Niigata Engineering Co., Ltd.

Nippon Hodo Co., Ltd.

The Nippon Road Company Limited

Tomohiro Gocho

Fumio Goto

Tetsuo Ogawa

Akio Ishii

Yukio Takagi

Hidenori Yasu

Ryoei Umeda

Noriaki Miyamoto

Hachiro Ikeda

Yasuhiro Ogoshi

Keitaro Hironaka

Yoshun Hasegawa

Shoji Kinoshita

Yukiei Masuyama

Mitsuo Fukukawa

Masaaki Saito

Makio Fujita

Ichiro Miyazaki

Yoshihiro Sasa

Narimasa Yamabe

An automatic steering device is presented for controlling the direction of travel of an asphalt finisher during a paving operation. The device is provided with a laser generator (18) which projects a laser beam of a slit shape on a series of objects along the roadside which is selected to served as a reference line (A). An image recording device (17), a CCD camera, is disposed on the vehicle member (2), which records the projected laser light illuminating the objects and outputs a generated image (Ba) to a master controller (22). The master controller (22) determines the current deviation of the vehicle member (2) from the reference line (A) by the changes in the position of the generated image (Ba), and operates the automatic control device so as to steer the vehicle member (2) in the correct direction to permit the asphalt finisher to follow the reference line (A).

Automatic steering device for asphalt finisher

Efficient paving operation requires that the levelling operation of asphalt be carried out accurately along a reference line which follows a given direction along a roadside. A simple and effective automatic control device for controlling the steering direction in conjunction with adjustments of the screed for an asphalt finisher (shortened to finisher) is presented. The control device automatically regulates the extension or retraction of the screeds on both sides of the finisher in reference to a visual display of the reference line following some objects along the roadside. The visual detection system of control is simple and economical and provides an accurate control over the direction of paving.

Control device for asphalt finisher

A measuring arm (12) is attached to a frame (5a) supporting a screed (5). Height sensors (13) and (14) are attached to the measuring arm (12), and a height sensor (19) is also attached to the arm (18) of the screed (5). The spacing must remain constant between the rear end of the screed (5) and the height sensor (19), between the height sensor (19) and the height sensor (14), and between the height sensor (14) and the height sensor (13). A distance sensor to calculate the travel distance is provided on the tractor unit (1). The relative height Ho of both height sensors (13) and (14) to the screed (5) must always remain constant, regardless of the tilt of the screed (5) and the measuring arm (12). The sensors (13), and (14), and (17) are connected to the arithmetic unit (30). The height sensor (19) is connected to the arithmetic unit (40). The arithmetic unit (30) receives an output signal from the height sensors (13) and (14) and calculates the thickness of the pavement. The arithmetic unit (40) detects the uneven level of the unpaved surface on the basis of the output signal from the height sensor (19) and controls the screed (5) in order to offset the unevenness. The operating conditions are set on the control unit (30) via a recording medium such as an IC card.

Method for controlling the thickness of pavement and setting the

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Omiya, Japan

Tomohiro Gocho