A truck precise scheduling method and system based on screen guidance

Abstract

The present application belongs to the field of engineering machinery automation scheduling technology, and specifically discloses a truck precise scheduling method and system based on screen guidance. The method disclosed by the present application comprises: dividing excavators into multiple groups and pre-configuring a target group for the truck; after the truck unloads the earth, the on-board display screen highlights and guides it to drive to the boundary of the target group; when the truck enters the boundary range of the group, a scheduling instruction is triggered, and a specific excavator in the group is assigned as the loading target. The present application moves the scheduling point from the long-distance dump site to the group boundary, shortens the predicted distance, and avoids random disturbances such as main road congestion. The present application can be widely applied to truck scheduling scenarios in open-pit mining and large earthwork engineering.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This invention belongs to the field of automated scheduling technology for construction machinery, and specifically relates to a screen-guided method and system for precise truck scheduling. Background Technology

[0002] In open-pit mining and large-scale earthmoving projects, a combined operation mode of "excavator loading and truck transportation" is commonly used. The typical process is as follows: the excavator loads materials onto trucks at the mining site, the trucks transport the materials to the spoil heap for unloading, and then the empty trucks return to the mining site to await the next loading. The core efficiency indicator of this process is reducing the excavator's waiting time (commonly known as "lifting") and the truck's queuing time, thereby reducing unit transportation costs.

[0003] In existing technologies, automatic dispatching systems typically employ a "remote one-time assignment" strategy: after a truck completes unloading at a spoil heap, the system calculates the estimated arrival time of the truck returning to each excavator based on the current status and location of all excavators and the predicted truck travel time. The system then assigns the truck to the excavator that will be idle or in the most needed position at that time. For example, the system may issue an instruction from the spoil heap, ordering the truck to proceed to a specific excavator 5-10 kilometers away to load.

[0004] However, field statistics revealed the following significant shortcomings in the existing technology, leading to low scheduling accuracy:

[0005] Large Prediction Errors Over Long Distances: The long journey from the spoil heap to the excavator involves numerous uncontrollable and highly random factors. Especially on main roads shared by multiple construction teams, traffic congestion is affected by various random factors such as the number of trucks, driver habits, road debris, and shift changes, resulting in drastic fluctuations in travel time. For some large open-pit mines, statistics show that the average percentage of travel time on main roads can reach 70%, and even 50-60% when multiple construction teams share the road. A journey that normally takes about 17.5 minutes for a heavy truck can be significantly delayed due to traffic congestion, rockfall avoidance, and other factors, with substantial fluctuations, sometimes exceeding 30 minutes.

[0006] Dispatch target failure: Due to large errors in arrival time prediction, trucks either arrive too early, resulting in long queues waiting for excavators, or arrive too late, leaving excavators with no trucks to load after they have finished loading, resulting in prolonged "hanging" of excavators. Actual measurements show that under the spoil heap dispatch mode, the waiting time for excavators can reach more than 30 minutes per trip, and the waiting time for trucks can reach more than 24 minutes per trip, which seriously reduces production efficiency and increases operating costs.

[0007] Therefore, there is an urgent need for a new method and system that can effectively avoid interference from long-distance, highly uncertain road conditions and achieve precise and efficient scheduling. Summary of the Invention

[0008] The purpose of this invention is to provide a screen-guided method for precise truck scheduling, which can solve the problems of low scheduling accuracy and long equipment waiting time caused by the uncertainty of road conditions in long-distance transportation in the prior art.

[0009] The second objective of this invention is to provide a screen-guided truck precision dispatching system for implementing the aforementioned screen-guided truck precision dispatching method.

[0010] To achieve the above objectives, the technical solution adopted by this invention is as follows:

[0011] A screen-guided method for precise truck dispatching, the method comprising the following steps performed sequentially:

[0012] S1. Divide the multiple excavators in the mining area into at least one excavator group, set the preset boundary range of each excavator group, and pre-configure the target excavator group to which each truck belongs.

[0013] S2. After the truck completes the unloading operation, the driving path from the truck's current location to its target excavator group is highlighted on the truck's on-board display screen, guiding the truck to the target excavator group.

[0014] S3. When the truck is detected to have traveled to the preset boundary range of the target excavator group, a dispatching command is triggered to assign a specific excavator in the target excavator group as the loading target for the truck.

[0015] S4. Send the dispatch instruction to the truck to guide it to the specific excavator to be assigned for loading.

[0016] As a limitation, in step S1, the basis for dividing multiple excavators into excavator groups includes at least one of the following: the elevation plate of each excavator's location, the travel distance between each excavator and the main road access point, and the work area or construction team to which each excavator belongs.

[0017] As a second limitation, the content displayed on the vehicle-mounted display screen in step S2 includes: displaying the main road in a first color; displaying the auxiliary road leading from the main road to the target excavator group in a second color; and using a border displayed in a third color to identify the preset boundary range of the target excavator group.

[0018] As a third limitation, the preset boundary range is the physical or logical boundary of the target excavator group, which is achieved through GPS electronic fence or geographic grid technology. When the real-time location coordinates of the truck enter the preset boundary range, the dispatch command is automatically triggered.

[0019] As a fourth limitation, the method for assigning a specific excavator to the truck in step S3 includes:

[0020] Calculate the estimated travel time for the truck to reach each excavator in the target excavator group;

[0021] Predict the busy / idle status of each excavator when the truck arrives;

[0022] The truck is assigned to the excavator with the shortest expected waiting time or the one that needs the truck the most according to preset rules; the preset rules include: giving priority to assigning the truck to the excavator that was loaded in the previous truck.

[0023] As a fifth criterion, the basis for pre-configuring each truck to its target excavator group includes:

[0024] The construction team or work group to which the truck belongs; and ensuring that the truck's transport capacity matches the total loading capacity of the excavators within the target excavator group.

[0025] A screen-guided truck precision dispatching system, used to implement the aforementioned screen-guided truck precision dispatching method, includes a group management module, an on-board terminal module, a positioning module, a boundary detection module, a dispatching decision module, and a communication module;

[0026] The group management module is used to divide multiple excavators in the mining area into at least one excavator group, set the preset boundary range of each excavator group, and pre-configure the target excavator group to which each truck belongs.

[0027] The vehicle-mounted terminal module, installed on the truck, includes a display screen for displaying a graphical navigation interface; after the truck completes unloading operations, it highlights the truck's driving path and the preset boundary range of the target excavator group on the display screen.

[0028] The positioning module, installed on the truck, is used to acquire the truck's real-time location information and transmit the location information to the boundary detection module;

[0029] The boundary detection module is used to receive the location information obtained by the positioning module and send a trigger command to the scheduling decision module when the truck travels to the preset boundary range of the target excavator group.

[0030] The scheduling decision module is used to receive and respond to the triggering command transmitted by the boundary detection module, assign a specific excavator in the target excavator group as the loading target for the truck, and generate a scheduling command.

[0031] A communication module is used to send the dispatch instructions to the truck's onboard terminal module.

[0032] As a limitation, the positioning module is a GPS receiver or a BeiDou satellite navigation system receiver.

[0033] The present invention, by adopting the above-described technical solution, achieves the following technical advancements compared to existing technologies:

[0034] (1) The method of the present invention creatively divides the traditional “single remote dispatch” into two stages: “long-distance group guidance + short-distance precise dispatch”. After the truck unloads the soil, it is first guided to the target excavator group. After the truck drives to the boundary of the group, the assignment of the specific excavator is triggered. The trigger point of the dispatch instruction is moved from the spoil heap to the boundary of the excavator group. By greatly shortening the dispatch decision distance, the impact of long-distance and high uncertainty factors such as traffic congestion on the main road and falling rocks on the dispatch accuracy is effectively avoided. The waiting time of excavators and trucks is greatly reduced, and production efficiency is significantly improved and transportation costs are reduced.

[0035] (2) The method of the present invention provides a clear and operable basis for the division of excavator groups: dividing groups based on elevation plateaus can avoid trucks frequently going up and down slopes between different elevations, reducing fuel consumption and travel time; dividing groups based on the travel distance to the access point of the main road can ensure that excavators in the same group share the same section of auxiliary road, which is convenient for traffic organization and management; dividing groups based on work area or construction team can realize "whoever's truck enters whose area", avoiding mutual interference between vehicles of different construction teams. Multiple division methods make the driving paths of trucks in the group highly concentrated and the traffic flow controllable, laying a physical foundation for subsequent short-distance precise scheduling, which is a prerequisite for ensuring scheduling accuracy.

[0036] (3) The method of the present invention provides truck drivers with intuitive and unambiguous navigation guidance through multi-color visual information. Drivers do not need to rely on complex voice commands or text instructions. They can quickly identify the correct driving direction in the complex mining area road network by visual means alone, which greatly reduces communication costs and the risk of misoperation, and enables complex scheduling strategies to be executed simply and reliably on site.

[0037] (4) The method of the present invention uses GPS electronic fence or geographic grid technology to set the preset boundary range of the excavator group. It has the advantages of small calculation volume, high real-time performance and easy implementation on embedded vehicle terminal. When the real-time location coordinates of the truck enter the preset boundary range, the system automatically triggers the dispatching command without manual intervention. It realizes the seamless connection from "group guidance" to "precise assignment", ensuring the timeliness and accuracy of dispatching triggering and avoiding the loss of dispatching opportunity due to human operation delay or error.

[0038] (5) The method of the present invention provides two key bases for truck pre-assignment: the assignment configuration is based on the construction team or work group, which can realize "zoned operation and separate management", avoid mutual interference between vehicles of different construction teams on auxiliary roads, and ensure the stability and predictability of traffic flow within the group; the assignment configuration is based on the matching of transport capacity and total loading capacity, which can ensure that the excavator will not "have to lift the scramble" due to insufficient number of trucks, and ensure the supply and demand balance and traffic order within the group.

[0039] (6) The system of the present invention constructs a decoupled architecture of "long-distance group guidance plus short-distance boundary scheduling" through the organic collaboration of various modules: after the truck unloads soil, it is guided to the target excavator group by the screen highlight. The positioning module obtains the truck position in real time. The boundary detection module automatically triggers the scheduling decision when the truck enters the preset boundary of the group. The decision point of finally assigning the excavator is moved from the long distance of the traditional system to the short-distance controllable road section where the interference factors have been filtered. Overall, it achieves the technical effect of significantly reducing the prediction error of travel time, completely eliminating the waiting time of excavators, and greatly optimizing the waiting time of trucks to the ideal range. At the same time, it has high robustness to random road conditions, intuitive screen guidance capability, and modular and easy-to-deploy engineering practicality, fundamentally solving the industry problem of low accuracy of long-distance scheduling.

[0040] This invention belongs to the field of automated scheduling technology for engineering machinery, and can solve the problems of low scheduling accuracy and long equipment waiting time caused by the uncertainty of road conditions in long-distance transportation in the existing technology. Attached Figure Description

[0041] The accompanying drawings are provided to further illustrate the invention and form part of the specification. They are used together with the embodiments of the invention to explain the invention and do not constitute a limitation thereof.

[0042] In the attached diagram:

[0043] Figure 1 This is a flowchart of the processing in Embodiment 1 of the present invention;

[0044] Figure 2 This is a schematic diagram of the interface of the truck-mounted display screen according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention;

[0045] Figure 3 System structure block diagram of Embodiment 2 of the present invention. Detailed Implementation

[0046] The preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be understood that the preferred embodiments described herein are for illustrative and explanatory purposes only and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.

[0047] Example 1

[0048] like Figure 1 As shown, this embodiment is a screen-guided method for precise truck dispatching, which includes the following steps performed sequentially:

[0049] S1. Divide the multiple excavators in the mining area into at least one excavator group, set the preset boundary range of each excavator group, and pre-configure the target excavator group to which each truck belongs.

[0050] This embodiment was implemented in a large open-pit coal mine. The distance from the mining area to the spoil heap is approximately 5 kilometers, including a main road of about 3 kilometers shared by multiple construction teams, and three auxiliary roads with varying conditions leading to different areas of the mining area. A total of 6 excavators (numbered W101-W106) and 15 trucks (numbered D001-D015) were operating within the mining area. The loading time from excavator to truck was approximately 2.5-3.0 minutes.

[0051] Based on the elevation plate and the travel distance from the excavators to the main road access point, the excavators in the mining area were divided into two groups: The three excavators W101, W102, and W103, located in the eastern part of the mining area, at similar elevations, and sharing an auxiliary road, were assigned to the "Eastern Area Group," with a pre-defined boundary set for them using a GPS-based electronic fence. The distance from the boundary dispatch point of this group to the excavators is approximately 600 meters, and only trucks from this construction team travel on the road, with no congestion. Simultaneously, based on the matching of the construction teams to which trucks D001-D008 belong and their loading and transportation capabilities, these trucks were pre-assigned as target trucks for the "Eastern Area Group." The remaining three excavators were assigned to another group, and the remaining trucks were also pre-assigned to this group.

[0052] In this embodiment, when dividing the groups, the elevation plate of each excavator's location and the travel distance between each excavator and the main road access point are taken into account. The basis for division can be changed according to the actual situation, as long as at least one of the following three is taken into account: the elevation plate of each excavator's location, the travel distance between each excavator and the main road access point, and the work area or construction team to which each excavator belongs.

[0053] S2. After the truck completes the unloading operation, the driving path from the truck's current location to its target excavator group is highlighted on the truck's onboard display screen, guiding the truck to the target excavator group.

[0054] like Figure 2 As shown, taking truck D001 as an example, after unloading at the spoil heap, its onboard display screen automatically refreshes. Based on pre-configured information, the system highlights the guidance path: the main road is displayed in blue, and the auxiliary roads leading from the main road to the "Eastern District Group" are displayed in striking red. Simultaneously, a flashing green rectangle marks the boundary of the "Eastern District Group." The driver requires no additional operation; simply follow the red guide lines and the direction of the green rectangle on the screen. This stage effectively prevents drivers from choosing incorrect routes due to personal preference, ensuring that all vehicles accurately and uniformly head towards the target area.

[0055] S3. When a truck is detected to be traveling within the preset boundary range of the target excavator group, a dispatching command is triggered to assign a specific excavator within the target excavator group as the loading target for the truck.

[0056] When truck D001 reaches the GPS electronic fence boundary of the "Eastern District Group," the system automatically triggers a dispatch command. The dispatch algorithm performs the following operations:

[0057] Calculate the estimated travel time: Based on the current location of D001 and the locations of W101, W102, and W103 within the group, calculate the estimated time to reach each excavator.

[0058] Predicting Excavator Busy / Idle Status: By analyzing the loading progress of each excavator and the positions of other assigned trucks, predict the status of each excavator when D001 arrives.

[0059] Assign the best excavator: Based on the rule of "shortest expected waiting time", the system assigns D001 to the excavator with the shortest expected waiting time.

[0060] In this embodiment, when assigning the optimal excavator, the assignment rule with the shortest waiting time is adopted. The assignment rule can be changed according to the actual situation, and it can be changed to prioritize assigning the truck to the excavator loaded on the previous truck.

[0061] In this embodiment, the preset boundary of the excavator is implemented using GPS electronic fence, wherein the preset boundary range is the physical or logical boundary of the target excavator group, or it can be implemented through geographic grid technology.

[0062] S4. Send the dispatch instruction to the truck to guide it to the specific excavator to be loaded.

[0063] The instructions to dispatch a specific excavator are sent to the onboard terminal of truck D001 via the communication network. Following the final guidance on the screen, the driver precisely drives towards the target excavator. Due to the short dispatch distance, uniform road conditions, and accurate travel time prediction, efficient coordination is achieved.

[0064] To verify the technical effectiveness of this embodiment, six transport data were collected in the same mining area under the traditional "spoil dump scheduling" mode and the "group boundary scheduling" mode of this embodiment. Detailed data are shown in Table 1 and Table 2.

[0065] Table 1 Comparison of Predicted / Actual Travel Time between Dump Dispatch Scheduling and Group Boundary Scheduling

[0066]

[0067] As shown in Table 1, under the spoil heap scheduling mode, the truck travel time prediction error is huge—the second trip actually took 28.4 minutes, delayed by 10.2 minutes from the predicted 18.2 minutes (error rate 56%); the fourth trip, due to traffic congestion on the main road, actually took 32.2 minutes, delayed by 14.3 minutes from the predicted 17.9 minutes (error rate 80%); and the fifth trip, due to the need to avoid falling rocks on the road, actually took 25.2 minutes, delayed by 6.6 minutes from the predicted 18.6 minutes (error rate 35%). However, under the group boundary scheduling mode, the predicted travel time within a short distance of 600 meters closely matches the actual travel time, with a maximum error of only 0.3 minutes, far superior to the spoil heap scheduling mode.

[0068] Table 2 Comparison of excavator / truck waiting time between spoil heap scheduling and group boundary scheduling

[0069]

[0070] As shown in Table 2, under the traditional spoil heap scheduling model, excavators frequently experience "hanging their loads" while waiting for trucks, with single waiting times ranging from 3.6 to 11.3 minutes, severely reducing production efficiency. After applying the method in this embodiment, the excavator waiting time was 0 for all 6 transport trips, completely eliminating the "hanging loads" phenomenon. Under the traditional model, truck waiting times are extremely unstable, sometimes reaching 4.2 minutes and sometimes 0 minutes (i.e., the excavator is waiting for the truck). After applying the method in this embodiment, truck waiting times are stably controlled between 2.8 and 3.2 minutes, which is within an optimal waiting time range.

[0071] In summary, this embodiment effectively avoids the uncertainties of long-distance main roads by changing the "remote one-time scheduling" to a two-stage method of "screen guidance to group + boundary triggering precise scheduling", which greatly improves the accuracy of scheduling prediction, completely eliminates the waiting time of excavators, stabilizes the waiting time of trucks, and significantly reduces transportation costs.

[0072] Example 2

[0073] like Figure 3 As shown, this embodiment is a screen-guided truck precision dispatching system for implementing Embodiment 1, including a group management module, an on-board terminal module, a positioning module, a boundary detection module, a dispatching decision module, and a communication module.

[0074] The group management module is used to divide multiple excavators in the mining area into at least one excavator group, set the preset boundary range for each excavator group, and pre-configure the target excavator group to which each truck belongs. The group management module transmits the pre-configured excavator group information, boundary range, truck affiliation configuration, and other data to the scheduling decision module as the basis for scheduling decisions.

[0075] The vehicle-mounted terminal module, installed on the truck, includes a display screen for displaying a graphical navigation interface; after the truck completes unloading operations, it highlights the truck's driving path and the preset boundary range of the target excavator group on the display screen.

[0076] The positioning module, installed on the truck, is used to acquire the truck's real-time location information and transmit this information to the boundary detection module. The positioning module is either a GPS receiver or a BeiDou satellite navigation system receiver.

[0077] The boundary detection module is used to receive the location information obtained by the positioning module and send a trigger command to the scheduling decision module when the truck travels to the preset boundary range of the target excavator group.

[0078] The scheduling decision module is used to receive and respond to the trigger command transmitted by the boundary detection module, assign a specific excavator in the target excavator group as the loading target for the truck, and generate a scheduling command.

[0079] A communication module is used to send the dispatch instructions to the truck's onboard terminal module.

Claims

1. A screen-guided method for precise truck dispatching, characterized in that, The method includes the following steps performed sequentially: S1. Divide the multiple excavators in the mining area into at least one excavator group, set the preset boundary range of each excavator group, and pre-configure the target excavator group to which each truck belongs. S2. After the truck completes the unloading operation, the driving path from the truck's current location to its target excavator group is highlighted on the truck's on-board display screen, guiding the truck to the target excavator group. S3. When the truck is detected to have traveled to the preset boundary range of the target excavator group, a dispatching command is triggered to assign a specific excavator in the target excavator group as the loading target for the truck. S4. Send the dispatch instruction to the truck to guide it to the specific excavator to be assigned for loading.

2. The method for precise truck dispatching based on screen guidance according to claim 1, characterized in that, In step S1, the criteria for dividing multiple excavators into excavator groups include at least one of the following: the elevation plate of each excavator's location, the travel distance between each excavator and the main road access point, and the work area or construction team to which each excavator belongs.

3. The method for precise truck dispatching based on screen guidance according to claim 1, characterized in that, The content displayed on the vehicle-mounted display screen in step S2 includes: displaying the main road in a first color; displaying the auxiliary road leading from the main road to the target excavator group in a second color; and using a border in a third color to identify the preset boundary range of the target excavator group.

4. A screen-guided precise truck dispatching method according to claim 1 or 3, characterized in that, The preset boundary range is the physical or logical boundary of the target excavator group, which is achieved through GPS electronic fence or geographic grid technology. When the real-time location coordinates of the truck enter the preset boundary range, the dispatch command is automatically triggered.

5. The method for precise truck dispatching based on screen guidance according to claim 1, characterized in that, The method for assigning a specific excavator to the truck in step S3 includes: Calculate the estimated travel time for the truck to reach each excavator in the target excavator group; Predict the busy / idle status of each excavator when the truck arrives; The truck is assigned to the excavator with the shortest expected waiting time or the one that needs the truck the most according to a preset rule; the preset rule includes: giving priority to assigning the truck to the excavator that was loaded in the previous truck.

6. The method for precise truck dispatching based on screen guidance according to claim 1, characterized in that, The basis for pre-configuring each truck to its target excavator group includes: The construction team or work group to which the truck belongs; and ensuring that the truck's transport capacity matches the total loading capacity of the excavators within the target excavator group.

7. A screen-guided truck precision dispatching system, used to implement the screen-guided truck precision dispatching method as described in any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that, It includes a group management module, an in-vehicle terminal module, a positioning module, a boundary detection module, a scheduling decision module, and a communication module; The group management module is used to divide multiple excavators in the mining area into at least one excavator group, set the preset boundary range of each excavator group, and pre-configure the target excavator group to which each truck belongs. The vehicle-mounted terminal module, installed on the truck, includes a display screen for displaying a graphical navigation interface; after the truck completes unloading operations, it highlights the truck's driving path and the preset boundary range of the target excavator group on the display screen. The positioning module, installed on the truck, is used to acquire the truck's real-time location information and transmit the location information to the boundary detection module; The boundary detection module is used to receive the location information obtained by the positioning module and send a trigger command to the scheduling decision module when the truck travels to the preset boundary range of the target excavator group. The scheduling decision module is used to receive and respond to the triggering command transmitted by the boundary detection module, assign a specific excavator in the target excavator group as the loading target for the truck, and generate a scheduling command. A communication module is used to send the dispatch instructions to the truck's onboard terminal module.

8. A screen-guided truck precision dispatching system according to claim 7, characterized in that, The positioning module is a GPS receiver or a BeiDou satellite navigation system receiver.

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