Mining vehicle

• US 9,290,180 B2
• Filed: 02/19/2013
• Issued: 03/22/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/08/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi Construction Machinery Company Limited (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Hitachi Construction Machinery Company Limited (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Inventors: Ichinose, Masanori, Yasuda, Tomohiko, Sato, Takayuki, Tanaka, Wataru
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Khoi
• Assistant Examiner(s): PECHE, JORGE O
• Application Number:
  US14/379,519
• Publication Number:
  US 20150032324A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,127 Days
• Field of Search: 701/23, 701/25, 701/36, 701/41, 701/93, 701/96, 701/200, 701/301, 701/400, 180/170
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2552/30 Road curve radius
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2720/10 Longitudinal speed
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/143 Speed control B60W30/16 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B60Y 2200/142 Heavy duty trucks
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/021 specially adapted to land vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/024 in combination with a laser lasers per se H01S
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0257 using a radar radar systems designed for anti-collision purposes between land vehicles or between land vehicle and fixed obstacles G01S13/931

Abstract

A mining vehicle is provided, which is capable of appropriately recognizing a condition of a traveling road in front of the vehicle, preventing an obstacle on a roadside from being erroneously detected by a distance detector, and controlling the speed of the vehicle in a stable manner even when the vehicle is approaching a curved portion of the road from a linear portion of the road.

The mining vehicle that travels on a transport road of a mining site includes: a minimum roadside distance determining unit; a traveling status calculator configured to calculate traveling status of the vehicle and a turning radius of the vehicle; a roadside distance calculator configured to calculate a roadside distance between the vehicle and a roadside of the transport road; a roadside distance selector configured to select and output a minimum roadside distance if the vehicle is in a rectilinearly traveling state and select and output the roadside distance calculated with the roadside distance calculator if the vehicle is in a turning state; a detected distance limiter configured to disable a signal representing the distance, detected with the distance detector, between the vehicle and the object and the relative speed if the distance between the vehicle and the object is larger than a distance represented by a signal selected and output from the roadside distance selector; and a vehicle speed controller configured to control the speed of the vehicle on the basis of a signal output from the detected distance limiter.

Claims

1. A mining vehicle comprising:

a distance detector configured to detect a distance between the vehicle traveling on a transport road of a mining site and an object in front of the vehicle on the transport road and further detect a relative speed of the vehicle to the object;

a minimum roadside distance determining unit configured to store a minimum roadside distance calculated from a shape of the transport road;

a state quantity sensor configured to detect a state quantity of the vehicle;

a traveling status calculator configured to calculate traveling status of the vehicle and a turning radius of the vehicle on a basis of the vehicle'"'"'s state quantity detected by the state quantity sensor;

a roadside distance calculator configured to calculate, on a basis of the calculated turning radius, a roadside distance between the vehicle and a roadside of the transport road;

a roadside distance selector configured to select and output the minimum roadside distance on a basis of the calculated traveling status of the vehicle if the vehicle is in a rectilinearly traveling state and configured to select and output the roadside distance calculated with the roadside distance calculator on a basis of the calculated traveling status of the vehicle if the vehicle is in a turning state;

a detected distance limiter configured to disable a signal representing the distance, detected with the distance detector, between the vehicle and the object in front of the vehicle and the relative speed if the distance between the vehicle and the object is larger than a distance represented by a signal selected and output from the roadside distance selector, and configured to output a signal representing the distance, detected with the distance detector, between the vehicle and the object in front of the vehicle and the relative speed if the distance between the vehicle and the object is smaller than a distance represented by a signal selected and output from the roadside distance selector; and

a vehicle speed controller configured to control the speed of the vehicle on a basis of signal output from the detected distance limiter.

4. The mining vehicle according to claim 1,

wherein the minimum roadside distance determining unit stores, as an initial minimum roadside distance, the minimum roadside distance calculated from the shape of the transport road,

wherein the minimum roadside distance determining unit updates the minimum roadside distance so as to set a distance to the stationary object as a new minimum roadside distance when a stationary object in front of the vehicle is detected while the traveling status of the vehicle is the rectilinearly traveling state, and

wherein after the update until the traveling status of the vehicle becomes the turning state, the minimum roadside distance determining unit sequentially updates the minimum roadside distance by subtracting a traveling distance, calculated from the speed of the vehicle, of the vehicle from the minimum roadside distance.

2. A mining vehicle comprising:

a distance detector configured to detect a distance between the vehicle traveling on a transport road of a mining site and an object in front of the vehicle on the transport road and further detect a relative speed of the vehicle to the object;

a minimum roadside distance determining unit configured to store a minimum roadside distance calculated from a shape of the transport road;

a state quantity sensor configured to detect a state quantity of the vehicle;

a traveling status calculator configured to calculate traveling status of the vehicle and a turning radius of the vehicle on a basis of the vehicle'"'"'s state quantity detected by the state quantity sensor;

a roadside distance calculator configured to calculate, on a basis of the calculated turning radius, a roadside distance between the vehicle and a roadside of the transport road;

a roadside distance selector configured to select and output the minimum roadside distance on a basis of the calculated traveling status of the vehicle if the vehicle is in a rectilinearly traveling state and configured to select and output the roadside distance calculated with the roadside distance calculator on a basis of the calculated traveling status of the vehicle if the vehicle is in a turning state;

an object status determining unit configured to determine whether or not the object in front of the vehicle is a stationary object on a basis of the relative speed, detected by the distance detector, of the vehicle to the object in front of the vehicle and a vehicle'"'"'s speed detected with the state quantity sensor;

a detected distance limiter configured to disable, on a basis of a result of determination made by the object status determining unit and the traveling status of the vehicle, a signal having a distance between the vehicle and the object larger than a distance represented by a signal selected and output from the roadside distance selector, the signal representing the distance, detected with the distance detector, between the vehicle and the object in front of the vehicle and the relative speed, and configured to output, on a basis of a result of determination made by the object status determining unit and the traveling status of the vehicle, a signal having a distance between the vehicle and the object smaller than a distance represented by a signal selected and output from the roadside distance selector, the signal representing the distance, detected with the distance detector, between the vehicle and the object in front of the vehicle and the relative speed; and

a vehicle speed controller configured to control the speed of the vehicle on a basis of signal output from the detected distance limiter.

3. The mining vehicle according to claim 2,

wherein if the object status determining unit determines that the object in front of the vehicle is the stationary object or the traveling status calculator determines that the traveling status is the turning state, the detected distance limiter disables the signal having the distance between the vehicle and the object larger than the distance represented by the signal selected and output from the roadside distance selector, the signal representing the distance, detected with the distance detector, between the vehicle and the object in front of the vehicle and the relative speed.

5. The mining vehicle according to claim 2,

wherein the minimum roadside distance determining unit stores, as an initial minimum roadside distance, the minimum roadside distance calculated from the shape of the transport road,

wherein the minimum roadside distance determining unit updates the minimum roadside distance so as to set a distance to the stationary object as a new minimum roadside distance when a stationary object in front of the vehicle is detected while the traveling status of the vehicle is the rectilinearly traveling state, and

wherein after the update until the traveling status of the vehicle becomes the turning state, the minimum roadside distance determining unit sequentially updates the minimum roadside distance by subtracting a traveling distance, calculated from the speed of the vehicle, of the vehicle from the minimum roadside distance.

6. The mining vehicle according to claim 3,

wherein the minimum roadside distance determining unit stores, as an initial minimum roadside distance, the minimum roadside distance calculated from the shape of the transport road,

wherein the minimum roadside distance determining unit updates the minimum roadside distance so as to set a distance to the stationary object as a new minimum roadside distance when a stationary object in front of the vehicle is detected while the traveling status of the vehicle is the rectilinearly traveling state, and

wherein after the update until the traveling status of the vehicle becomes the turning state, the minimum roadside distance determining unit sequentially updates the minimum roadside distance by subtracting a traveling distance, calculated from the speed of the vehicle, of the vehicle from the minimum roadside distance.