Turning control system for use in a track-laying vehicle

- Kabushiki Kaisha Komatsu

A turning control system for use in a track-laying vehicle comprising: a steering motor for driving crawler belts provided at both sides of the vehicle such that a relative travel difference is caused between the crawler belts, thereby turning the vehicle rightwards or leftwards; a steering instructing device which can be displaced from a neutral position by operation and which instructs, in accordance with its displacement direction and displacement distance, a turning direction and a turning radius for the vehicle, the turning radius decreasing as the displacement distance increases; a displacement detector for detecting the displacement of the steering instructing device; a vehicle speed detector for detecting the vehicle speed at which the vehicle moves forwards or backwards; and a steering motor revolution speed control unit for controlling the revolution speed of the steering motor such that the revolution speed of the steering motor becomes proportional to the vehicle speed detected by the vehicle speed detector at least in the region of low vehicle speeds, when the steering instructing device is displaced and kept in a certain position and therefore there is no change in the displacement of the steering instructing device detected by the displacement detector.

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Claims

Referenced Cited
U.S. Patent Documents
4043227 August 23, 1977 Beals et al.
4068543 January 17, 1978 Sakai et al.
4309917 January 12, 1982 Leet
4434680 March 6, 1984 Riediger et al.
4699239 October 13, 1987 Ishino et al.
4754824 July 5, 1988 Olsson
4882947 November 28, 1989 Barnard
4917200 April 17, 1990 Lucius
5285861 February 15, 1994 Nakamura
Foreign Patent Documents
63-30654 February 1988 JPX
3-574 January 1991 JPX
4-349076 December 1992 JPX
Patent History
Patent number: RE36151
Type: Grant
Filed: Jul 25, 1996
Date of Patent: Mar 16, 1999
Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Komatsu (Tokyo)
Inventors: Tsutomu Ishino (Komatsu), Ryoichi Maruyama (Komatsu), Hideki Yamada (Komatsu)
Primary Examiner: Michael Zanelli
Law Firm: Armstrong, Westerman, Hattori, McLeland & Naughton
Application Number: 8/684,857
Classifications
Current U.S. Class: Construction Or Agricultural-type Vehicle (e.g., Crane, Forklift) (701/50); Steering Control (701/41); Steering By Driving (477/1); 180/644; 180/67
International Classification: B62D 1110;