US-12618223-B1 - Autonomous control of powered earth-moving vehicles to rectify vehicle slippage

US12618223B1US 12618223 B1US12618223 B1US 12618223B1US-12618223-B1

Abstract

Systems and techniques are described for implementing autonomous control of powered earth-moving vehicles, including to automatically control movement of some or all of a powered earth-moving vehicle on a job site to conform with specified safety configuration data, such as to implement balancing of the vehicle(s) on non-level surfaces. For example, the safety configuration data may be used to move hydraulic arm(s) and/or attachment(s) of a vehicle while it is on a slope to prevent tipping or sliding, or to otherwise prevent moveable parts of a powered earth-moving vehicle (e.g., a rotatable chassis with a cabin; a tool attachment, such as a digging bucket, claw, hammer, blade, etc.; one or more hydraulic arms; etc.) from entering positions in three-dimensional (“3D”) space that are already occupied by other portions of the powered earth-moving vehicle (e.g., the chassis, tracks or wheels, etc.) and/or by other on-site obstacles.

Inventors

Kirk Roerig
Devin LU
Jonathan D. Hurwitz

Assignees

AIM Intelligent Machines, Inc.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260505
Application Date: 20240710

Claims (19)

1 . An autonomous vehicle operations system, comprising: a bulldozer vehicle with a chassis, tracks, a blade tool attachment on a front of the chassis, a ripper tool attachment on a rear of the chassis, one or more first hydraulic arms between the chassis and the blade tool attachment, one or more second hydraulic arms between the chassis and the ripper tool attachment, one or more first controls for manipulating movement of the tracks, and one or more second controls for manipulating the blade tool attachment via the one or more first hydraulic arms and the ripper tool attachment via the one or more second hydraulic arms; a microcontroller unit on the bulldozer vehicle that is capable of effecting movement of the first and second controls via piston displacement mechanisms; one or more first position sensors mounted on at least one of the one or more first hydraulic arms that are capable of detecting a first angle between the at least one first hydraulic arm and the chassis; a second position sensor mounted on the blade tool attachment that is capable of detecting a second angle between the at least one first hydraulic arm and the blade tool attachment; one or more GPS antennas mounted at one or more positions on the chassis and capable of receiving GPS signals for use in determining GPS coordinates of at least some of the chassis; and a control system on the bulldozer vehicle that is configured to be in communication with the microcontroller unit and to perform automated operations including: determining, while the blade tool attachment is being used to push material as the bulldozer vehicle moves forward in response to manipulation of at least one of the first controls, a first position of the blade tool attachment relative to the chassis, wherein the first position is determined based at least in part on at least one detected first angle from the one or more first position sensors and on at least one detected second angle from the second position sensor; determining that a front portion of the tracks is moving upward relative to an underlying surface based at least in part on the first position of the blade tool attachment relative to the chassis changing by at least a threshold amount without use of the one or more first hydraulic arms to raise or lower the blade tool attachment; and initiating, in response to the determining that the front portion of the tracks is moving upward relative to the underlying surface, autonomous operations of the bulldozer vehicle to perform terrain loosening operations before further using the blade tool attachment to push additional materials, including using the one or more first controls to control motion of the bulldozer vehicle between first and second locations while using at least one of the second controls to lower the ripper tool attachment into the underlying surface to loosen materials of the underlying surface during the controlled motion.
2 . The autonomous vehicle operations system of claim 1 wherein the bulldozer vehicle is at a third location at a time of the determining that the front portion of the tracks is moving upward relative to the underlying surface, and wherein controlled motion between the first and second locations includes passing over the third location.
3 . The autonomous vehicle operations system of claim 2 wherein the bulldozer vehicle is on a job site, and wherein the automated operations further include determining a subset of the job site on which to perform terrain loosening, and selecting the first and second locations to have an intervening area that includes the third location and that is at least some of the determined subset.
4 . The autonomous vehicle operations system of claim 1 wherein the initiating of the autonomous operations further includes, before controlling of the motion of the bulldozer vehicle between the first and the second locations, returning the front portion of the tracks to the underlying surface by performing at least one of using the second controls to raise the blade tool attachment, or using the first controls to move the bulldozer vehicle backwards.
5 . The autonomous vehicle operations system of claim 1 wherein the one or more first position sensors include a first inclinometer and the second position sensor is a second inclinometer, wherein the determining of the first position of the blade tool attachment relative to the chassis is an angular difference determined between the first position of the blade tool attachment relative to the chassis using the first and second inclinometers, and wherein the determining that the front portion of the tracks is moving upward relative to the underlying surface is based at least in part on the determined angular difference increasing without the blade tool attachment being lowered or raised.
6 . The autonomous vehicle operations system of claim 5 further comprising one or more third inclinometers mounted on at least one of the one or more second hydraulic arms that are capable of detecting a third angle between the at least one second hydraulic arm and the chassis, and wherein the using of the at least one second control to lower the ripper tool attachment into the underlying surface includes using angular position information for the ripper tool attachment from the one or more third inclinometers.
7 . The autonomous vehicle operations system of claim 1 wherein the automated operations include monitoring the first position of the blade tool attachment relative to the chassis during pushing of the material, and controlling a height of the blade tool attachment via the one or more first hydraulic arms before the determining that the front portion of the tracks is moving upward relative to the underlying surface.
8 . The autonomous vehicle operations system of claim 1 wherein the blade tool attachment is maintained at a substantially constant height during pushing of the material, wherein the automated operations include monitoring a height of a selected portion of the chassis above the underlying surface during the pushing of the material, and wherein the determining of the first position of the blade tool attachment relative to the chassis during pushing of the material is based at least in part on the monitored height and the maintained substantially constant height, the monitoring of the height of the selected portion of the chassis above the underlying surface being based on at least one of analyzing a plurality of three-dimensional (“3D”) points on surfaces of at least some of an area around the bulldozer vehicle from one or more LiDAR components that are mounted on the bulldozer vehicle, or of analyzing visual data of one or more images from one or more cameras that are mounted on the bulldozer vehicle.
9 . The autonomous vehicle operations system of claim 1 wherein the determining that the front portion of the tracks is moving upward relative to the underlying surface includes receiving an indication of upward movement corresponding to vehicle pitch tilting from a machine learning model that is trained to detect vehicle pitch tilting and that receives inputs including at least readings from the first and second position sensors.
10 . The autonomous vehicle operations system of claim 1 wherein the control system is configured to implement at least some automated operations of an earth-moving vehicle autonomous operations control system by executing software instructions of the earth-moving vehicle autonomous operations control system, and wherein the determining of the first position of the blade tool attachment relative to the chassis and the determining that the front portion of the tracks is moving upward relative to the underlying surface and the initiating of the autonomous operations are performed autonomously without receiving human input and without receiving external signals other than GPS signals and real-time kinematic (RTK) correction signals.
11 . A computer-implemented method, comprising: determining, by one or more configured hardware processors, positions of a chassis of a powered earth-moving vehicle relative to an underlying surface of a job site at multiple times based at least in part on data from one or more sensors mounted on the powered earth-moving vehicle, wherein the powered earth-moving vehicle includes the chassis and a front tool attachment and a rear tool attachment and one or more first controls for motion of the chassis and one or more second controls to manipulate the front and rear tool attachments; determining, by the one or more configured hardware processors and based at least in part on the determined positions of the chassis, that the powered earth-moving vehicle is experiencing pitch tilting during use of at least one of the front tool attachment or the rear tool attachment to move materials; and initiating, by the one or more configured hardware processors and in response to the determining that the powered earth-moving vehicle is experiencing pitch tilting, autonomous operations of the powered earth-moving vehicle to temporarily halt moving of the materials while using the one or more first controls to control motion of the powered earth-moving vehicle between first and second locations and using the one or more second controls to lower at least one of the front and rear tool attachments into the underlying surface to loosen the underlying surface during the controlled motion.
12 . The computer-implemented method of claim 11 wherein the powered earth-moving vehicle is a bulldozer with left and rear tracks, wherein the rear tool attachment is a ripper tool, wherein the front tool attachment is a blade tool, and wherein the initiating of the autonomous operations includes performing terrain loosening operations.
13 . The computer-implemented method of claim 11 , wherein the powered earth-moving vehicle further has one or more first hydraulic arms between the chassis and the front tool attachment, and one or more first position sensors mounted on at least one of the first hydraulic arms that are capable of detecting a first angle between the at least one first hydraulic arm and the chassis, and an additional second position sensor mounted on the front tool attachment that is capable of detecting a second angle between the at least one first hydraulic arm and the front tool attachment, wherein the determining of the positions of the chassis of the powered earth-moving vehicle relative to the underlying surface includes using information about a position of the front tool attachment relative to the underlying surface and using readings from the additional second position sensor and at least one of the first position sensors to determine an angular difference between the position of the front tool attachment and an additional position of the chassis, and wherein the determining that the powered earth-moving vehicle is experiencing pitch tilting includes determining that a front portion of at least one of vehicle tracks or vehicle wheels is moving upward relative to the underlying surface based at least in part on the determined positions of the chassis changing by at least a threshold amount without use of the first hydraulic arms to raise or lower the front tool attachment.
14 . The computer-implemented method of claim 13 wherein the use of the at least one of the front tool attachment or the rear tool attachment to move the materials includes pushing of the material during motion of the chassis, wherein the one or more first position sensors include a first inclinometer and the additional second position sensor is a second inclinometer, and wherein the method further comprises monitoring a position of the front tool attachment relative to the chassis during the pushing of the material, and controlling a height of the front tool attachment via the one or more first hydraulic arms before the determining that the front portion of the at least one of vehicle tracks or vehicle wheels is moving upward relative to the underlying surface.
15 . The computer-implemented method of claim 11 further comprising monitoring a height of a selected portion of the chassis above the underlying surface during the use of the at least one of the front tool attachment or the rear tool attachment to move the materials, and wherein the determining that the powered earth-moving vehicle is experiencing pitch tilting is based at least in part on the monitored height, the monitoring of the height of the selected portion of the chassis above the underlying surface being based on at least one of analyzing a plurality of three-dimensional (“3D”) points on surfaces of at least some of an area around the powered earth-moving vehicle from one or more LiDAR components that are mounted on the powered earth-moving vehicle, or of analyzing visual data of one or more images from one or more cameras that are mounted on the powered earth-moving vehicle.
16 . The computer-implemented method of claim 11 wherein the powered earth-moving vehicle is at a third location at a time of the determining that the powered earth-moving vehicle is experiencing pitch tilting, and wherein the method further comprises determining a subset of the job site on which to perform terrain loosening, and selecting the first and second locations to have an intervening area that includes the third location and that is at least some of the determined subset.
17 . The computer-implemented method of claim 11 wherein the powered earth-moving vehicle includes at least one of wheels or tracks, wherein the determining that the powered earth-moving vehicle is experiencing pitch tilting includes one of a front portion or a rear portion of the at least one of the wheels or tracks not resting fully on the underlying surface, and wherein the initiating of the autonomous operations further includes, before controlling of the motion of the powered earth-moving vehicle between the first and the second locations, returning the one of the front portion or the rear portion of the at least one of the wheels or tracks to rest fully on the underlying surface by performing at least one of using the second controls to raise at least one of the front or rear tool attachments, or using the first controls to move the powered earth-moving vehicle forwards or backwards.
18 . The computer-implemented method of claim 11 wherein at least one of the one or more hardware processors is a low-voltage microcontroller that is located on the powered earth-moving vehicle and is configured to implement at least some automated operations of an earth-moving vehicle autonomous operations control system by executing software instructions of the earth-moving vehicle autonomous operations control system, and wherein the determining of the positions of the chassis and the determining that the powered earth-moving vehicle is experiencing pitch tilting and the initiating of the autonomous operations are performed autonomously without receiving human input and without receiving external signals other than GPS signals and real-time kinematic (RTK) correction signals.
19 . The computer-implemented method of claim 11 wherein the powered earth-moving vehicle is one of a bulldozer vehicle or a wheel loader vehicle or a track loader vehicle or a skid steer loader vehicle or a motorized grader vehicle or a farm tractor vehicle or an excavator vehicle.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/541,421, filed Sep. 29, 2023 and entitled “Autonomous Control Of Powered Earth-Moving Construction Or Mining Vehicles To Rectify Vehicle Slippage”, and of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/532,031, filed Aug. 10, 2023 and entitled “Autonomous Control Of Powered Earth-Moving Construction Or Mining Vehicles To Inhibit Vehicle Slippage”, each of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. TECHNICAL FIELD The following disclosure relates generally to systems and techniques for autonomous control of powered earth-moving vehicles, such as to determine and implement autonomous operations of one or more powered earth-moving mining and/or construction vehicles on a site that include controlling movement of one or more tool attachments of the vehicle(s) to halt or otherwise inhibit slippage during vehicle earth-moving operations related to vehicle pitch tilting, such as during pushing or leveling or digging operations. BACKGROUND Earth-moving construction vehicles (e.g., loaders, excavators, bulldozers, deep sea machinery, extra-terrestrial machinery, etc.) may be used on a job site to move soil and other materials (e.g., gravel, rocks, asphalt, etc.) and to perform other operations, and are each typically operated by a human operator (e.g., a human user present inside a cabin of the construction vehicle, a human user at a location separate from the construction vehicle but performing interactive remote control of the construction vehicle, etc.). Similarly, earth-moving mining vehicles may be used to extract or otherwise move soil and other materials (e.g., gravel, rocks, asphalt, etc.) and to perform other operations, and are each typically operated by a human operator (e.g., a human user present inside a cabin of the mining vehicle, a human user at a location separate from the mining vehicle but performing interactive remote control of the mining vehicle, etc.). Limited fully autonomous operations (e.g., performed under automated programmatic control without human user interaction or intervention) of some construction and mining vehicles have occasionally been used, but existing techniques suffer from a number of problems, including the use of limited types of sensed data, an inability to perform fully autonomous operations when faced with on-site obstacles, an inability to coordinate autonomous operations between multiple on-site construction and/or mining vehicles, requirements for bulky and expensive hardware systems to support the limited autonomous operations, etc. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1A is a network diagram illustrating an example embodiment of using described systems and techniques to determine and implement autonomous operations of one or more powered earth-moving vehicles on a site using data gathered by on-vehicle sensors and to conform with specified safety configuration data, including to perform automated operations to halt or otherwise inhibit slippage during vehicle earth-moving operations related to vehicle pitch tilting, such as during pushing or leveling or digging operations. FIG. 1B is a diagram illustrating example components and interactions used to implement autonomous operations of one or more powered earth-moving vehicles on a site. FIGS. 2A-2P illustrate examples of powered earth-moving construction and/or mining vehicles having an on-vehicle autonomous operations control system and multiple types of on-vehicle data sensors positioned to support autonomous operations on a site. FIG. 2Q illustrates an example of a powered earth-moving military and/or police vehicle having an on-vehicle autonomous operations control system and multiple types of on-vehicle data sensors positioned to support autonomous operations. FIGS. 2R-2U illustrate examples of autonomous operations and associated data used for controlling movement of some or all of a powered earth-moving vehicle in accordance with specified safety configuration data, including to perform automated operations to halt or otherwise inhibit slippage during vehicle earth-moving operations related to vehicle pitch tilting, such as during pushing or leveling or digging operations. FIG. 3 is an example flow diagram of an illustrated embodiment of an Earth-Moving Vehicle Autonomous Operations Control (EMVAOC) System routine. FIGS. 4A-4C are an example flow diagram of an illustrated embodiment of an EMVAOC Operations Planner And Implementation module routine. DETAILED DESCRIPTION Systems and techniques are described for implementing autonomous control of operations of powered earth-moving vehicles (e.g., construction and/or mining vehicles) on a site, including to automatically control movement of hydraulic arm(s) and/or of tool attachment(s) and/or of other vehicle parts (e.g., wheels or tracks, a rotatable chassis, etc.) of one or more powered earth-moving vehicles on a job site to ha