Apparatus for controlling the hydraulic cylinder of a power shovel

Abstract

A technique relating to automatic excavation by a power shovel is shown. An ideal reference locus of movement of a front edge of a bucket is approximated by a plurality of points, positions of the plurality of points and postures of the bucket at these points are previously set. If the start of automatic excavation is assigned by an operation pedal or the like, the position of the front edge of the bucket at the assigned moment is made a position to start excavation. The positions of the plurality of points set relative to a vehicle are calculated for each of excavation sections divided by the plurality of points according to the position to start excavation, and angles of rotation of respective working machines needed to move the front edge of the bucket to the calculated position and to set the bucket to the posture of the bucket set are calculated for each of the excavation sections, and the respective working machines are automatically driven making the calculated angles of rotation target angles of rotation for each excavation section. The bucket, an arm and a boom are thereby automatically controlled so that the front edge of the bucket moves along the ideal reference locus of movement set and the bucket has the ideal posture set by simple operations. Thus, it is intended to improve operation efficiency. After terminating excavation, dropping of load is reduced by automatically driving the bucket so that the bucket is always horizontally maintained in accordance with manual operations of the arm and boom.