Cargo platform control device

Abstract

To provide a load-carrying platform control apparatus capable of automatizing appropriate control of an inclination angle of a load-carrying platform.SOLUTION: A load-carrying platform control apparatus 100 includes: a sensor information acquisition section 30 for acquiring sensor information from axle-load sensors 3A, 3B and / or suspension stroke sensors 4A, 4B of a vehicle AA; an inclination control section 10 for inclining a load-carrying platform 2 of the vehicle AA; a decrease amount acquisition section 40 for acquiring based on the sensor information, a decrease amount of the load-carrying platform applied on the wheel and / or axle of the vehicle AA during unloading work; a determination section 50 for determining whether or not the decrease amount is a threshold value or more based on the decrease amount; and a restriction section 60 for restricting an inclination angle θ of the load-carrying platform 2 when it is determined that the decrease amount is a threshold value or more.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present disclosure relates to a cargo bed control device. [Background technology]

[0002] Patent Document 1 describes a load weight measuring device for a dump truck. The dump truck described in Patent Document 1 includes a pair of equalizer bars rotatably provided on the left and right sides of the vehicle body, first wheels supported on one side of each equalizer bar via first suspension devices, second wheels supported on the other side of each equalizer bar via second suspension devices, and third wheels provided on the left and right sides of the vehicle body spaced apart from each equalizer bar and supported via third suspension devices.

[0003] The loaded weight measuring device described in Patent Document 1 detects a first load applied to the second suspension device and a second load applied to the third suspension device, and also detects the tilt angle of the vehicle body, and calculates the loaded weight based on the first and second loads and the tilt angle. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0004] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-227269 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0005] Incidentally, there are currently studies into unmanned dump trucks, which unload cargo by tilting the bed of the dump truck. However, when a vehicle driver operates the dump truck, the driver appropriately controls the tilt angle of the bed (dump-up angle) based on the "feeling of the vehicle lifting up" that the driver feels, thereby preventing the front wheels from leaving the ground and performing a wheelie. Therefore, when unmanned dump trucks are implemented, it is necessary to automate the appropriate control of the tilt angle of the bed, which the driver previously performed based on his or her own sense.

[0006] Therefore, an object of the present disclosure is to provide a loading platform control device that can automate appropriate control of the loading platform tilt angle. [Means for solving the problem]

[0007] The loading platform control device according to the present disclosure is a loading platform control device mounted on a vehicle capable of unloading cargo loaded on the loading platform by tilting the loading platform, and includes a sensor information acquisition unit that acquires sensor information from the vehicle's wheel load sensors and / or suspension stroke sensors, a tilt control unit that tilts the loading platform, a decrease amount acquisition unit that acquires, based on the sensor information acquired by the sensor information acquisition unit, the amount of decrease in load acting on the wheels and / or axles of the vehicle when the tilt control unit tilts the loading platform to unload cargo, a determination unit that determines whether the decrease amount acquired by the decrease amount acquisition unit is equal to or greater than a threshold, and a limiting unit that limits the tilt angle of the loading platform when the determination unit determines that the decrease amount is equal to or greater than the threshold.

[0008] This device obtains the amount of load reduction on the vehicle's wheels and / or axles when the loading platform is tilted and unloaded based on sensor information from the vehicle's wheel load sensor and / or suspension stroke sensor. It then determines whether the amount of reduction is equal to or greater than a threshold, and if it is determined that the amount of reduction is equal to or greater than the threshold, it limits the loading platform's tilt angle. This allows the device to automate appropriate control of the loading platform's tilt angle.

[0009] The loading platform control device according to the present disclosure may include a load amount acquisition unit that acquires the load amount of the cargo loaded on the loading platform, and the determination unit may make a determination taking into account the load amount acquired by the load amount acquisition unit. In this way, by taking into account the load amount of the cargo, more appropriate control of the inclination angle of the loading platform is possible.

[0010] In the loading platform control device according to the present disclosure, when the determining unit determines that the decrease is equal to or greater than a threshold and predicts that a wheel and / or axle will lose load if the decrease continues, the limiting unit may limit the tilt angle by setting an upper limit for the tilt angle. In this case, future load loss, i.e., a state in which the wheels leave the ground, is reliably suppressed. In other words, more appropriate control of the loading platform tilt angle is possible. [Effects of the Invention]

[0011] According to the present disclosure, it is possible to provide a loading platform control device that can automate appropriate control of the tilt angle of the loading platform. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0012] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a vehicle on which a cargo carrier control device according to this embodiment is mounted. [Figure 2] FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the loading platform control device shown in FIG. [Figure 3] FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing one step of the loading platform control method according to this embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0013] Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present disclosure will be described with reference to the drawings. In the description of each drawing, the same or corresponding elements are denoted by the same reference numerals, and redundant description may be omitted.

[0014] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a vehicle equipped with a loading platform control device according to this embodiment. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the loading platform control device shown in FIG. 1. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a vehicle AA equipped with a loading platform control device 100 has a loading platform 2 provided on a vehicle body 1, and cargo R loaded on the loading platform 2 can be unloaded by tilting the loading platform 2. The vehicle AA is, for example, a dump truck. Increasing the inclination of the loading platform 2 (raising the loading platform 2) is sometimes referred to as dumping up, and the tilt angle θ of the loading platform 2 from a reference plane L during dumping up is sometimes referred to as the dumping up angle.

[0015] The vehicle AA may be an autonomous vehicle whose dumping operation is automated. In this case, the vehicle AA can automatically drive to a site where a load R such as earth and sand is to be loaded and unloaded according to a preset schedule, and automatically raise and lower the loading platform 2 at the site.

[0016] The vehicle AA is provided with wheel load sensors 3A, 3B and suspension stroke sensors 4A, 4B. The wheel load sensor 3A is provided, for example, on the front wheels of the vehicle AA and detects the load acting on the front wheels and / or the load acting on the axle corresponding to the front wheels. The wheel load sensor 3B is provided, for example, on the rear wheels of the vehicle AA and detects the load acting on the rear wheels and / or the load acting on the rear wheels. The wheel load sensors 3A, 3B can provide information relating to the detected loads to the cargo bed control device 100 as a single piece of sensor information.

[0017] The suspension stroke sensor 4A is provided, for example, on a front suspension that supports the front wheels of the vehicle AA and detects the stroke of the front suspension. The suspension stroke sensor 4B is provided, for example, on a rear suspension that supports the rear wheels of the vehicle AA and detects the stroke of the rear suspension. The suspension stroke sensors 4A and 4B can provide information related to the detected strokes to the cargo bed control device 100 as a single piece of sensor information.

[0018] The vehicle AA is also provided with a load amount acquisition unit 5. The load amount acquisition unit 5 acquires the weight (load amount) of the cargo R loaded on the loading platform 2 of the vehicle AA. The load amount acquisition unit 5 may be a sensor that acquires the weight by detecting the weight of the cargo R actually loaded on the loading platform 2, or may be an input receiving means that acquires the load amount by receiving input from an external device.

[0019] The load amount acquisition unit 5 can provide the acquired information regarding the load amount of the cargo R to the loading device 100. When the load amount acquisition unit 5 is the latter input receiving means, the load amount acquisition unit 5 may be included in the loading device 100 as one of its elements.

[0020] The loading platform control device 100 is, for example, an electronic control unit (ECU) having a central processing unit (CPU), read only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), etc. In the loading platform control device 100, for example, a program stored in the ROM is loaded into the RAM and executed by the CPU, thereby realizing each of the functional units described below. The loading platform control device 100 may be configured by a single electronic control unit or may be configured by multiple electronic control units.

[0021] The loading platform control device 100 has an inclination control unit 10, a load amount acquisition unit 20, a sensor information acquisition unit 30, a reduction amount acquisition unit 40, a determination unit 50, and a restriction unit 60. The inclination control unit 10 controls the drive mechanism of the loading platform 2 to incline the loading platform 2 (perform dump-up) or release the inclination of the loading platform 2.

[0022] The load amount acquisition unit 20 acquires information relating to the weight (load amount) of the load R loaded on the loading platform 2 of the vehicle AA by receiving information from the load amount acquisition unit 5. As described above, when the load amount acquisition unit 5 is included in the loading platform control device 100, the load amount acquisition unit 5 and the load amount acquisition unit 20 may be integrated (the load amount acquisition unit 20 may be omitted). The load amount acquisition unit 20 provides the acquired information relating to the load amount to the determination unit 50.

[0023] The sensor information acquiring unit 30 receives sensor information from the wheel load sensors 3A, 3B and / or the suspension stroke sensors 4A, 4B and acquires the sensor information. The sensor information acquiring unit 30 provides the acquired sensor information to the reduction amount acquiring unit 40.

[0024] The reduction amount acquisition unit 40 acquires the reduction amount of the load acting on the wheels and / or axles of the vehicle AA when the tilt control unit 10 tilts the loading platform 2 to unload the load, based on the sensor information acquired by the sensor information acquisition unit 30. More specifically, when the sensor information is information about the load acquired by the wheel load sensors 3A, 3B, the reduction amount acquisition unit 40 calculates the difference in the load at predetermined time intervals to acquire the reduction amount of the load.

[0025] Furthermore, when the sensor information is information related to the stroke acquired by the suspension stroke sensors 4A, 4B, the reduction amount acquisition unit 40 calculates the difference (extension) of the stroke at regular time intervals and calculates the reduction amount of the load corresponding to the difference in the stroke based on the suspension specifications. The reduction amount acquisition unit 40 provides the information related to the acquired reduction amount of the load to the determination unit 50.

[0026] In addition, when the sensor information includes both information regarding the load acquired by the wheel load sensors 3A, 3B and information regarding the stroke acquired by the suspension stroke sensors 4A, 4B, the reduction amount acquisition unit 40 may be configured to calculate one reduction amount by taking into account both pieces of information, or may be configured to calculate the reduction amounts of the load separately based on the respective differences between the load and the stroke, and to adopt one of the reduction amounts (for example, the one calculated as the larger one).

[0027] The determination unit 50 determines whether the amount of decrease in load acquired by the decrease amount acquisition unit 40 is equal to or greater than a threshold value. As an example, the threshold value here can be set as the minimum value at which, if the decrease in load acquired by the decrease amount acquisition unit 40 continues for a certain period of time, the load on at least the front wheels (or the axles corresponding to the front wheels (same below)) of the vehicle AA will be released in the future, causing the vehicle AA to perform a wheelie. The determination unit 50 provides information indicating the determination result to the restriction unit 60.

[0028] The determination unit 50 may make this determination taking into account the load of the cargo R acquired by the load amount acquisition unit 20. When the load acting on the front wheels decreases due to the center of gravity of the vehicle AA shifting toward the rear of the vehicle AA as the tilt angle θ of the loading platform 2 increases (dumping is performed), the amount of decrease in the load on the front wheels (the amount of movement of the center of gravity) is related to the load of the cargo R. For example, when the load is relatively large, the amount of decrease in the load on the front wheels for a given tilt angle θ is considered to be greater than when the load is relatively small. Therefore, the determination unit 50 may take the load amount into account and set the threshold value to a smaller value as the load amount increases. Alternatively, the load acting on the front wheels may naturally decrease as the unloading of the cargo R progresses (the load amount decreases). Therefore, the determination unit 50 may offset the threshold value by the amount of natural decrease in the load corresponding to the decrease in the load amount, taking the load amount into account.

[0029] When the determination unit 50 determines that the amount of load reduction is equal to or greater than a threshold, the limiting unit 60 limits the tilt angle θ of the cargo bed 2. More specifically, when the determination unit 50 determines that the amount of load reduction is equal to or greater than a threshold and the reduction continues for a certain period of time and it is predicted that load loss from the wheels and / or axles (mainly load loss from the front wheels) will occur, the limiting unit 60 limits the tilt angle θ by setting an upper limit for the tilt angle θ so that dumping does not proceed beyond a certain level.

[0030] Next, a description will be given of a bed control method implemented by the bed control device shown in Figures 1 and 2. Figure 3 is a flowchart showing one step of the bed control method according to this embodiment. As shown in Figure 3, in this method, first, the load amount acquisition unit 20 receives information from the load amount acquisition unit 5 to acquire information on the weight (load amount) of the load R loaded on the bed 2 of the vehicle AA (step S11). Step S11 may be executed when the load R is loaded on the bed 2 of the vehicle AA, or may be executed immediately before dumping begins.

[0031] Next, the tilt control unit 10 controls the drive mechanism of the loading platform 2 to increase the tilt angle θ of the loading platform 2 and start dumping up (step S12).

[0032] Next, the sensor information acquisition unit 30 receives sensor information from the wheel load sensors 3A, 3B and / or the suspension stroke sensors 4A, 4B and acquires the sensor information (step S13). As will be described later, when calculating the amount of load reduction, the temporal difference in the sensor information is used. Therefore, step S13 is also performed multiple times continuously, thereby acquiring sensor information at multiple times.

[0033] Next, the reduction amount acquisition unit 40 acquires the reduction amount of the load acting on the wheels and / or axles of the vehicle AA based on the sensor information acquired by the sensor information acquisition unit 30 (step S14). As described above, in step S14, the reduction amount of the load is acquired based on the difference between the sensor information acquired at different times.

[0034] Next, the determination unit 50 determines whether the decrease in the load is equal to or greater than a threshold value (step S15) based on the decrease in the load acquired by the decrease acquisition unit 40. If the result of the determination in step S15 indicates that the decrease in the load is not equal to or greater than the threshold value (step S15: No), the damping-up is continued (without limiting the tilt angle θ) and is terminated.

[0035] On the other hand, if the result of the judgment in step S15 indicates that the amount of load reduction is equal to or greater than the threshold value (step S15: Yes), the limiting unit 60 limits the dump-up angle (tilt angle θ) of the cargo bed 2 and ends the process.

[0036] As described above, the bed control device 100 obtains the amount of decrease in the load acting on the wheels and / or axles of the vehicle AA when the bed 2 is tilted and unloaded, based on sensor information from the wheel load sensors 3A, 3B and / or suspension stroke sensors 4A, 4B of the vehicle AA. It is then determined whether the amount of decrease is equal to or greater than a threshold, and if it is determined that the amount of decrease is equal to or greater than the threshold, the tilt angle θ of the bed 2 is limited. This makes it possible for the bed control device 100 to automate appropriate control of the tilt angle θ of the bed 2. Therefore, it is possible to automate dump-up while preventing the vehicle from performing a wheelie.

[0037] The loading platform control device 100 also includes a load amount acquisition unit 20 that acquires the load amount of the cargo R loaded on the loading platform 2. The determination unit 50 then makes the determination taking into account the load amount acquired by the load amount acquisition unit 20. In this way, by taking into account the load amount of the cargo R, more appropriate control of the tilt angle θ of the loading platform 2 becomes possible.

[0038] Furthermore, in the loading platform control device 100, when the determining unit 50 determines that the load reduction is equal to or greater than a threshold value and predicts that a wheel and / or axle will lose load if the load reduction continues, the limiting unit 60 limits the tilt angle θ by setting an upper limit for the tilt angle θ. This reliably prevents future load loss, i.e., the wheels from leaving the ground. In other words, more appropriate control of the tilt angle θ of the loading platform 2 is possible.

[0039] The above embodiment has been described as one example of the cargo carrier control device according to the present disclosure. Therefore, the cargo carrier control device according to the present disclosure may be any modified version of the cargo carrier control device 100 described above.

[0040] For example, in the above embodiment, the wheel load sensors 3A, 3B and the suspension stroke sensors 4A, 4B are provided to correspond to the front and rear wheels, respectively, of the vehicle AA. However, if it is sufficient to monitor the loads acting on the front wheels and the front axle to suppress a wheelie, the wheel load sensor 3B and the suspension stroke sensor 4B corresponding to the rear wheels may be omitted.

[0041] In this case, the sensor information acquisition unit 30 may acquire sensor information only from the wheel load sensor 3A and suspension stroke sensor 4A corresponding to the front wheels of the vehicle AA, and the reduction amount acquisition unit 40 may calculate only the reduction amount of the load applied to the front wheels (front axles) of the vehicle AA based on the sensor information. In this case, the determination unit 50 determines whether the reduction amount of the load applied to the front wheels (front axles) of the vehicle AA is equal to or greater than a threshold, and the limiting unit 60 limits the tilt angle θ of the cargo bed 2 if the reduction amount of the load applied to the front wheels (front axles) of the vehicle AA is equal to or greater than the threshold.

[0042] Furthermore, in the above embodiment, an example was given of a case where both the wheel load sensors 3A, 3B and the suspension stroke sensors 4A, 4B are provided for the vehicle AA, but either one of the wheel load sensors 3A, 3B and the suspension stroke sensors 4A, 4B may be omitted. [Explanation of symbols]

[0043] 2...loading platform, 3A, 3B...wheel load sensors, 4A, 4B...suspension stroke sensors, 10...inclination control unit, 20...load amount acquisition unit, 30...sensor information acquisition unit, 40...reduction amount acquisition unit, 50...determination unit, 60...limitation unit, AA...vehicle, R...load, θ...inclination angle.

Claims

1. A loading platform control device mounted on a vehicle capable of unloading cargo loaded on the loading platform by tilting the loading platform, a sensor information acquisition unit that acquires sensor information from a wheel load sensor and / or a suspension stroke sensor of the vehicle; a tilt control unit that tilts the loading platform; a reduction amount acquisition unit that acquires a reduction amount of the load applied to the wheels and / or axles of the vehicle when the tilt control unit tilts the loading platform to unload the load, based on the sensor information acquired by the sensor information acquisition unit; and a determination unit that determines whether the amount of decrease acquired by the amount of decrease acquisition unit is equal to or greater than a threshold; a limiting unit that limits the tilt angle of the loading platform when the determining unit determines that the decrease amount is equal to or greater than a threshold value; A loading platform control device equipped with the same.

2. a load amount acquisition unit that acquires a load amount of the cargo loaded on the loading platform, The determination unit makes the determination taking into consideration the load amount acquired by the load amount acquisition unit. The loading platform control device according to claim 1.

3. the limiting unit limits the tilt angle by setting an upper limit of the tilt angle when the determining unit determines that the decrease amount is equal to or greater than the threshold value and when it is predicted that a load loss will occur in the wheel and / or the axle if the decrease amount continues. The loading platform control device according to claim 1 or 2.

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