Method and system for managing construction machine, and arithmetic processing apparatus

• US 6,449,884 B1
• Filed: 11/16/2001
• Issued: 09/17/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Hitachi Construction Machinery Company Limited (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Hitachi Construction Machinery Company Limited (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Inventors: Watanabe, Hiroshi, Shibata, Koichi, Sugiyama, Genroku, Komatsu, Hideki, Adachi, Hiroyuki, Hirata, Toichi
• Primary Examiner(s): Novosad, Christopher J.
• Application Number:
  US09/979,078
• Time in Patent Office: 305 Days
• Field of Search: 373/48, 701/50, 172/2
• US Class Current: 37/348
• CPC Class Codes: E02F 9/2054 Fleet management
• CPC Class Codes: E02F 9/2292 Systems with two or more pumps
• CPC Class Codes: E02F 9/2296 Systems with a variable displacement pump
• CPC Class Codes: E02F 9/26 Indicating devices E02F5/145 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: E02F 9/267 Diagnosing or detecting failure of vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/085 using electronic data carriers

Abstract

Hydraulic excavators 1 working in fields each include a controller 2, and an operating time is measured for each of an engine 32, a front 15, a swing body 13 and a track body 12. The measured data is stored in a memory of the controller 2, transferred to a base station computer 3 through satellite communication, an FD, etc., and stored in a database 100 of the base station computer 3. In the base station computer 3, the data stored in the database 100 is read out for each of the hydraulic excavators to obtain a value of an index (e.g., a travel ratio) regarding the state of use of a particular one of the hydraulic excavators and a distribution of the number of operated hydraulic excavators of the same model as the particular hydraulic excavator with respect to the index. The index value and that distribution are compared with each other to determine whether the particular hydraulic excavator is an optimum model. It is therefore possible to make an evaluation after confirming how a customer employs a machine, and to give an advice about the optimum model depending on the state of use of the machines.

Claims

1. A method for managing a construction machine, the method comprising the steps of:

a first step of measuring an operation status for sections of each of a plurality of construction machines working in fields and including a plurality of different models, and transferring the measured operation status to a base station computer and then storing and accumulating it as operation data in a database; and

a second step of, in said base station computer, statistically processing said accumulated operation data and producing and outputting evaluation data for determining whether a selected one of said plurality of construction machines is an optimum model based on the operation status of the selected construction machine.

2. A method for managing a construction machine according to claim 1, wherein said second step includes a third step of calculating, as said evaluation data, a value of at least one index regarding the state of use which represents how the selected one of said plurality of construction machines is used based on said accumulated operation data, and determines based on the calculated index value whether the selected construction machine is an optimum model based on operation status of the selected construction machine.

3. A method for managing a construction machine according to claim 2, wherein said second step further includes a fourth step of calculating, as said evaluation data, a value of said index for each of construction machines of the same model as the selected construction machine based on said accumulated operation data, thereby obtaining first correlation between said index and the number of operated construction machines, and compares the index value of the selected construction machine with the first correlation to determine whether the selected construction machine is an optimum model based on the operation status of the selected construction machine.

4. A method for managing a construction machine according to claim 3, wherein said second step further includes a fifth step of calculating, as said evaluation data, a value of said index for each of construction machines of at least one of the different models of said plurality of construction machines, which differs from the model of the selected construction machine, based on said accumulated operation data, thereby obtaining second correlation between said index and the number of operated construction machines, and compares the index value of the selected construction machine with the first and second correlations to determine whether the selected construction machine is an optimum model based on the operation status of the selected construction machine.

5. A method for managing a construction machine according to claim 1, wherein said first step measures a load for each of said sections in addition to the operation status for each section, and stores and accumulates the measured load in the database of said base station computer;

and

said second step further includes a sixth step of modifying the measured operation status depending on an amount of the measured load, and produces said evaluation data by using, as said operation data, the load-dependent modified operation status.

6. A method for managing a construction machine according to claim 1, wherein the operation status is represented by at lease one of an operating time and the number of times of operations.

7. A method for managing a construction machine according to claim 1, wherein said construction machine is a hydraulic excavator, and said section is any of a front, a swing body, a track body and an engine of the hydraulic excavator.

8. A method for managing a construction machine according to claim 1, wherein said construction machine is a hydraulic excavator;

said sections include a front, a swing body, a track body and an engine of the hydraulic excavator;

the operation status is represented by an operating time for each of said front, said swing body, said track body and said engine; and

said index includes at least one of a ratio of an engine running time to a travel time, a ratio of the engine running time to a time during which a pump pressure is not lower than a predetermined value, the product of a ratio of the engine running time to a swing time and a bucket capacity, and the product of a ratio of the engine running time to an excavation time and an excavator body weight.

9. A method for managing a construction machine according to claim 1, wherein said construction machine is a hydraulic excavator;

said sections include a front, a swing body and a track body of the hydraulic excavator;

the operation status is represented by the number of times of operations for each of said front, said swing body and said track body; and

said index includes at least one of a ratio of the total number of times of operations to the number of times of track operations, a ratio of the total number of times of operations to the number of times of operations in which a pump pressure is not lower than a predetermined value, the product of a ratio of the total number of times of operations to the number of times of track operations and a bucket capacity, and the product of a ratio of the total number of times of operations to the number of times of front operations and an excavator body weight.

10. A system for managing a construction machine, the system comprising:

data measuring and collecting means for measuring and collecting an operation status for each section of each of a plurality of construction machines working in fields and including a plurality of different models; and

a base station computer mounted in a base station and having a database in which the operation status measured and collected for each section is stored and accumulated as operation data,

said base station computer including computing means for statistically processing said accumulated operation data to produce and output evaluation data for determining whether a selected one of said plurality of construction machines is an optimum model based on the operation status of the selected construction machine.

11. A system for managing a construction machine according to claim 10, wherein said computing means includes first means for calculating, as said evaluation data, a value of at least one index regarding the state of use which represents how the selected one of said plurality of construction machines is used based on said accumulated operation data, and determines based on the calculated index value whether the selected construction machine is an optimum model based on the operation status of the selected construction machine.

12. A system for managing a construction machine according to claim 11, wherein said computing means further includes second means for calculating, as said evaluation data, a value of said index for each of construction machines of the same model as the selected construction machine based on said accumulated operation data, thereby obtaining first correlation between said index and the number of operated construction machines, and compares the index value of the selected construction machine with the first correlation to determine whether the selected construction machine is an optimum model based on the operation status of the selected construction machine.

13. A system for managing a construction machine according to claim 12, wherein said computing means further includes third means for comparing the index value of the selected construction machine with the first correlation to determine whether the selected construction machine is an optimum model for the operation status of the selected construction machine.

14. A system for managing a construction machine according to claim 12, wherein said computing means further includes fourth means for calculating, as said evaluation data, a value of said index for each of construction machines of at least one of the different models of said plurality of construction machines, which differs from the model of the selected construction machine, based on said accumulated operation data, thereby obtaining second correlation between said index and the number of operated construction machines, and compares the index value of the selected construction machine with the first and second correlations to determine whether the selected construction machine is an optimum model based on the operation status of the selected construction machine.

15. A system for managing a construction machine according to claim 14, wherein said computing means further includes fifth means for comparing the index value of the selected construction machine with the first and second correlations to determine whether the selected construction machine is an optimum model based on the operation status of the selected construction machine.

16. A system for managing a construction machine according to claim 10, wherein said data measuring and collecting means measures and collects, in addition to the operation status for each section, a load for each section;

said base station computer stores and accumulates the operation status and the load measured and collected for each section, as the operation data, in the database; and

said computing means further includes sixth means for modifying the measured operation status depending on an amount of the measured load, and produces said evaluation data by using, as said operation data, the load-dependent modified operation status.

17. A processing apparatus wherein an operation status for sections of each of a plurality of construction machines working in fields and including different models is stored and accumulated as operation data, and the accumulated operation data is statistically processed to produce and output evaluation data for determining whether a selected one of said plurality of construction machines is an optimum model based on the operation status of the selected construction machine.