Patent ID: 8602680

Claim:
A vibrating plate, comprising: an upper mass that has a drive; and a lower mass that is connected to the upper mass via a spring device and that has a vibration exciter device and a soil contact plate, the vibration exciter device being capable of producing a vibration having a resultant direction of force action, the vibration exciter device being capable of being controlled in such a way that the force action direction can be set to a plurality of positions, in particular more than two positions, an operating element being provided for operator inputting of a control command, the operating element being coupled to a propulsion adjustment device, so that the control command is capable of being transmitted to the propulsion adjustment device, and the force action direction being capable of being modified by controlling via the propulsion adjustment device, dependent on the operator's control command, wherein the propulsion adjustment device responds to the operator demanding a maximum propulsion speed by always adjusting the force action direction automatically, based on determined changes in at least one of the gradient and the solidity of the terrain that is to be compacted by the soil contact plate, to a position in which a maximum possible propulsion speed of the vibrating plate over the ground is maintained.