METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLING WORKING UNITS OF POWER SHOVEL

摘要

This invention relates to a technique of automatic excavation by a power shovel. An ideal reference movement orbit of a bucket blade tip is approximated at a plurality of points and the positions of these points and the bucket posture at these points are set in advance. When automatic excavation start is designated by an operation pedal (10) or the like, a bucket blade tip position at this designated point is set as an excavation start point and, the positions of these points with respect to a vehicle, set on the basis of this excavation start position, are calculated for individual excavation zones divided by the plurality of points. The angle of rotation of each working unit necessary for the bucket blade tip to he moved to the position thus calculated and the bucket to assume the set bucket posture is calculated for each excavation zone. Each working unit is driven automatically using the calculated angle of rotation as a target angle of rotation for each excavation zone. In this manner, the bucket, arms and booms are controlled fully automatically so that the bucket blade tip moves along the set ideal reference movement orbit and the bucket assumes the set ideal posture to improve efficiency of work through simple operations. After excavation, the bucket is driven automatically in such a manner as to keep it always horizontal in accordance with the manual operation of the arms and booms and the chance of dropping cargoes can be reduced.