Autonomous Work Machine Travel Condition Verification Before Start
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Solution Overview
Problem
Work machines, such as mowers and harvesters, may start autonomous travel under unintended travel control conditions due to the lack of proper verification by human operators before initiating autonomous travel, leading to potential operational inefficiencies and safety issues.
Innovation Solution
A work machine system that requires a human work manager to access a control terminal to download and verify travel control conditions, allowing for the overwrite of travel parameters and work parameters before starting autonomous travel, ensuring the machine operates under desired conditions, and enabling remote monitoring and adjustment during operation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If autonomous travel is permitted under the mere condition of attaching a unit and providing a start instruction, then the ease of operation is improved, but the reliability deteriorates due to unintended autonomous travel
Solution Approach 1:
The system displays travel control conditions (speed, position, route) to the operator before autonomous travel starts. This preliminary display action allows the operator to verify parameters and prevent unintended travel, resolving the contradiction by adding a verification step without significantly complicating the operation flow
Solution Approach 2:
The system provides feedback by displaying travel control conditions to the operator before autonomous travel begins. This feedback mechanism ensures the operator can confirm parameters are correct, preventing unintended travel while maintaining operational simplicity
2Reliability
If travel control conditions are displayed for verification before autonomous travel, then the reliability is improved, but the time required for operation increases
Solution Approach 1:
The travel control conditions are displayed in advance before autonomous travel starts, allowing operators to verify parameters. This preliminary display prevents unintended travel while the brief verification time required is acceptable compared to the risk mitigation benefit
Solution Approach 2:
The system displays only the essential travel control conditions (speed, position, route) that operators need to verify, rather than showing all possible parameters. This partial display approach provides sufficient verification to ensure reliability while minimizing the time required for the verification process
Data Source
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AI summary
An autonomous travel assistant (70) downloads information on the travel control conditions set by a travel control condition setter (53), and causes a display (80) to show the information on the travel control conditions. A travel manager (50), in response to an autonomous travel start instruction from the autonomous travel assistant (70), instructs an autonomous travel controller (54) to start autonomous travel.