Caterpillar Inc.

United Technologies Corporation

Gas Research Institute

Stephen K Phelps

Robert Roy Sychra

Martin F Zabielski

Frederick T Olender

Joseph DiTucci

Shawn C Passwater

The present invention provides a method and apparatus for determining the cross slope created by a work implement on a work machine operating in an articulated or non-articulated manner. The method includes the steps of determining a position of the work implement, determining a direction of travel of the machine, and responsively determining the cross slope.

Method and apparatus for determining a cross slope of a surface

The present invention provides a method and apparatus for determining the cross slope created by a work implement on an earth moving machine. The method includes the steps of determining a position of the work implement, determining a direction of travel of the machine, and responsively determining the cross slope.

The present invention pertains to an inclination sensor construction that is capable of determining the pitch and roll of a machine or machine implement. Moreover, the present invention may be employed to detect the pitch and roll of a blade of a motor grader or bulldozer. The invention is directed to a method of detecting the native inaccuracy of an inclination sensor and providing compensation values to correct for errors in the sensor output, and to an inclination sensor construction that makes use of such compensation values to produce highly accurate inclination sensor construction outputs, and contemplates the inclusion in the inclination sensor construction of a microprocessor that has stored therein compensation values that are utilized during operation of the inclination sensor construction to correct the native outputs of individual transducers to take into account recognized inaccuracies of such native outputs relative to actual inclination values. Thus, there is provided an inclination sensor construction that has the capability to correct native output values from component transducers with compensating offset values for errors that may be due to misalignment, skewing, and so forth.

Inclination sensor and method of measuring the accuracy thereof

A fail safe gas furnace optical flame sensor uses a transconductance amplifier with low photodiode current to sense the presence or absence of a gas flame within the burner of a gas furnace. The photodiode signal appears as the only negative voltage signal in the circuit, and the equivalent resistance feedback network is redundantly designed, thus ensuring that no false flame-on conditions will be detected due to the failure of a single resistive component. Because it does not reside within the flame, the sensor is immune to false flame-off conditions caused by material deposition and corrosion of the sensor.

Fail safe gas furnace optical flame sensor using a transconductance

An earth moving or construction equipment implement control system is disclosed. The control system includes a fuzzy logic controller that is connected to an electro-hydraulic valve. An implement position sensing system senses the height of the implement. A set point is compared to the implement position to produce an implement position error signal which is an input to the fuzzy logic controller.

Apparatus and method for control of an earth moving implement

A light detection apparatus includes a light detector using a photoelectric converter such as a photodiode. The light detector has a selective viewport that limits the field of view observed by the photoelectric converter. The photoelectric converter generates a current signal based on the light received through the selective viewport. Using current-mode amplification, a current amplifier generates an amplified current signal based on the current signal received from the photoelectric converter. A switch coupled to receive the amplified current signal from the current amplifier, generates an output signal based on the amplified current signal. The switch can be implemented to generate the output signal with predetermined logic levels compatible with a desired logic family.

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Chillicothe, IL, United States of America

Stephen K Phelps