Simultaneous determination of an optimal unloading point and paths between scooping points and the unloading point for a wheel loader

The authors have developed an autonomous loading system for a wheel loader. In this paper, an algorithm is proposed to decide on both an optimized unloading point and several paths between the unloading point and several scooping points. The optimal unloading point that minimizes the total length of those paths has been obtained by using a three-dimensional configuration score space. In the configuration score space, the length of the route from origin to each grid is represented as score number, and a grid shows a position(x,y) and posture(θ). This method was evaluated through simulations and by experiments using a miniature wheel loader robot.