Patent ID: 8388263

Claim:
A self-propelled civil engineering machine, comprising: a chassis; a working unit arranged on the chassis and operable to produce a structure on the ground or to make changes to the ground; a drive unit operable to perform movements of the civil engineering machine in translation and/or rotation on the ground; and a control unit operable to control movements of the civil engineering machine in translation and/or rotation on the ground, the control unit having: a shape selection component operable to preset a geometrical shape for the structure to be produced or for the ground to which changes are made in a machine-related coordinate system; a position data determination component operable to determine position data to define the position and/or orientation of a reference point on the civil engineering machine in relation to a reference system which is independent of the position and orientation of the civil engineering machine; a curve data determination component operable to determine curve data to define a desired curve based on the preset geometrical shape of the structure to be produced or the ground to which changes are to be made in the machine-related coordinate system and based on the position and orientation of the reference point on the civil engineering machine in the reference system independent of the position and orientation of the civil engineering machine, the desired curve being that curve along which the reference point on the civil engineering machine is to move in the reference system independent of the position and orientation of the civil engineering machine; and a drive control component operable to control the drive unit, as a function of the curve data defining the desired curve, in such a way that the reference point on the civil engineering machine moves along the desired curve starting from a preset starting point at which the civil engineering machine is in a preset position and orientation on the ground.