US 6,619,693 B1
Apparatus and method for automatically leveling an objectGeneral
US 6,619,693 B1
Apparatus and method for automatically leveling an object
Tech Center:
3600 Transportation, Construction, Electronic Commerce, Agriculture, National Security and License and Review
Examiner:
Kenneth R. Rice
Art Unit:
3627 Business Methods — Incentive Programs, Coupons; Operations Research; Electronic Shopping; Health Care; Point of Sale, Inventory, Accounting; Cost/Price, Reservations, Shipping and Transportation; Business Processing
Agent:
Inventors:
James Sproatt; Alice Posley; Michael Seiy; Mark M. Eichhorn
Assignee:
Priority:
03/10/00
Filed:
03/10/00
Granted:
09/16/03
Expiration:
03/10/20
Abstract
An apparatus and method for automatically leveling a vehicle including four legs mounted to the vehicle adjacent corners of the vehicle, each leg being adjustable between a stowed position and an extended position wherein the leg engages the ground, a level sensor mounted to the vehicle for sensing the pitch and roll of the vehicle, the level sensor producing an orientation signal representing the vehicle pitch and roll, and a controller coupled to the legs and the level sensor including a memory for storing data representing a reference level plane, a microprocessor for interpreting the orientation signal to determine the present pitch and roll of the vehicle relative to the reference level plane, and outputs driven by the microprocessor for actuating the legs to reduce the difference between the present pitch and roll of the vehicle and the reference level plane, thereby leveling the vehicle. When the controller determines which end and side of the vehicle is below the reference level plane, the microprocessor alternates between individually adjusting the legs at the low end of the vehicle and the legs at the low side of the vehicle upwardly by individually actuating the legs for a first predetermined period of time. After one of the end or the side of the vehicle passes through the reference level plane, the direction of actuation of the legs corresponding to that end and/or side is reversed, and the time period for actuation is reduced. This process is repeated until the time period of actuation of the legs at an end or side of the vehicle falls below a predetermined threshold.