Systems, devices, and/or methods regarding excavating

• US 7,832,126 B2
• Filed: 05/16/2008
• Issued: 11/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/17/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Siemens Large Drives LLC
• Original Assignee: Siemens Industry Incorporated (Siemens AG)
• Inventors: Koellner, Walter G., Mazumdar, Joy, Robertson, Daniel W., Furem, Ken
• Primary Examiner(s): PEZZUTO, ROBERT ERIC
• Application Number:
  US12/122,122
• Publication Number:
  US 20080282583A1
• Time in Patent Office: 914 Days
• Field of Search: 373/48, 374/66, 374/68, 37395-399, 414/690, 414/718, 414/728, 701/50
• US Class Current: 37/348
• CPC Class Codes: E02F 3/304 with the dipper-arm slidably mounted on the boom E02F3/305 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: E02F 3/48 Drag-lines
• CPC Class Codes: E02F 9/262 with follow-up actions to control the work tool, e.g. controller
• CPC Class Codes: E02F 9/264 Sensors and their calibration for indicating the position of the work tool

Abstract

Certain exemplary embodiments can provide a system, which can comprise a bucket excavation controller. The bucket excavation controller can be adapted to control one or more digging functions of a mining excavator. For example, the bucket excavation controller can be adapted to automatically control a crowd motion of the mining excavator.

Claims

1. An excavation system, comprising:

a positionable haulage vehicle for hauling earthen material;

an excavator having a positionable bucket coupled to a hoist motor for excavating earthen material, the excavator having coupled thereto;

a bucket excavation controller adapted to adjust a digging position of a bucket of the mining excavator in an earthen material bank;

a material weight processor adapted to determine a weight of earthen material in the bucket; and

a mining haulage vehicle position processor coupled to the excavator, adapted to determine automatically a desired location of a mining haulage vehicle relative to said mining excavator.

2. The system of claim 1,

wherein the material weight processor is adapted to determine a weight of earthen material in the bucket while the bucket is digging in an earthen material bank.

3. The system of claim 1,

wherein the motor generates torque for hoisting the bucket, and the material weight processor determines the total torque used to hoist the bucket through an earthen material bank, and is adapted to determine a weight of earthen material in the bucket based upon the total torque.

4. The system of claim 1,

wherein the material weight processor is adapted to estimate a weight of earthen material in the bucket while the bucket is digging in the earthen material bank based upon a detected volume of earthen material in the bucket.

5. The system of claim 1,

wherein the mining haulage vehicle position processor is adapted to automatically prompt an operator of the mining haulage vehicle regarding the desired location of the mining haulage vehicle relative to the mining excavator.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a mining haulage vehicle load processor adapted to, based upon a received scan of a bed of a mining haulage vehicle, automatically determine a desired location of said bucket relative to said bed of said mining haulage vehicle.

7. The system of claim 6,

wherein the mining haulage vehicle load processor automatically swings the bucket to load the mining haulage vehicle.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the bucket excavation controller is responsive to an automatically detected stall condition at the hoist motor, and in response thereto automatically controls a crowd motion of the bucket, and wherein the stall condition is detected based upon a deviation between a desired speed of the hoist motor and the speed of the hoist motor.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the bucket excavation controller is responsive to an automatically detected stall condition at the hoist motor, and in response thereto automatically controls a crowd motion of the bucket, and wherein the stall condition is detected based upon a determination that speed of the hoist motor that is below a predetermined threshold and a hoist torque generated by the hoist motor is above a predetermined threshold.

10. An excavation system, comprising:

a positionable haulage vehicle for hauling earthen material;

an excavator having a positionable bucket coupled to a hoist motor for excavating earthen material;

a bucket excavation controller, coupled to the excavator, adapted to;

responsive to an automatically detected stall) condition at the hoist motor, automatically) control a crowd motor of the mining excavator,

the crowd motor adapted to adjust a position of the bucket in an earthen material bank; and

responsive to an automatic determination that a speed of the hoist motor exceeds a predetermined threshold, automatically control the crowd motor to adjust the bucket position in the earthen material bank;

a material weight processor, coupled to the bucket excavation controller, adapted to determine a weight of earthen material in the bucket;

a mining haulage vehicle position processor coupled to the excavator, adapted to determine automatically a desired location of a mining haulage vehicle relative to the mining excavator; and

a mining haulage vehicle load processor adapted to, based upon a received scan of a bed of the mining haulage vehicle, determine automatically a desired location of the bucket relative to the bed of the mining haulage vehicle.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the material weight processor is adapted to determine weight of earthen material in the bucket while the bucket is digging in the earthen material bank.

12. The system of claim 10 wherein the motor generates torque for hoisting the bucket, and the material weight processor determines the total torque used to hoist the bucket through the earthen material bank, and is adapted to determine weight of earthen material in the bucket based upon the total torque.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the material weight processor is adapted to estimate a weight of earthen material in the bucket while the bucket is digging in the earthen material bank based upon a detected volume of earthen material in the bucket.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the mining haulage vehicle position processor is adapted to automatically prompt an operator of the mining haulage vehicle regarding the desired location of the mining haulage vehicle relative to the mining excavator.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein at least one of the processors is implemented in a programmable logic controller coupled to at least one drive controller operating the hoist motor.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein at least one of the processors is implemented in a programmable logic controller coupled to at least one drive controller operating the crowd motor.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the programmable logic controller includes an adaptive predictive controller for positioning the bucket.

18. An excavation system, comprising:

a positionable haulage vehicle for hauling earthen material;

an excavator having a positionable bucket coupled to a hoist motor for excavating earthen material;

a bucket excavation controller, coupled to the excavator, adapted to;

responsive to an automatically detected stall condition at the hoist motor, automatically control a crowd motor of the mining excavator,

the crowd motor adapted to adjust a position of the bucket in an earthen material bank; and

responsive to an automatic determination that a speed of the hoist motor exceeds a predetermined threshold, automatically control the crowd motor to adjust the bucket position in the earthen material bank;

a material weight processor, coupled to the bucket excavation controller, adapted to determine a weight of earthen material in the bucket and thereby enabling the bucket excavation controller to adjust bucket position on the basis of the determined weight;

a mining haulage vehicle position processor coupled to the excavator and the haulage vehicle, adapted to determine automatically a desired location of a mining haulage vehicle relative to the mining excavator and thereby enabling the excavator and hauler to adjust their relative positions to the desired location; and

a mining haulage vehicle load processor, coupled to the bucket excavation controller, the haulage vehicle load processor adapted to, based upon a received scan of a bed of the mining haulage vehicle, determine automatically a desired location of the bucket relative to the bed of the mining haulage vehicle, and thereby causing the bucket excavation controller to adjust bucket position to the desired location.