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US-20260125980-A1 - STEERING CONTROL DEVICE OF SHIELD TBM AND STEERING CONTROL METHOD USING THE SAME

US20260125980A1US 20260125980 A1US20260125980 A1US 20260125980A1US-20260125980-A1

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a steering controller of a shield tunnel boring machine (TBM) and a steering control method using the same. To this end, the steering controller of the shield TBM individually controls operating lengths of articulation jacks, which are provided between a front shield having a cutter head and a middle shield and are radially spaced at equal intervals along a pre-designed excavation path. The method comprises: extracting reference point coordinates of the cutter head at a current point and reference point coordinates of the cutter head at a target point according to one cycle operation of shield jacks; calculating the operating lengths of each articulation jack as continuous real number values based on the reference point coordinates at the current point and the reference point coordinates at the target point; and simultaneously operating each articulation jack according to the calculated operating lengths.

Inventors

  • Soo-ho CHANG
  • Soon-Wook CHOI
  • Tae-Ho Kang
  • Chulho Lee

Assignees

  • KOREA INSTITUTE OF CIVIL ENGINEERING AND BUILDING TECHNOLOGY

Dates

Publication Date
20260507
Application Date
20250828
Priority Date
20241104

Claims (10)

  1. 1 . A steering control method CM using a steering controller SC of a shield tunnel boring machine (TBM), in which a steering controller SC of the shield TBM individually controls operating lengths l of at least four articulation jacks 3 , the at least four articulation jacks 3 being provided between a front shield 1 having a cutter head 1 a and a middle shield 2 along an excavation path and radially spaced at equal intervals, the method comprising: extracting, by the steering controller SC, a reference point coordinate T c of the cutter head 1 a at a current point and a reference point coordinate T t of the cutter head 1 a at a target point according to one cycle operation of a shield jack 4 (S 10 ); calculating, by the steering controller SC, the operating lengths l of each articulation jack 3 as continuous real number values based on the reference point coordinate T c at the current point and the reference point coordinate T t at the target point using an artificial intelligence calculation model (S 20 ); and simultaneously operating, by the steering controller SC, the articulation jacks 3 based on the calculated operating lengths l (S 40 ).
  2. 2 . The steering control method CM using the steering controller SC of a shield TBM according to claim 1 , further comprising: receiving, by the steering controller SC, coordinates according to a pre-designed path of a three-dimensional tunnel (S 00 ).
  3. 3 . The steering control method CM using the steering controller SC of a shield TBM according to claim 1 , wherein the artificial intelligence calculation model is configured to calculate the operating lengths l of each articulation jack 3 within an operating range by receiving a diameter D of the cutter head 1 a and articulation angles α and β based on reference point coordinates T c and T t of a current point and a target point as inputs.
  4. 4 . The steering control method CM using the steering controller SC of a shield TBM according to claim 3 , wherein the artificial intelligence calculation model, which is a prediction model using a repetitive loop, comprises: generating a random number for an operating length l within an operating range of each articulation jack 3 (S 21 A); calculating articulation angles α cal and β cal corresponding to the operating length l of each articulation jack 3 based on the generated random number (S 22 A); comparing the calculated articulation angles α cal and β cal with articulation angles α in and β in based on reference point coordinates T c and T t of a current point and a target point (S 23 A); and extracting the generated random number as a valid operating length l of each articulation jack 3 when the calculated articulation angles α cal and β cal are within an error range, and returning to the step S 21 A of generating a new random number when the angles are outside the error range (S 24 A).
  5. 5 . The steering control method CM using the steering controller SC of a shield TBM according to claim 4 , wherein the step S 21 A of generating the random number partially limits a generation range of the random number based on a valid operating length l of each articulation jack 3 extracted in a previous cycle.
  6. 6 . The steering control method CM using the steering controller SC of a shield TBM according to claim 3 , wherein the artificial intelligence calculation model is a machine learning model for regression calculation generated by training a dataset including a diameter D and articulation angles α and β as input variables and an operating length l as an output variable.
  7. 7 . The steering control method CM using the steering controller SC of a shield TBM according to claim 3 , further comprising: outputting, by the steering controller SC, the calculated operating lengths l of each articulation jack 3 to a display (S 25 ).
  8. 8 . The steering control method CM using the steering controller SC of a shield TBM according to claim 3 , further comprising: verifying, by the steering controller SC, whether to operate by comparing a predicted reference point coordinate T p of the cutter head 1 a , which is expected when each articulation jack 3 operates based on the calculated operating length l, with a reference point coordinate T t of a target point (S 30 ).
  9. 9 . A steering controller SC of a shield tunnel boring machine (TBM), comprising: a memory in which an application program is stored to provide a steering control method for individually controlling operating lengths l of at least four articulation jacks 3 provided between a front shield 1 having a cutter head 1 a and a middle shield 2 along an excavation path and radially spaced apart at equal intervals; and a processor configured to execute the application program stored in the memory, wherein the processor, upon execution of the application program, extracts a reference point coordinate T c of a cutter head 1 a at a current point and a reference point coordinate T t of the cutter head 1 a at a target point according to one cycle of operation of a shield jack 4 , calculates, using an artificial intelligence calculation model, the operating length l of each articulation jack 3 as a continuous real number value based on the reference point coordinate T c of the current point and the reference point coordinate T t of the target point, verifies whether to operate by comparing a reference point coordinate T p of the cutter head 1 a predicted when each articulation jack 3 operate according to the calculated operating lengths l with the reference point coordinate T t of the target point, and simultaneously operates each articulation jack 3 according to the calculated operating lengths l.
  10. 10 . The steering controller SC of a shield TBM according to claim 9 , wherein the four articulation jacks 3 are arranged spaced apart around a rotation pin located at the center of the shield, and the sum of the operating lengths l u and l d of an upper articulation jack and a lower articulation jack, and the sum of the operating lengths l l and l r of a left articulation jack and a right articulation jack are always controlled to remain constant.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C § 119 to Korean Patent Application No. 10-2024-0154565 filed on Nov. 4, 2024, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference. TECHNICAL FIELD The present disclosure relates to a steering controller of a shield tunnel boring machine (TBM) and a steering control method using the same, and more particularly, to a steering controller of a shield TBM and a steering control method using the same, in which the steering controller calculates the operating length of each articulation jack based on reference point coordinates of a current point and reference point coordinates of a target point by using an artificial intelligence calculation model, and simultaneously operates each articulation jack according to the calculated operating length, thereby ensuring accuracy even in curved excavation. BACKGROUND Unlike the New Austrian Tunneling Method (NATM) method using blasting, the shield TBM method is a construction method in which a cylindrical shield machine is introduced into a temporary working shaft, the cutter head mounted at the front is rotated to excavate the tunnel face, and segment rings are simultaneously assembled inside to achieve early ground stabilization and high quality. As illustrated in FIG. 1A, the cylindrical shield machine includes a front shield and a middle shield for excavation, as well as shield jacks and articulation jacks that connect the shields. The shield jacks directly or indirectly operate the front shield and are used in the case of straight or nearly straight excavation, and move the cutter head forward by a depth corresponding to the width of the segment ring during the excavation process. Meanwhile, when the tunnel alignment includes straight and sharply curved sections, articulation jacks located between the front shield and the middle shield are used along with the shield jacks. In this case, the articulation jacks are first adjusted to correspond to a predetermined articulation angle, and then the shield jacks are extended to perform the excavation. Also, as illustrated in FIG. 1B, depending on the position of the articulation point by the articulation jack, the articulation system is classified into a V-type and an X-type. (a) In the X-type, a rotation pin is located at the articulation point to connect the front shield and the middle shield, so the articulation angle is small, but it is advantageous in articulation sealing and waterproofing. (b) In the V-type, since the articulation point is located on a shield skin plate, the articulation angle is large, but it has the disadvantage of being difficult to prevent the inflow of excavated soil and water. Korean Patent Application Publication No. 10-2022-0033323, entitled “TBM Operation System” (published on Mar. 16, 2022, hereinafter referred to as “prior art document”), is intended to monitor and control the state of a TBM in real time, and discloses a technical configuration in which, when a user inputs an operation signal for the TBM via an operation panel including a controller, a control part controls the TBM according to the input operation signal, and a display part outputs the state of the TBM. However, in the prior art including the prior art document, the conventional TBM controller has a drawback in that accurate excavation is difficult depending on the user's proficiency, since the user directly controls the rotation of the cutter and the operation of the main jacks and articulation jacks. More importantly, in curved excavation, there is a difficulty in that excavation must follow a three-dimensional curve having curvature not only in an x-y plane but also in a z-axis direction. In addition, the articulation jacks provided between the shields are arranged in plurality along the circumference of the shield, and must be contracted or extended in different lengths and directions for each articulation jack. Accordingly, when the user directly controls the system through manual judgment, errors are inevitably generated due to such limitations. In particular, the conventional TBM controller focuses on a measurement system using a gyroscope, an accelerometer, and a magnetometer for directional control, and it has been recognized as impossible to mathematically calculate a multi-solution problem caused by the complex operation of the articulation jacks and the shield jacks. Furthermore, as illustrated in FIG. 2, even when a user performs accurate operation control, there is a limitation in that pitch, yaw, and roll rotations inevitably occur during the forward movement of the TBM due to ground characteristics and the weight of the machine. Therefore, even if a skilled user controls the TBM based on given drawing information, accurate excavation is difficult due to real-time errors that occur, and this problem is more serious in the case of curved excavation. PRIOR ART DOCUMENTS