Excavating earth from a dig site using an excavation vehicle

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11072906-B2
Application number	US-201916673937-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 4, 2019
Priority date	Jan 23, 2017
Publication date	Jul 27, 2021
Grant date	Jul 27, 2021

Abstract

This description provides an autonomous or semi-autonomous excavation vehicle that is capable of navigating through a dig site and carrying out an excavation routine using a system of sensors physically mounted to the excavation vehicle. The sensors collect any one or more of spatial, imaging, measurement, and location data representing the status of the excavation vehicle and its surrounding environment. Based on the collected data, the excavation vehicle executes instructions to carry out an excavation routine. The excavation vehicle is also able to carry out numerous other tasks, such as checking the volume of excavated earth in an excavation tool, and helping prepare a digital terrain model of the site as part of a process for creating the excavation routine.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for grading material at a site, the method comprising:
accessing, from a computer memory coupled to an excavation vehicle (EV), a plurality of target tool paths, each tool path comprising a set of coordinates within a coordinate space of the site representing a portion of material of the site to be graded; and
executing, with a computer coupled to the EV, a set of instructions, the executing comprising:
positioning a leading edge of a tool of the EV at a depth at or below a ground surface within the site;
moving the tool over a first distance along a target tool path over the portion of material of the site corresponding to the target tool path, wherein moving the tool comprises measuring a difference between an actual tool path and the target tool path and, responsive to the difference exceeding a threshold, adjusting a distribution of hydraulic pressure to an engine system of the EV to raise or lower the tool to a different depth to bring the tool closer to the target tool path;
measuring the ground surface of the site traversed along the target tool path with at least one sensor coupled to the EV; and
responsive to the measurement indicating that the ground surface of the site traversed along the target tool path is uneven,
moving the tool over the first distance one or more additional times.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the depth is set to a shallow or zero depth relative to an average ground plane of a portion of the site.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein moving the tool over a first distance along the target tool path further comprises pushing dirt over the first distance within the site to move the dirt from high points to low points.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the execution of the set of instructions further comprises:
positioning the leading edge of the tool at an offset height different from the depth; and
moving the tool over a second distance along a second target tool path to grade a different portion of the site.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein moving the tool over the first distance along the target tool path comprises adjusting a hydraulic pressure allocated between the tool and a drive system of the excavation vehicle to maintain the leading edge of the tool at the depth over the first distance by adjusting at least one of an angle of the tool and a speed of the tool.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
recording, with a sensor mounted to the EV, a movement of the tool over the actual tool path in response to carrying out the target tool path, the actual tool path having an associated set of coordinates that differs from the set of coordinate of the target tool path.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising:
generating, with the computer, a comparison between the set of coordinates of the actual tool path and the set of coordinates of the target tool paths; and
responsive to the comparison indicating a threshold difference, executing the set of instructions to repeat the carrying out of the target tool path.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein while the tool is moved over the first distance, executing the set of instructions further comprises:
estimating a volume of material moved by the tool without interrupting the movement of the tool along the first distance.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein estimating the volume of material moved by the tool comprises one of:
1) integrating the depth of the leading edge over the distance traversed by the tool and a width of the tool; or
2) determining a pre-excavation volume of material at the site;
accessing a swell factor relating the volume of material in the tool to the pre-excavation volume of material at the site; and
estimate the volume of material in the tool using the swell factor and the pre-excavation volume of material.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein estimating the volume of material moved by the tool comprises recording sensor data describing a quantity of material in front of the leading edge of the tool.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
updating the tool fill level based on the actual tool path;
recording, with a sensor, a speed of at least one of the tool and a drive system of the EV; and
continuing to move the tool through the material based on the updated tool fill level and the recorded speed.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
measuring a quantity of material accumulated in front of the leading edge of the tool; and
responsive to measuring the quantity of material to be greater than a threshold quantity, raising the tool above the ground surface.

13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
measuring a force of material beneath the ground surface on the tool; and
responsive to measuring the force of material to be greater than a threshold force, adjusting an angle of the tool.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein positioning the leading edge of the tool at the depth at or below the ground surface comprises:
tracking a relative position of the leading edge of the tool within a virtual representation of the site, wherein the tracking comprises at least one of:
measuring an absolute position using a global positioning system mounted to the tool;
measuring the relative position using an incline sensor mounted to the tool;
measuring the relative position with a linear encoder mounted to the EV;
measuring the relative position by measuring a pressure of a hydraulic system controlling the tool;
measuring the relative position with a spatial sensor mounted on the EV; and
a set of steps comprising:
tracking, with global positioning sensors, the absolute position of a chassis of the EV within the coordinate space;
analyzing kinematic measurements describing a motion of the tool; and
determining the position of the tool relative to the chassis.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein positioning the leading edge of the tool at the depth at or below the ground surface comprises:
tracking an absolute position of the leading edge of the tool using a position sensor mounted to the tool, the tracking comprising at least one of:
measuring a quantity with a sensor and converting the measurement to an absolute position with a lookup table stored in a computer memory; and
measuring a quantity with a sensor and converting the measurement to an absolute position using forward kinematics.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein measuring the tool fill level comprises executing a set of instructions to perform a check routine to calculate a volume of material in the tool, the executing comprising:
positioning a leading edge of a tool of the EV such that a sensor mounted to the EV is able to measure the tool fill level;
measuring the tool fill level with the sensor;
responsive to determining that the measured tool fill level is above a threshold, releasing the volume of material in the tool at a dump location within the site.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein moving the tool over the first distance along the target tool path comprises:
measuring a speed of the tool;
responsive to measuring the speed of the tool to be below a target speed, adjusting a distribution of hydraulic pressure between a drive system and the tool of the EV to reduce the speed of the tool and maintain an angle of the tool; and
maintaining the reduced speed of the tool and the maintained angle of the tool over the first distance.

18. The method of claim 17 , further comprising:
measuring the speed of the tool to be below a threshold speed;
adjusting the distributi

Assignees

• Built Robotics Inc

Inventors

• Ready-Campbell Noah Austen
• Liang Andrew Xiao
• Chou Linus Page
• Walker Jr Edward Stephen
• Wawrzonek Christian John
• Ready-Campbell Cyrus Mcmann

Classifications

• G06V20/56

  exterior to a vehicle by using sensors mounted on the vehicle · CPC title

• E02F9/2029

  Controlling the position of implements in function of its load, e.g. modifying the attitude of implements in accordance to vehicle speed (control for hydraulic or pneumatic drives E02F9/2203, E02F9/2221 and E02F9/2253 take precedence) · CPC title

• E02F3/435 Primary

  for dipper-arms, backhoes or the like · CPC title

• E02F9/262

  with follow-up actions to control the work tool, e.g. controller · CPC title

• E02F9/265

  with follow-up actions (e.g. control signals sent to actuate the work tool) · CPC title