Patent Document ID: 20180171580
Application ID: 15385126
Patent Flag: 0

Claim One:
1. An excavator calibration framework comprising an excavator, a laser distance meter (LDM), and a laser reflector, wherein: the excavator comprises a machine chassis, an excavating linkage assembly, an implement dynamic sensor, an excavating implement, and control architecture; the excavating linkage assembly comprises an excavator boom, an excavator stick, and a four-bar linkage; the excavating implement and the excavator stick are mechanically coupled through the four-bar linkage comprising an implement linkage of length GH, a rear side linkage of length FH, a dogbone linkage of length DF, and a front side linkage of length DG; the implement dynamic sensor is positioned on the dogbone linkage of the four-bar linkage; the excavating implement is configured to curl relative to the excavator stick to define a plurality of implement curl positions; the LDM is configured to generate an LDM distance signal D LDM indicative of a distance between the LDM and the laser reflector and an angle of inclination signal θ INC indicative of an angle between the LDM and the laser reflector; the laser reflector is configured to be disposed at a position corresponding to a calibration node on the excavating implement; the control architecture comprises one or more linkage assembly actuators and an architecture controller programmed to execute an iterative process at successive implement curl positions, the iterative process comprising generating a measured dogbone angle θ DF Measured of the dogbone linkage from the implement dynamic sensor, determining a height Ĥ and a distance {circumflex over (D)} between the calibration node on the excavating implement and the LDM based on the LDM distance signal D LDM and the angle of inclination signal θ INC , determining a position of the calibration node at least partially based on the height Ĥ and the distance {circumflex over (D)}, determining an estimated implement angle θ GH Estimated of the excavating implement at least partially based on the position of the calibration node, and generating a mapping equation comprising linkage angle inputs, unsolved linkage length parameters, and unsolved angle offset parameters, wherein the linkage angle inputs comprise the measured dogbone angle θ DF Measured and the estimated implement angle θ GH Estimated at the implement curl position, the unsolved linkage length parameters comprise the linkage lengths GH, FH, DF, and DG of the four-bar linkage, and the unsolved angle offset parameters comprise an offset dogbone angle θ DF Bias of the dogbone linkage, and an offset implement angle θ GH Bias of the excavating implement; and the architecture controller is further programmed to repeat the iterative process for successive implement curl positions to generate a set of m mapping equations, wherein the set of m mapping equations comprises n unsolved linkage length and unsolved angle offset parameters, and the iterative process is repeated until m>n, solve the generated set of m mapping equations comprising the n unsolved parameters to determine the linkage lengths GH, FH, DF, and DG of the four-bar linkage, the offset dogbone angle θ DF Bias of the dogbone linkage, and the offset implement angle θ GH Bias of the excavating implement, and operate the excavator using the linkage lengths GH, FH, DF, and DG, the offset dogbone angle θ DF Bias , and the offset implement angle θ GH Bias .