CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATIONS

The present application claims benefit of and priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) to, and is a Non-provisional of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/760,283, filed Nov. 13, 2018, entitled “Self-Discovery Mechanism, Scripting Language, and Optimization for Mining and Construction Applications.”

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERAL SPONSORSHIP

No part of this invention was a result of any federally sponsored research.

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates in general to autonomous systems, and, more specifically, to a self-discovery mechanism, scripting language and optimization for mining and construction applications.

COPYRIGHT AND TRADEMARK NOTICE

A portion of the disclosure of this patent application may contain material that is subject to copyright protection. The owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrights whatsoever.

Certain marks referenced herein may be common law or registered trademarks of third parties affiliated or unaffiliated with the applicant or the assignee. Use of these marks is by way of example and should not be construed as descriptive or to limit the scope of this invention to material associated only with such marks.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Mines and construction sites are prime applications for automation. The sites are relatively structured, and many of the applications cause accidents to operators from a variety of risks. However, relatively small amount of automation has been accomplished for some tasks in the mine. For example, lots of efforts have concentrated in excavators and self-driving trucks while other areas have been relatively ignored. Most of these attempts are either operator aids (most products currently available with excavators) and are designed to automate a single machine at a time. The reality of a mine or construction site is that there is a whole ecosystem of different specialized machinery that is specifically designed to perform particular tasks that are currently coordinated using human help. Although there are a number of large commercial vendors that provide a variety of machinery, it is common to have equipment from several manufacturers on a single site in particular for large operations where machine specialization is important to maximize efficiency. Autonomous coordination of machines from a single vendor are very limited and coordination between machines across different vendors is non-existent.

The invention is composed of a protocol that allows multiple machines to be coordinated from a single application. The invention is composed of a scripting language that allows the operator to select behaviors from each machine to create a cooperative behavior that can be implemented across different types of machines and different vendors. Part of the protocol includes a mechanism that allows each machine (even from different vendors) to provide a set of behavior and sensor blocks that the particular machine can perform. For example, an excavator equipped with a drive-by wire kit may have behavior blocks that allow it to move each of its actuators. A more sophisticated excavator may have behavior blocks that combine multiple actuators to create more complex maneuvers, for example, dig up a scoop of dirt. An even more sophisticated excavator may have a behavior block that allows it to automatically reposition avoiding obstacles, etc. These complex machines not only have behaviors, but they also have sensors. Simple sensors include pressures, temperature, etc. More advanced sensing behaviors may include the determination of dynamic flip areas, or pedestrian detection. These sensors or perception sensor combinations are also combined into sensor blocks. In order for our invention to work, the machine vendors need to agree to provide these blocks, or aftermarket wrappers that provide the blocks and execution capabilities are made available.

The invention provides what in classical control is called a coordination layer between the machines (4D-RCS). This coordination layer is currently provided by humans as machines only interact with each other in the physical world, but there is no infrastructure to have them coordinated from an autonomous control standpoint.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

To minimize the limitations in the prior art, and to minimize other limitations that will be apparent upon reading and understanding the present specification, the present invention describes a self-discovery mechanism, scripting language and optimization for mining and construction applications.

These and other advantages and features of the present invention are described herein with specificity so as to make the present invention understandable to one of ordinary skill in the art, both with respect to how to practice the present invention and how to make the present invention.

