Intelligent loader unmanned shoveling device and shoveling method thereof

Abstract

The application provides a device for unmanned scooping of a smart loader and a scooping method thereof. The device for unmanned scooping of the smart loader comprises: a smart loader, which comprises a loader body, a bucket hinged to the front end of the loader body through a movable arm, and a movable arm cylinder connected between the loader body and the movable arm; a rocker arm connected between the loader body and the bucket, a rocker arm cylinder connected between the loader body and the rocker arm; a middle part of the rocker arm hinged to a middle part of the movable arm; a pressure sensing assembly for measuring the pressure of the cylinder; a force sensing assembly for obtaining the force of the bucket; a bucket material volume sensing module for measuring the volume of the material in the bucket; a bucket posture sensor for measuring the turning angle of the bucket; an acceleration sensor for measuring and calculating the acceleration of the smart loader; a bucket ground clearance monitoring module for measuring and controlling the height of the bucket; a material pile contour sensing module for measuring the volume and edge contour of the material pile; an unmanned scooping control module, which is installed on the loader body, reads, analyzes and calculates the data of the above sensors, and issues a control instruction to the smart loader, and the smart loader receives the instruction and controls the loader body to perform an action. The application can control the bucket to accurately scoop the material at the scooping point, so as to ensure that the material at different positions in the material bin can be uniformly scooped away.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This invention relates to the field of unmanned material handling technology, and more particularly to a device and method for unmanned material handling of an intelligent loader. Background Technology

[0002] In recent years, the combination of autonomous driving and loaders has improved the shoveling efficiency of loaders, enabling them to shovel material piles without human intervention, thus achieving intelligent and unmanned shoveling. However, when intelligent loaders shovel material without human intervention, they have difficulty identifying the shoveling points of the material pile and cannot completely remove material piles in different locations within the hopper. Summary of the Invention

[0003] In view of the above, the present invention provides a device and method for unmanned material shoveling of an intelligent loader, which can solve the problem that the existing unmanned material shoveling devices for intelligent loaders do not accurately identify the shoveling point during shoveling, resulting in incomplete removal of material from the bin.

[0004] To achieve the above objectives, the technical solution adopted by the present invention is to provide a device for unmanned material handling by an intelligent loader, comprising: An intelligent loader includes a loader body, a bucket hinged to the front end of the loader body via a boom, a boom cylinder connected between the loader body and the boom, a rocker arm connected between the loader body and the bucket, and a rocker arm cylinder connected between the loader body and the rocker arm, with the middle part of the rocker arm hinged to the middle part of the boom. A pressure sensing assembly for measuring the pressure of a hydraulic cylinder includes a first hydraulic pressure sensor installed at the connection between the oil pipe and the cylinder of the boom cylinder and a second hydraulic pressure sensor at the connection between the oil pipe and the cylinder of the rocker arm cylinder. A force sensing component for obtaining the force on the bucket includes a first force sensor installed at the connection between the boom and the bucket, and a second force sensor installed at the connection between the rocker arm and the bucket. A bucket material volume sensing module for measuring the volume of material inside the bucket, wherein the bucket material volume sensing module is installed on the bucket; A bucket attitude sensor for measuring the bucket tilting angle, the bucket attitude sensor being mounted on the bucket; An acceleration sensor for measuring and calculating the acceleration of the intelligent loader is mounted on the loader body; A bucket height monitoring module for measuring and controlling the bucket height, the bucket height monitoring module being installed on the bucket; A material pile contour sensing module for measuring the volume and edge contour of a material pile, the material pile contour sensing module being installed above the material pile; An unmanned material handling control module is installed on the loader body. The unmanned material handling control module reads, parses, and calculates data from the pressure sensing component, the force sensing component, the bucket material volume sensing module, the bucket attitude sensor, the acceleration sensor, the bucket ground clearance monitoring module, and the material pile contour sensing module, and sends control commands to the intelligent loader. The intelligent loader receives the commands and controls the loader body to perform actions.

[0005] Preferably, the bucket material volume sensing module is supported on the top of the bucket by a bracket, and the bucket material volume sensing module faces the inside of the bucket to measure the volume of material inside the bucket.

[0006] Preferably, the first force sensor and the second force sensor are resistive sensors.

[0007] Preferably, the bucket material volume sensing module establishes a point cloud image using a lidar, binocular camera, multi-view camera, or depth camera, so that the unmanned shoveling control module can calculate the volume of the material.

[0008] Preferably, the bucket attitude sensor is an inertial sensor.

[0009] This invention provides a material-shoveling method using an unmanned material-shoveling device employed by an intelligent loader, comprising the following steps: S1: Start the intelligent loader and unmanned material handling control module; S2: Drive the intelligent loader to the starting point, the unmanned shoveling control module executes the unmanned shoveling program, the bucket ground height monitoring module measures the bucket ground height and the boom drives the bucket to move to the set height, the bucket attitude sensor measures the bucket flip angle and the rocker arm rotates the bucket and the bucket attitude reaches the set value. S3: The material pile contour perception module acquires the volume and edge contour of the material pile and sends the location of the material shoveling point of the material pile to the unmanned material shoveling control module; S4: The unmanned material handling control module issues a command to the intelligent loader to control the loader body to move towards the material pile and along the path to the material handling point, so that the bucket inserts into the material handling point and monitors real-time data from the sensors, including: (1) Pressure of the pressure sensing component; (2) The force on the force sensing component; (3) Bucket material volume sensing module; (4) Bucket tilting angle from the bucket attitude sensor; (5) Acceleration from the accelerometer; S5: The unmanned material handling control module determines the material handling status of the intelligent loader based on the sensor data in S4, and adjusts the loader body until the sensor data meets the material handling conditions. S6: The unmanned material handling control module controls the brakes of the loader body, controls the boom and the rocker arm to put the bucket in the material handling state, and then controls the loader body to reverse to the starting point to complete the unmanned material handling procedure.

[0010] A further improvement to the construction method of the intelligent loader unmanned material shoveling device of the present invention is that the set height is 8~12cm above the ground; When the bucket height monitoring module measures the bucket's height above the ground, the boom moves the bucket to a height of 8-12cm above the ground.

[0011] A further improvement of the construction method of the intelligent loader unmanned material shoveling device of the present invention is that the setting value is a horizontal state; When the rocker arm rotates the bucket, the bottom of the bucket is brought to a horizontal position.

[0012] A further improvement of the construction method of the unmanned shoveling device for intelligent loaders of the present invention is that, when the bucket attitude sensor is monitored by the unmanned shoveling control module, the bottom of the bucket is set to 0° when it is horizontal, the upward tilt is a positive tilt angle and the downward tilt is a negative tilt angle. The unmanned shoveling control module controls the bucket to tilt upward by using the positive tilt angle and controls the bucket to tilt downward by using the negative tilt angle.

[0013] A further improvement of the construction method of the intelligent loader unmanned material shoveling device of the present invention is that the shoveling point is the most prominent position of the material pile; When the material pile contour sensing module acquires the volume and edge contour of the material pile, it sends the most prominent position of the material pile to the unmanned material shoveling control module.

[0014] The beneficial effects of this invention are as follows: The intelligent loader's unmanned material-shoveling device and method control the bucket height via a bucket ground clearance monitoring module and acquire the shoveling point position via a material pile contour sensing module, enabling the bucket to precisely remove material from the pile. The edge contour of the material pile continuously changes during the shoveling operation. The material pile contour sensing module transmits measurements of these changes, the most prominent position (shoveling point), and the most recessed position to the unmanned shoveling control module. This module then controls the intelligent loader to complete the shoveling, ensuring that material at different locations within the hopper is evenly removed. This intelligent loader's unmanned material-shoveling device and method precisely control the bucket's ground clearance and continuously measure the material's edge contour changes and shoveling points, thereby enabling precise removal of material from the shoveling points and completing the shoveling of the entire material pile. Attached Figure Description

[0015] To more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention, the accompanying drawings used in the description of the embodiments will be briefly introduced below. Obviously, the accompanying drawings described below are only some embodiments of the present invention. For those skilled in the art, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without creative effort.

[0016] Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of the overall structure of the unmanned material-shoveling device for the intelligent loader of the present invention.

[0017] Figure 2 This is a schematic diagram showing the relative position of the material pile outline sensing module and the material pile in the unmanned material shoveling device of the intelligent loader of the present invention.

[0018] Figure 3 This is a schematic diagram showing the position of the unmanned material-shoveling device of the intelligent loader of the present invention relative to the material-shoveling point.

[0019] Figure 4 This is a schematic diagram of the first position of the unmanned material-shoveling device of the intelligent loader of the present invention relative to the starting point.

[0020] Figure 5 This is a schematic diagram of the second position of the unmanned material-shoveling device of the intelligent loader of the present invention relative to the starting point.

[0021] Figure 6 This is a schematic diagram of the logic for determining the shoveling working status of the intelligent loader based on sensor data in the shoveling method of the unmanned shoveling device of the present invention.

[0022] The correspondence between the reference numerals and components in the attached drawings is as follows: 1-Intelligent loader; 101-Loader body; 102-Boom; 103-Bucket; 104-Rocker arm; 105-Rocker arm cylinder; 2-Second hydraulic pressure sensor; 3-First force sensor; 4-Bucket material volume sensing module; 5-Bucket posture sensor; 6-Acceleration sensor; 7-Bucket ground clearance monitoring module; 8-Pile outline sensing module; 9-Unmanned shoveling control module; 10-Shoveling point; 11-Shoveling point; 12-Pile. Detailed Implementation

[0023] To facilitate understanding of the present invention, the following description is provided in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and embodiments.

[0024] Please see Figures 1 to 6 This invention provides a device for unmanned material handling by an intelligent loader, comprising: an intelligent loader 1, a pressure sensing component, a force sensing component, a bucket material volume sensing module 4, a bucket attitude sensor 5, an acceleration sensor 6, a bucket ground clearance monitoring module 7, a material pile outline sensing module 8, and an unmanned material handling control module 9. Wherein: like Figure 1 As shown, the intelligent loader 1 includes a loader body 101. A bucket 103 is hinged to the front end of the loader body 101 via a boom 102. A boom cylinder connects the loader body 101 and the boom 102. A rocker arm 104 connects the loader body 101 and the bucket 103. A rocker arm cylinder 105 connects the loader body 101 and the rocker arm 104. The middle part of the rocker arm 104 is hinged to the middle part of the boom 102. The intelligent loader 1 can be fuel-powered, purely electric, or hybrid. The intelligent loader 1 is a drive-by-wire device, which can control all operations of the loader body 101 via electrical signals, including gear shifting, throttle, braking, steering, and cylinder operation.

[0025] A pressure sensing assembly for measuring the pressure of hydraulic cylinders includes a first hydraulic pressure sensor installed at the connection between the oil pipe and the boom cylinder, and a second hydraulic pressure sensor 2 installed at the connection between the oil pipe and the rocker arm cylinder 105. Preferably, the first hydraulic pressure sensor is installed at the oil inlet pipe of the boom cylinder, and the second hydraulic pressure sensor 2 is installed at the oil inlet pipe of the rocker arm cylinder 105. The measurement accuracy of the pressure sensing assembly is better than 0.2%.

[0026] The force sensing assembly for obtaining the force on the bucket 103 includes a first force sensor 3 installed at the connection between the boom 102 and the bucket 103, and a second force sensor at the connection between the rocker arm 104 and the bucket 103.

[0027] The bucket material volume sensing module 4 is used to measure the volume of material inside the bucket 103. The bucket material volume sensing module 4 is installed on the bucket 103.

[0028] The bucket attitude sensor 5, used to measure the tilting angle of the bucket 103, is installed on the bucket 103.

[0029] An acceleration sensor 6 is used to measure and calculate the acceleration of the intelligent loader 1. The acceleration sensor 6 is mounted on the loader body 101. Preferably, the acceleration sensor 6 is mounted on the main beam of the loader body 101 or other stable location, and should not be mounted in places that are prone to shaking, such as the cab. The measurement accuracy is better than 1 / 1000.

[0030] The bucket ground clearance monitoring module 7 is used to measure and control the height of the bucket 103. The bucket ground clearance monitoring module 7 is installed on the bucket 103. The bucket attitude sensor 5 is installed on the outer wall of the bucket 103, and the bucket ground clearance monitoring module 7 is installed on the inner wall of the bucket 103. The bucket ground clearance should not be too low or too high, and is generally controlled at 10cm above the ground.

[0031] like Figure 2 As shown, a material pile contour sensing module 8 is used to measure the volume and edge contour of the material pile 12. The material pile contour sensing module 8 is installed above the material pile 12. Preferably, the material pile contour sensing module 8 is fixed to the ground or an external structure by a bracket. The material pile contour sensing module 8 acquires the volume and edge contour of the material pile 12 through methods such as lidar or binocular cameras, and sends the position of the shoveling point 10 to the unmanned shoveling control module 9 to guide the intelligent loader 1 to complete the shoveling. The edge contour of the material pile changes continuously as the shoveling operation proceeds. In order to ensure that the material at different locations in the hopper can be shoveled away evenly, it is necessary to transmit the changes in the edge contour of the material pile, as well as the most prominent position (shoveling point) and the most concave position, to the intelligent loader 1, thereby guiding the loader body 101 to select a suitable shoveling point 11 to remove the material at different locations.

[0032] The unmanned material handling control module 9 is installed on the loader body 101. The unmanned material handling control module 9 reads, analyzes, and calculates the data of the pressure sensing component, force sensing component, bucket material volume sensing module 4, bucket attitude sensor 5, acceleration sensor 6, bucket ground clearance monitoring module 7, and material pile outline sensing module 8, and sends control commands to the intelligent loader 1. The intelligent loader 1 receives the commands and controls the loader body 101 to perform actions.

[0033] In a preferred embodiment, the bucket material volume sensing module 4 is mounted on the top of the bucket 103 by a bracket and the bucket material volume sensing module 4 faces the inside of the bucket 103 to measure the material volume inside the bucket 103.

[0034] As a preferred implementation, the first force sensor 3 and the second force sensor are resistive sensors with a measurement accuracy better than 1 / 1000.

[0035] As a preferred implementation, the bucket material volume sensing module 4 uses a lidar, binocular camera, multi-view camera, or depth camera to establish a point cloud image to calculate the volume of the material and transmits the data to the unmanned shoveling control module 9.

[0036] As a preferred implementation, the bucket attitude sensor 5 is an inertial sensor.

[0037] This invention provides a material-shoveling method using an unmanned material-shoveling device employed by an intelligent loader, comprising the following steps: S1: Start the intelligent loader 1 and the unmanned material handling control module 9; S2: The intelligent loader 1 is driven to the starting point 10. The unmanned shoveling control module 9 executes the unmanned shoveling program, causing the bucket ground clearance monitoring module 7 to measure the ground clearance of the bucket 103 and causing the boom 102 to move the bucket 103 to the set height. Figure 6 L0 in the figure, then the bucket attitude sensor 5 measures the flip angle of the bucket 103 and the rocker arm 104 rotates the bucket 103 so that the bucket 103 reaches the set value, namely θ0 in the figure. The above two actions are not sequential and run synchronously. S3: Enable the material pile outline sensing module 8 to acquire the volume and edge outline of the material pile 12 and send the position of the shovel point 11 of the material pile 12 to the unmanned shovel control module 9; S4: The unmanned material handling control module 9 issues a command to the intelligent loader 1 to control the loader body 101 to move towards the material pile 12 and along the path to the material handling point 11, so that the bucket 103 inserts into the material handling point 11, and monitors the real-time data of the sensors, including: (1) Hydraulic pressure P1 of the pressure sensing component; (2) The force F1 acting on the force sensing component; (3) Bucket material volume V1 of the bucket material volume sensing module; (4) Bucket tilting angle θ from the bucket attitude sensor; (5) The acceleration A1 of the accelerometer; S5: Unmanned material handling control module 9 according to Figure 6 The judgment logic in step 4 processes the sensor data and determines the shoveling working status of the intelligent loader 1. Then, it adjusts the loader body 101 until the sensor data meets the shoveling conditions. The sensor data meeting the shoveling conditions indicates that the bucket has shoveled the material into the bucket.

[0038] Figure 6In this context, p1, f1, v1, and a1 represent the specific threshold values ​​for hydraulic pressure P1, bucket force F1, bucket material volume V1, and acceleration A1. The inherent laws governing the changes of p1, f1, v1, and a1 can be constructed and determined using measured data. Hydraulic pressure P i Force F on the bucket i Bucket material volume V i And acceleration A i p represents real-time data from a certain time sensor. i f i v i and a i This refers to the specific threshold value corresponding to this time period. ΔL i L is the height to which the boom 102 moves the bucket 103. t This is the specific threshold for the height of bucket 103. Δθ i θ is the angle at which the rocker arm 104 rotates the bucket 103. t The specific threshold for the flipping angle of bucket 103.

[0039] S6: The unmanned material handling control module 9 controls the brake of the loader body 101, controls the boom 102 and the rocker arm 104 to put the bucket 103 in the material handling state, and then controls the loader body 101 to reverse to the starting point 10 to complete the unmanned material handling program.

[0040] A further improvement to the construction method of the intelligent loader unmanned material shoveling device of the present invention is that the set height is 8~12cm above the ground; When the bucket height monitoring module 7 measures the height of the bucket 103 off the ground, the boom 102 moves the bucket 103 to a height of 8-12cm off the ground. Preferably, the bucket 103 is moved to a height of 10cm off the ground.

[0041] A further improvement of the construction method of the intelligent loader unmanned material shoveling device of the present invention is that the setting value is a horizontal state; When the rocker arm 104 rotates the bucket 103, the bottom posture of the bucket 103 is brought to a horizontal state. The bottom posture of the bucket 103 is the pitch angle. To bring the bottom posture of the bucket 103 to a horizontal state, the pitch angle is 0°.

[0042] A further improvement of the construction method of the unmanned shoveling device of the present invention is that, when the bucket attitude sensor 5 is monitored by the unmanned shoveling control module 9, the bottom of the bucket 103 is set to 0° when it is horizontal, the upward tilt is the positive tilt angle and the downward tilt is the negative tilt angle. The unmanned shoveling control module 9 controls the bucket 103 to tilt upward by using the positive tilt angle and controls the bucket 103 to tilt downward by using the negative tilt angle.

[0043] A further improvement to the construction method of the unmanned material-shoveling device for the intelligent loader of the present invention is that the material-shoveling point 11 is the most prominent position of the material pile 12; When the material pile contour sensing module 8 acquires the volume and edge contour of the material pile 12, it sends the most prominent position of the material pile 12 to the unmanned material shoveling control module 9.

[0044] The intelligent loader unmanned material-shoveling device and method of this invention utilize an unmanned material-shoveling control module to collect data from various sensors and send commands to the intelligent loader based on judgment logic, enabling the intelligent loader to control the loader body to shovel material. In particular, the inclusion of a bucket ground clearance monitoring module and a material pile contour sensing module allows for adjustment of the bucket height and control of the bucket to align with the shoveling point. Furthermore, it continuously measures changes in the edge contour of the material pile during the shoveling process, further removing material from different locations, thereby ensuring that material in different locations within the hopper is uniformly removed.

[0045] The above description is merely a preferred embodiment of the present invention and is not intended to limit the present invention in any way. Although the present invention has been disclosed above with reference to preferred embodiments, it is not intended to limit the present invention. Any person skilled in the art can make some modifications or alterations to the above-disclosed technical content to create equivalent embodiments without departing from the scope of the technical solution of the present invention. Any simple modifications, equivalent changes and alterations made to the above embodiments based on the technical essence of the present invention without departing from the content of the technical solution of the present invention shall still fall within the scope of the technical solution of the present invention.

Claims

1. A device for unmanned material handling in an intelligent loader, characterized in that, include: An intelligent loader includes a loader body, a bucket hinged to the front end of the loader body via a boom, a boom cylinder connected between the loader body and the boom, a rocker arm connected between the loader body and the bucket, and a rocker arm cylinder connected between the loader body and the rocker arm, with the middle part of the rocker arm hinged to the middle part of the boom. A pressure sensing assembly for measuring the pressure of a hydraulic cylinder includes a first hydraulic pressure sensor installed at the connection between the oil pipe and the cylinder of the boom cylinder and a second hydraulic pressure sensor at the connection between the oil pipe and the cylinder of the rocker arm cylinder. A force sensing component for obtaining the force on the bucket includes a first force sensor installed at the connection between the boom and the bucket, and a second force sensor installed at the connection between the rocker arm and the bucket. A bucket material volume sensing module for measuring the volume of material inside the bucket, wherein the bucket material volume sensing module is installed on the bucket; A bucket attitude sensor for measuring the bucket tilting angle, the bucket attitude sensor being mounted on the bucket; An acceleration sensor for measuring and calculating the acceleration of the intelligent loader is mounted on the loader body; A bucket height monitoring module for measuring and controlling the bucket height, the bucket height monitoring module being installed on the bucket; A material pile contour sensing module for measuring the volume and edge contour of a material pile, wherein the material pile contour sensing module is mounted on the ground or an external structure by a bracket and is located above the material pile; An unmanned material handling control module is installed on the loader body. The unmanned material handling control module reads, parses, and calculates data from the pressure sensing component, the force sensing component, the bucket material volume sensing module, the bucket attitude sensor, the acceleration sensor, the bucket ground clearance monitoring module, and the material pile contour sensing module, and sends control commands to the intelligent loader. The intelligent loader receives the commands and controls the loader body to perform actions.

2. The device for unmanned material handling of an intelligent loader as described in claim 1, characterized in that, The bucket material volume sensing module is supported on the top of the bucket by a bracket, and the bucket material volume sensing module faces the inside of the bucket.

3. The device for unmanned material handling of an intelligent loader as described in claim 1, characterized in that, The first force sensor and the second force sensor are resistive sensors.

4. The device for unmanned material handling of an intelligent loader as described in claim 1, characterized in that, The bucket material volume sensing module establishes point cloud images using lidar, binocular cameras, multi-view cameras, or depth cameras, which are then used by the unmanned shoveling control module to calculate the volume of the material.

5. The device for unmanned material handling of an intelligent loader as described in claim 1, characterized in that, The bucket attitude sensor is an inertial sensor.

6. A material-shoveling method for an unmanned material-shoveling device for an intelligent loader as described in claim 1, characterized in that, Includes the following steps: S1: Start the intelligent loader and unmanned material handling control module; S2: Drive the intelligent loader to the starting point, the unmanned shoveling control module executes the unmanned shoveling program, the bucket ground height monitoring module measures the bucket ground height and the boom drives the bucket to move to the set height, the bucket attitude sensor measures the bucket flip angle and the rocker arm rotates the bucket and the bucket attitude reaches the set value. S3: The material pile contour perception module acquires the volume and edge contour of the material pile and sends the location of the material shoveling point of the material pile to the unmanned material shoveling control module; S4: The unmanned material handling control module issues a command to the intelligent loader to control the loader body to move towards the material pile and along the path to the material handling point, so that the bucket inserts into the material handling point and monitors real-time data from the sensors, including: (1) Pressure of the pressure sensing component; (2) The force on the force sensing component; (3) Bucket material volume sensing module; (4) Bucket tilting angle from the bucket attitude sensor; (5) Acceleration from the accelerometer; S5: The unmanned material handling control module determines the material handling status of the intelligent loader based on the sensor data in S4, and adjusts the loader body until the sensor data meets the material handling conditions. S6: The unmanned material handling control module controls the brake of the loader body, controls the boom and the rocker arm to put the bucket in the material handling state, and then controls the loader body to reverse to the starting point to complete the unmanned material handling procedure.

7. The material-shoveling method of the unmanned material-shoveling device for intelligent loaders as described in claim 6, characterized in that, The setting value is in a horizontal state; When the rocker arm rotates the bucket, the bottom of the bucket is brought to a horizontal position.

8. The material-shoveling method of the unmanned material-shoveling device for intelligent loaders as described in claim 6, characterized in that, When the unmanned material handling control module monitors the bucket attitude sensor, it is set that the bottom of the bucket is horizontal at 0°, with upward tilting being a positive tilting angle and downward tilting being a negative tilting angle. The unmanned material handling control module controls the bucket to tilt upward by using the positive tilting angle and controls the bucket to tilt downward by using the negative tilting angle.

9. The material-shoveling method of the unmanned material-shoveling device for intelligent loaders as described in claim 6, characterized in that, The shovel point is the most prominent position of the material pile; When the material pile contour sensing module acquires the volume and edge contour of the material pile, it sends the most prominent position of the material pile to the unmanned material shoveling control module.

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