Shoulder approach warning device, shoulder approach warning program, and shoulder approach warning system

Abstract

To provide a top-of-slope approach warning device properly warning a top-of-slope approach through detection of approach of a work machine to a top of a slope with accuracy.SOLUTION: In a top-of-slope approach warning system 1, a top-of-slope approach warning device 100 for warning approach of a work machine 20 to a top of a slope during excavation work of the ground stores sectional data per height sectioned from geographic data of the ground to be excavated, detects a position and a height of the work machine 20, and identifies the top of the slope under excavation based on the sectional data corresponding to a present height of the work machine 20, and generates warning in accordance with approach of the work machine 20 to the top of the slope.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a slope approach warning device, a slope approach warning program, and a slope approach warning system that warn of the approach of a work machine to the slope during natural ground excavation work. [Background technology]

[0002] In civil engineering work using work machines such as bulldozers and hydraulic excavators, it may be necessary to identify dangerous areas and take measures to prevent entry into the dangerous areas. Known examples of such measures include a method (first method) in which iron pins 501 are driven into the boundary between the dangerous area and the work area at predetermined intervals and a safety rope 502 is stretched between the iron pins 501 to clearly indicate the dangerous area, as shown in Fig. 11, and a method (second method) in which a dangerous area is identified based on map data or the like and an alarm is issued when a work machine approaches the dangerous area (see, for example, Patent Document 1). [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-224625 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] However, in natural ground excavation work, the danger area (the position of the shoulder of the slope) changes as the work progresses, making it difficult to apply the second method.In addition, while the first method is used at many natural ground excavation sites, it requires manually relocating iron pins and safety ropes every time the position of the shoulder of the slope changes, which has led to issues such as increased construction costs and longer construction periods. [Means for solving the problem]

[0005] The present invention was created in view of the above-mentioned circumstances and with the aim of solving these problems. The invention of claim 1 is a slope approach warning device that warns of the approach of a work machine to the slope during natural ground excavation work, and is characterized by comprising: cross-sectional data storage means that stores cross-sectional data for each elevation extracted from topographical data of the natural ground to be excavated; position / elevation detection means that detects the position and elevation of the work machine; slope identification means that identifies the slope of the natural ground being excavated based on the cross-sectional data that corresponds to the current elevation of the work machine; and slope approach warning means that issues an alarm in response to the approach of the work machine to the slope. The invention of claim 2 is a slope approach warning program that warns of the approach of a work machine to the slope shoulder during natural ground excavation work, and is characterized in that it causes a computer to operate as the slope approach warning device described in claim 1. The invention of claim 3 is a slope approach warning system that warns of the approach of a work machine to the slope during natural ground excavation work, and is characterized by comprising: cross-sectional data extraction means that can extract cross-sectional data of any altitude from the topographical data of the natural ground to be excavated; position / altitude detection means that detects the position and altitude of the work machine; slope identification means that identifies the slope of the natural ground being excavated based on the cross-sectional data that corresponds to the current altitude of the work machine; and slope approach warning means that issues an alarm when the work machine approaches the slope. The invention of claim 4 is a cliff approach warning system as described in claim 3, characterized in that the topographical data is expressed as a combination of triangles specified by three coordinate data, and the cross-sectional data extraction means calculates the intersection coordinates between a horizontal plane at any elevation and the triangle, expands the intersection coordinates onto a mesh, and connects the meshes where the intersection coordinates exist to form the cross-sectional data. The invention of claim 5 is a cliff approach warning system as described in claim 4, wherein the cross-sectional data extraction means calculates the distance between the two intersections when there are two intersections between a horizontal plane at an arbitrary elevation and one of the triangles, and when the distance between the intersections is smaller than the size of the mesh, expands the intersection coordinates of the two intersections on the mesh, and when the distance between the intersections is larger than the size of the mesh, expands the intersection coordinates of the two intersections and the complementary point coordinates that complement the distance between the two intersections on the mesh. [Effects of the Invention]

[0006] According to the invention of claim 1, the toe of the ground being excavated is identified based on cross-sectional data corresponding to the current elevation of the work machine, so it is possible to detect the approach of the work machine to the toe with high accuracy and issue an appropriate toe-approach warning. As a result, it becomes unnecessary to indicate the toe position with iron pins or trawl ropes, which also makes it possible to reduce construction costs and shorten construction time. Furthermore, according to the invention of claim 2, it is possible to issue an appropriate warning about approaching the shoulder of a cliff using a computer such as a smartphone. Furthermore, according to the invention of claim 3, it is possible to obtain the same effect as the invention of claim 1. Furthermore, since the invention is provided with a cross-sectional data extraction means capable of extracting cross-sectional data at any elevation from the topographical data of the natural ground to be excavated, once the topographical data of the natural ground is obtained, it becomes possible to implement the slope approach warning of the present invention in one stop. Furthermore, according to the invention of claim 4, the topographical data is expressed as a combination of triangles specified by three coordinate data, and the cross-sectional data extraction means calculates the intersection coordinates between a horizontal plane at an arbitrary elevation and the triangle, expands the intersection coordinates onto a mesh, and connects the meshes where the intersection coordinates exist to form cross-sectional data. This makes it possible to extract cross-sectional data from the topographical data with simple processing, and as a result, not only can the cross-sectional data be calculated with processing power on the order of a personal computer, but the cross-sectional data can also be stored with memory capacity on the order of a smartphone. Furthermore, according to the invention of claim 5, when there are two intersections between a horizontal plane at an arbitrary elevation and one triangle, the cross-sectional data extraction means calculates the distance between the two intersections, and when the distance between the intersections is smaller than the size of the mesh, it expands the intersection coordinates of the two intersections on the mesh, and when the distance between the intersections is larger than the size of the mesh, it expands the intersection coordinates of the two intersections and the complementary coordinates that complement the distance between the two intersections on the mesh, making it possible to expand continuous cross-sectional data on the mesh and accurately identify the position of the slope. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0007] [Figure 1] 1 is an explanatory diagram of a natural ground excavation work to which a slope approach warning system and a slope approach warning device according to an embodiment of the present invention are applied. [Figure 2] 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of a shoulder approach warning system and a shoulder approach warning device according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 3] FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of topographical data. [Figure 4] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a first step for extracting cross-sectional data from topographical data. [Figure 5] FIG. 10(a) is a diagram showing the second step for extracting cross-sectional data from topographical data, and FIG. 10(b) is a diagram showing the third step. [Figure 6] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a fourth step for extracting cross-sectional data from topographical data. [Figure 7] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a fifth step for extracting cross-sectional data from topographical data. [Figure 8] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a display example of cross-sectional data. [Figure 9] FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a work implement, a shoulder, and an approach area. [Figure 10] 10 is a flowchart showing a control procedure of the shoulder approach warning device. [Figure 11] FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a conventional method for indicating a dangerous area. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0008] Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. As shown in Figures 1 and 2, a slope approach warning system 1 and a slope approach warning device 100 according to the embodiment of the present invention warn of the approach of a work machine 20 to a slope shoulder 11 during excavation work of a natural ground 10. The slope shoulder 11 refers to the top end of a slope 12.

[0009] 2, the slope shoulder approach warning system 1 includes a drone 200 that acquires three-dimensional topographical data of the natural ground 10 by aerial photography, a cross-sectional data extraction device 300 that extracts cross-sectional data for each altitude (for example, in units of 1 m) from the topographical data, and a slope shoulder approach warning device 100 that issues an alarm in response to the approach of a work machine 20 to the slope shoulder 11. Note that in this embodiment, the drone 200 is used to acquire the topographical data of the natural ground 10, but topographical data acquired by a surveying method that does not use the drone 200 may also be used.

[0010] The cross-section data extraction device 300 is configured, for example, by a personal computer with dedicated software installed. The original terrain is configured, for example, as shown in Figure 3, in LandXML format TIN (a collection of triangles with three-dimensional vertices) data. The height (altitude) at which the cross section is created is determined in advance. For example, if the interval is 1 meter, cross sections are extracted at altitudes of 500 m, 501 m, etc. Due to limitations on the amount of data that can be handled by smartphones (drawing speed and collision detection time), the resulting cross section is meshed in advance. Any mesh size can be specified.

[0011] The specific steps are shown below. 1. Read TIN data from a LandXML format file and create a list of triangles. 2. Process the triangle list from the minimum height to the maximum height at each specified pitch. (a) Find the minimum height in the triangle list and find the triangle that intersects or touches that horizontal plane. (i) Find the intersection (one or two points) of the triangle found and the horizontal plane. (c) If only one point is found, add it to the intersection list. (d) If two points are found, the distance between the two points is found, and if the distance is less than the mesh size, the two points are added to the intersection list. If the distance is equal to or greater than the mesh size, the two points and the point between them interpolated to the mesh size are added to the intersection list. (e) Expand the intersection list into a mesh. (f) For all meshes, if there are adjacent meshes, they are grouped. Adjacent means that there is a mesh in any of the eight directions around a given mesh. (Ki) Increase the height from A to K by the specified pitch and repeat until it exceeds the maximum height. 3. Register each group obtained in the file database. 4. By copying the created database file to the memory area of ​​the slope shoulder approach warning device 100, the slope shoulder approach warning device 100 can draw each group as a continuous line segment and display the boundary line indicating the slope shoulder. In addition, the slope shoulder approach warning device 100 can issue a warning when the work implement 20 is approaching the slope shoulder 11 by constantly calculating the distance between the position of the work implement 20 and the boundary line.

[0012] Next, an example of calculation of cross-sectional data will be described with reference to FIGS.

[0013] If the topographical data is composed of triangles as shown in Figure 4, consider the case where a cross section is created on a horizontal plane at a certain height. In other words, only triangles that intersect or touch the height of the cross section are extracted.

[0014] Next, as shown in Figure 5(a), the intersection point P1 between the target triangle and the cross section is found. Here, as shown in Figure 5(c), if the distance W1 between the intersection points P1 is wider than the mesh size W2, point P2 is interpolated so that it is narrower than the mesh size W2, as shown in Figure 5(d). As shown in Figure 5(b), if the distance between the intersection points P1 is shorter than the mesh size W2, the two intersection points P1 are registered in the list, and if the distance W1 between the intersection points P1 is longer than the mesh size W2, the two intersection points P1 and the interpolated point P2 are registered in the list.

[0015] Next, as shown on the left side of FIG. 6, the registered intersection point P1 and complementary point P2 are expanded into mesh M. As shown on the right side of FIG. 6, only mesh M in which intersection point P1 or complementary point P2 exists is validated. If there are adjacent valid meshes M, they are registered as one group G. In the example shown in FIG. 7, three groups G1 to G3 are registered. The slope approach warning device 100 connects the center coordinates of mesh M for each of groups G1 to G3 with continuous line segments and draws them as boundary lines, thereby expressing them as cross-sectional edges (see the right side of FIG. 7). This edge is recognized as slope 11, which is the boundary of the dangerous area, and it is possible to issue an alarm when the slope 11 is approached.

[0016] The slope approach warning device 100 is configured, for example, by a smartphone on which a dedicated app (a slope approach warning program) is installed. The slope approach warning device 100 is equipped with the following functional components realized by a combination of hardware and software: cross-sectional data storage means for storing cross-sectional data for each elevation extracted from topographical data of the natural ground 10 to be excavated; position / altitude detection means for detecting the position and elevation of the work implement 20; slope identification means for identifying the slope shoulder 11 of the natural ground 10 being excavated based on the cross-sectional data corresponding to the current elevation of the work implement 20; and slope approach warning means for issuing a warning in response to the approach of the work implement 20 to the slope shoulder 11. The position / altitude detection means may acquire position and elevation information from a GPS positioning system (GNSS) provided in the work implement 20, or may acquire position and elevation information from the positioning function of the smartphone.

[0017] 8 and 9 show the display screen of the slope shoulder approach warning device 100, which displays images of the position A of the slope shoulder 11, the current position B of the work implement 20, the danger zone width C, etc., as well as textual displays of the connection status D with the GNSS, the current altitude E of the work implement 20, the currently set danger zone width C, etc. In addition, an upward triangle button UB and a downward triangle button DB are displayed below the danger zone width display, and the danger zone width C can be changed by touching these buttons.

[0018] Next, the control procedure of the shoulder approach warning device 100 that realizes the above-described functional configuration will be described with reference to FIG.

[0019] As shown in Figure 10, the slope approach warning device 100 reads the currently set danger zone width C (S1), then acquires the current position information and altitude information of the work implement 20 (S2), and reads the cross-sectional data corresponding to the current altitude (S3). Next, the slope approach warning device 100 identifies the position of the slope shoulder 11 from the read-in cross-sectional data (S4), calculates the distance L1 from the work implement 20 to the slope shoulder 11 (S5), and compares distance L1 with the danger zone width C (S6). If the slope approach warning device 100 determines that distance L1 is smaller than the danger zone width C, it issues a predetermined warning (buzzer sound, warning voice, warning display, etc.) (S7).

[0020] According to the present embodiment, configured as described above, the slope approach warning system 1 provides an alert when the working implement 20 approaches the slope toe 11 during natural ground excavation work. The system extracts cross-sectional data at a desired elevation from the topographical data of the natural ground to be excavated, detects the position and elevation of the working implement 20, identifies the slope toe 11 of the natural ground being excavated based on the cross-sectional data corresponding to the current elevation of the working implement 20, and issues an alert in response to the working implement 20 approaching the slope toe 11. This enables highly accurate detection of the working implement 20's approach to the slope toe 11 and appropriate slope toe approach warnings. As a result, it is no longer necessary to indicate the slope toe position using iron pins or safety ropes, thereby reducing construction costs and shortening the construction period. Furthermore, because cross-sectional data at a desired elevation is extracted from the topographical data of the natural ground to be excavated, the slope toe approach warning system of the present invention can be implemented in a one-stop system by simply obtaining the natural ground topographical data.

[0021] Furthermore, the topographical data is expressed as a combination of triangles specified by three coordinate data, and the intersection coordinates between a horizontal plane at any elevation and the triangle are calculated, the intersection coordinates are expanded onto a mesh, and the meshes where the intersection coordinates exist are connected to form cross-sectional data. This allows cross-sectional data to be extracted from the topographical data with simple processing, and as a result, not only can the cross-sectional data be calculated with processing power on the same level as a personal computer, but the cross-sectional data can also be stored with memory capacity on the same level as a smartphone.

[0022] Furthermore, if there are two intersections between a horizontal plane at any elevation and one triangle, the distance between the two intersections is calculated, and if the distance between the intersections is smaller than the mesh size, the intersection coordinates of the two intersections are expanded on the mesh, and if the distance between the intersections is larger than the mesh size, the intersection coordinates of the two intersections and the complementary coordinates that complement the distance between the two intersections are expanded on the mesh, making it possible to expand continuous cross-sectional data on the mesh and accurately identify the position of the slope. [Explanation of symbols]

[0023] 1. Shoulder Approach Warning System 10 Natural ground 11 Shoulder 12 Slope 20 Work equipment 100 Shoulder proximity warning device 200 drones 300 Cross-sectional data extraction device

Claims

1. A slope approach warning device that warns of approach of a work machine to a slope during natural ground excavation work, a cross-sectional data storage means for storing cross-sectional data for each elevation extracted from topographical data of the natural ground to be excavated; a position / altitude detection means for detecting the position and altitude of the work machine; a slope identification means for identifying the slope of the ground being excavated based on the cross-sectional data corresponding to the current elevation of the work machine; A shoulder approach warning device characterized by comprising: a shoulder approach warning means for issuing a warning in response to the approach of the work machine to the shoulder.

2. A slope approach warning program that warns of approach of a work machine to a slope in natural ground excavation work, 2. A shoulder approach warning program that causes a computer to operate as the shoulder approach warning device according to claim 1.

3. A slope approach warning system that warns of approach of a work machine to a slope during natural ground excavation work, a cross-sectional data extraction means capable of extracting cross-sectional data at any elevation from topographical data of the natural ground to be excavated; a position / altitude detection means for detecting the position and altitude of the work machine; a slope identification means for identifying the slope of the ground being excavated based on the cross-sectional data corresponding to the current elevation of the work machine; A shoulder approach warning system characterized by comprising: a shoulder approach warning means for issuing a warning in response to the approach of the work machine to the shoulder.

4. the topographical data is expressed as a combination of triangles specified by three coordinate data; The cross-sectional data extraction means calculates the coordinates of the intersection between a horizontal plane at an arbitrary elevation and the triangle, expands the coordinates of the intersection into a mesh, and connects the meshes where the coordinates of the intersection exist to form the cross-sectional data.

5. The cross-sectional data extraction means calculates the distance between two intersections between a horizontal plane at an arbitrary elevation and one of the triangles, and if the distance between the intersections is smaller than the size of the mesh, it expands the intersection coordinates of the two intersections on the mesh, and if the distance between the intersections is larger than the size of the mesh, it expands the intersection coordinates of the two intersections and the interpolated point coordinates that interpolate between the two intersections on the mesh.

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