the server unit is reranked according to the levels of the terminal devices; and

the server unit sends the information about the reranked abnormality degree according to the levels of the terminal devices to the corresponding terminal device through the communications means.

14. A control system for construction machines which collects information from a plurality of construction machines which operate in the same environment, judges an abnormality of the plurality of construction machines on the basis of the collected construction machine information, and processes the abnormality of the construction machines when they are judged abnormal to control the construction machines, comprising:

information collecting means which collect the construction machine information; and

abnormality judging means which select the same kind of information from the construction machine information collected by the information collecting means, compare a value indicated by the same type of information among the plurality of construction machines, and judge a construction machine having a particular value as abnormal, wherein;

the construction machine which is judged abnormal by the abnormality judging means is processed for its abnormality.