Patent ID: 8613566

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 configured to control movements of the civil engineering machine in translation and/or rotation on the ground, the control unit including: a shape selection component configured to preset a geometrical shape for the structure to be produced or for the ground to which changes are to be made; a position data determination component configured 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 configured 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 and based on a desired position and orientation of the preset geometrical shape 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 configured 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.