Winch assembly for assisting the movement of a tracked vehicle and control method thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11753283-B2
Application number	US-201816619350-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 8, 2018
Priority date	Jun 9, 2017
Publication date	Sep 12, 2023
Grant date	Sep 12, 2023

Abstract

A winch assembly comprising a support structure, a drum revolving about an axis; a cable wound around the drum; an actuator assembly coupled to the drum to wind or unwind the cable and configured to receive a first control signal, indicative of a desired pressure of a pump of the actuator assembly, and/or a second control signal, indicative of a desired displacement of the pump; and a winch control device coupled to the actuator assembly to control the winding and unwinding of the cable and configured to determine the first control signal and/or the second control signal according to a measured speed of travel signal indicating the measured speed of travel of the tracked vehicle, a measured pulling force signal indicating the pulling force measured on the winch assembly, and one or more signals selected from the following group of signals: cable speed signal, wound cable length signal, desired pulling force signal set manually by an operator, signal from the measured angle of the arm of the winch assembly with respect to a direction of travel, and measured pressure signal indicative of a pressure measured in a high pressure branch of the hydraulic circuit of the actuator assembly.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A winch assembly comprising:
a support structure;
a drum revolvable with respect to the support structure about an axis;
a cable wound around the drum;
an actuator assembly coupled to the drum and configured to receive at least one of a first control signal indicative of a desired pressure of a variable displacement pump of the actuator assembly and a second control signal indicative of a desired displacement of the variable displacement pump of the actuator assembly; and
a winch control device coupled to the actuator assembly to control a winding and an unwinding of the cable and configured to provide at least one of the first control signal and the second control signal, wherein the winch control device is configured to determine at least one of the first control signal and the second control signal based on a measured speed of travel signal indicating a measured speed of travel of a tracked vehicle, a calculated pulling force signal indicating a pulling force on the winch assembly, a wound cable length signal, and at least one of a value of a pressure of at least one pump of at least one track of the tracked vehicle and a value of a pressure difference between two pumps of two tracks of the tracked vehicle.

2. The winch assembly of claim 1 , wherein the winch control device comprises:
a frequency-adjustable active filter, and
an oscillation detector configured to receive, as an input, the calculated pulling force signal and provide, as an output, at least one frequency value if an oscillation in the calculated pulling force signal is detected, wherein the frequency-adjustable active filter is frequency-adjusted based on at least one frequency detected by the oscillation detector to dampen the oscillations in the pulling force; wherein the winch control device is configured to determine at least one of the first control signal and the second control signal by the frequency-adjustable active filter.

3. The winch assembly of claim 2 , wherein the oscillation detector is configured to detect oscillations by detection of the frequencies related to harmonics having amplitude values greater than a designated value.

4. The winch assembly of claim 1 , wherein the winch control device is configured to determine the first control signal based on at least one of a measured angle signal of a measured angle of an arm of the winch assembly with respect to a direction of travel, a cable speed signal, the wound cable length signal, the measured speed of travel signal, the calculated pulling force signal and a desired pulling force signal.

5. The winch assembly of claim 1 , wherein the winch control device is configured to determine the first control signal based on at least one of a value of at least one pressure of at least one pump which supplies a track of the tracked vehicle and a track pressure signal indicative of a pressure difference between a first hydraulic circuit supplying a first track of the tracked vehicle and a second hydraulic circuit supplying a second track of the tracked vehicle.

6. The winch assembly of claim 1 , wherein the winch control device is configured to determine the second control signal based on at least one of the signal from a measured angle signal of a measured angle of an arm of the winch assembly with respect to a direction of travel, a cable speed signal, the wound cable length signal, the desired force signal, the calculated pulling force, the measured speed of travel signal, and a measured pressure signal indicative of a pressure measured in a high pressure branch of a hydraulic circuit of the actuator assembly.

7. The winch assembly of claim 1 , wherein the winch control device is configured to determine the second control signal based on at least one of an engine revolution signal and a track pressure signal.

8. The winch assembly of claim 1 , wherein the winch control device is configured to determine the second control signal based on a desired theoretical force signal and the winch control device is configured to calculate the desired theoretical force signal based on at least one of a measured angle signal of a measured angle of an arm of the winch assembly with respect to a direction of travel, a cable speed signal, a desired pulling force signal, a track pressure signal, and the measured speed of travel signal.

9. The winch assembly of claim 1 , wherein the variable displacement pump of the actuator assembly is configured to supply the hydraulic circuit of the actuator assembly and is configured to vary a displacement based on a pressure of at least one of a pressure in the high pressure branch of the hydraulic circuit of the actuator assembly, and a pressure indicated by the first control signal.

10. The winch assembly of claim 9 , wherein the variable displacement pump is configured to vary the displacement based on the second control signal.

11. The winch assembly of claim 9 , wherein the actuator assembly comprises a variable displacement motor coupled to the hydraulic circuit of the actuator assembly and configured to be supplied by the variable displacement pump by the hydraulic circuit, wherein the variable displacement motor is configured to vary the displacement based on the pressure detected in the high pressure branch of the hydraulic circuit.

12. The winch assembly of claim 1 , wherein a desired pulling force signal is configured to be set manually by an operator.

13. The winch assembly of claim 1 , wherein the winch control device is configured to determine at least one of the first control signal and the second control signal further based on at least one of: a cable speed signal, a desired pulling force signal, a measured angle signal of a measured angle of an arm of the winch assembly with respect to a direction of travel, and a measured pressure signal indicative of a pressure measured in a high pressure branch of a hydraulic circuit of the actuator assembly.

14. A winch assembly comprising:
a support structure;
a drum revolvable with respect to the support structure about an axis;
a cable wound around the drum;
an actuator assembly coupled to the drum and configured to receive at least one of a first control signal indicative of a desired pressure of a variable displacement pump of the actuator assembly and a second control signal indicative of a desired displacement of the variable displacement pump of the actuator assembly; and
a winch control device coupled to the actuator assembly to control a winding and an unwinding of the cable and configured to provide at least one of the first control signal and the second control signal, wherein the winch control device is configured to determine at least one of the first control signal and the second control signal based on at least one of a value of a pressure of at least one pump of at least one track of the tracked vehicle, and a value of a pressure difference between two pumps of two tracks of the tracked vehicle, and further determine at least one of the first control signal and the second control signal based on a measured speed of travel signal indicating a measured speed of travel of a tracked vehicle, a calculated pulling force signal indicating a pulling force on the winch assembly, and at least one signal of a cable speed signal, a wound cable length signal, a desired pulling force signal, a measured angle signal of a measured angle of an arm of the winch assembly with respect to a direction of travel, and a measured pressure signal indicative of a pressure measured in a high pressure branch of a hydraulic circuit of the actuator assembly.

15. A winch assembly comprising:
a support stru

Assignees

• Prinoth Spa

Inventors

• Paoletti Alberto

Classifications

• B66D1/08 Primary

  incorporating fluid motors · CPC title

• B66D1/48 Primary

  automatic · CPC title

• B66D1/485 Primary

  electrical · CPC title

• B66D1/7442

  having a horizontal rotation axis · CPC title

• E01H4/02

  for sporting purposes, e.g. preparation of ski trails; {Construction of artificial surfacings for snow or ice sports (construction of ice skating rinks E01C13/102); Trails specially adapted for on-the-snow vehicles}, e.g. devices adapted for ski-trails (production of snow or ice for winter sports or similar recreational purposes F25C3/00) · CPC title