Excavation device using stereo camera and angle sensors to position bucket

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10118553-B2
Application number	US-201415303937-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 24, 2014
Priority date	Apr 23, 2014
Publication date	Nov 6, 2018
Grant date	Nov 6, 2018

Abstract

Excavation is performed using an excavation device so that positions of a bucket and of an excavated material are measured with high accuracy. Safe excavation work is realized by having the excavation device include a stereo camera, and by recognizing a bucket from an image photographed by the camera, measuring a position of the bucket, recognizing an excavated material to be separated from the ground from the image photographed by the camera, measuring a position of the excavated material, and measuring a positional relationship between the bucket and the excavated material in the same screen.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An excavation device comprising:
an upper swing body supported by a base,
a boom interconnected with the upper swing body,
a bucket configured to perform excavation,
an arm interconnecting the bucket and the boom such that the bucket is vertically movable by the arm and the boom,
angle sensors to measure a position of the bucket, and
an external recognition device located between the arm and the upper swing body, the external recognition device including:
a stereo camera;
a means for recognizing the bucket from an image photographed by the stereo camera and measuring a position of the bucket;
a means for recognizing an excavated material from the image photographed by the stereo camera and measuring a position of the excavated material;
a means for measuring a positional relationship between the bucket and the excavated material in an identical screen; and
an angle sensor measurement unit receiving input from the angle sensors, wherein

when the bucket is present outside the photographing range of the stereo camera, position information measured using a sensor other than the stereo camera is used as the position of the bucket, and the bucket is moved using the input from the angle sensors to a position at which the bucket can be photographed, and
when the bucket is present inside the photographing range of the stereo camera, position information measured by the stereo camera is used as the position of the bucket, and the bucket is moved using the input from the angle sensors.

2. The excavation device according to claim 1 , wherein
the position of the excavated material is set to a point which exceeds a predetermined length from the upper swing body of the excavation device.

3. The excavation device according to claim 1 , wherein
the means for measuring the positional relationship between the bucket and the excavated material recognizes the excavated material to be separated from a ground from the image photographed by the stereo camera.

4. The excavation device according to claim 1 , wherein
an edge image of the excavated material is created, a boundary between rocks as the excavated material is extracted from the edge image, and the position of the excavated material is selected among points at the boundary.

5. The excavation device according to claim 1 , wherein
the positional relationship between the bucket and the excavated material, which is measured by the stereo camera, is superimposed on the image photographed by the stereo camera and displayed.

6. The excavation device according to claim 1 , wherein
the positional relationship between the bucket and the excavated material includes any one or both of the position of the excavated material and a length between the bucket and the excavated material.

Assignees

• Hitachi Ltd

Inventors

• Matsuo Shigeru
• HASEJIMA Noriyasu
• Kurata Kenichirou

Classifications

• H04N13/239 Primary

  using two two-dimensional [2D] image sensors having a relative position equal to or related to the interocular distance (H04N13/243 takes precedence) · CPC title

• B60R1/002 Primary

  specially adapted for covering the peripheral part of the vehicle, e.g. for viewing tyres, bumpers or the like (integrated in the windows B60R1/001; combined with rear-view mirrors B60R1/08) · CPC title

• G06K9/00791

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06T2207/10012

  Stereo images · CPC title

• G06T2207/30252

  Vehicle exterior; Vicinity of vehicle · CPC title