IP Library Granted Patent US 12692685
Granted Patent B2
US 12692685 · App. 18/024,119 · Granted Jul 28, 2026

Work machine

Inventors: Hiroki Ishii (Tsuchiura, JP); Shinya Imura (Toride, JP); Shinjiro Yamamoto (Ami-Machi, JP); Koji Shiwaku (Tsuchiura, JP)
Assignee: HITACHI CONSTRUCTION MACHINERY CO., LTD.
E02F9/205E02F9/265G07C5/02E02F9/2228E02F9/2285E02F9/2292E02F9/2296
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12692685
App. No.
18/024,119
Granted
Jul 28, 2026
Kind
B2
Abstract

A work machine includes: a work device; a posture sensor that senses posture information of the work device; a hydraulic actuator that drives the work device; and a controller configured to generate operation plan information on the basis of task information necessary for automatic control, the task information being obtained from an external system, and perform automatic control of the hydraulic actuator on the basis of the operation plan information and a sensing result of the posture sensor. The controller outputs the operation plan information to the external system. The controller does not perform the automatic control when an approval signal indicating that the operation plan information is approved is not input from the external system. The controller performs the automatic control when the approval signal is input from the external system.

Claims (34)

1 . A work machine comprising:

a work device;

a posture sensor that senses posture information of the work device;

a hydraulic actuator that drives the work device; and

a controller configured to generate operation plan information in advance on a basis of task information necessary for automatic control, the task information being obtained from an external system, and perform the automatic control of the hydraulic actuator on a basis of the operation plan information and a sensing result of the posture sensor,

wherein the operation plan information includes reference operation plan information pre-generated on the basis of the task information and corrected operation plan information pre-generated by correcting the reference operation plan information,

the reference operation plan information includes a reference planned operation trajectory as a trajectory of a specific point of the work device when the automatic control is an excavation work,

the corrected operation plan information includes a range in which there is a possibility of correcting the reference planned operation trajectory during execution of the automatic control, the range being enclosed by the reference planned operation trajectory and a corrected planned operation trajectory as a trajectory of the specific point of the work device that is different from the reference planned operation trajectory, and

the controller is configured to:

display the operation plan information including the reference operation plan information and the corrected operation plan information to on a display device of the external system before performing the automatic control;

not perform the automatic control when an approval signal indicating that the operation plan information is approved is not input from the external system;

perform the automatic control when the approval signal is input from the external system;

determine whether or not a correction condition is satisfied based on whether a state in which a pressure of the hydraulic actuator is equal to or higher than a threshold value continues for a predetermined period of time or more during the execution of the automatic control;

perform reference automatic control of the hydraulic actuator on a basis of the reference operation plan information and the sensing result of the posture sensor when the correction condition is not satisfied, such that the specific point of the work device moves along the reference planned operation trajectory; and

perform corrected automatic control of the hydraulic actuator on a basis of the corrected operation plan information and the sensing result of the posture sensor when the correction condition is satisfied, such that the specific point of the work device moves along the corrected planned operation trajectory.

2 . The work machine according to claim 1 , further comprising:

a machine body position sensor that senses positional information of a machine body to which the work device is attached;

wherein the controller is configured to compute a position of the machine body on a basis of a sensing result of the machine body position sensor, and on a basis of a result of the computation and the sensing result of the posture sensor, compute at least any one of a position and a posture of the work device.

3 . The work machine according to claim 1 , wherein

the controller is configured to:

determine whether or not the specific point of the work device deviates from the reference planned operation trajectory or the corrected planned operation trajectory during execution of the reference automatic control or the corrected automatic control;

end the reference automatic control or the corrected automatic control and output an abnormal end signal to the external system when determining that the specific point of the work device deviates from the reference planned operation trajectory or the corrected planned operation trajectory during the execution of the reference automatic control or the corrected automatic control; and

output a normal end signal to the external system when ending the reference automatic control or the corrected automatic control without determining that the specific point of the work device deviates from the reference planned operation trajectory or the corrected planned operation trajectory.

4 . The work machine according to claim 1 , wherein

the controller is configured to:

determine whether or not an actual operation time of the work device deviates from a planned operation time during execution of the automatic control;

end the automatic control and output an abnormal end signal to the external system when determining that the actual operation time of the work device deviates from the planned operation time during the execution of the automatic control; and

output a normal end signal to the external system when ending the automatic control without determining that the actual operation time of the work device deviates from the planned operation time.

5 . The work machine according to claim 1 , wherein

the controller is configured to temporarily stop the automatic control and output a temporary stop signal to the external system when a temporary stop request signal is input from the external system during execution of the automatic control.

6 . The work machine according to claim 5 , wherein

the controller is configured to:

resume the automatic control when a resumption request signal is input from the external system during a temporary stop of the automatic control; and

end the automatic control and output a halfway termination signal to the external system when a halfway termination request signal is input from the external system during the temporary stop of the automatic control.