US 11,718,471 B2
Automatic control of a refuse front end loader
Ralph Waldo Whitfield, Jr., Rainbow City, AL (US); Brian Huston Ham, Huntsville, AL (US); John M. Curotto, Sonoma, CA (US); Andrew Blaine Cooper, Signal Mountain, TN (US); and Brian T. Parker, Signal Mountain, TN (US)
Assigned to The Heil Company, Chattanooga, TN (US)
Filed by The Heil Co., Chattanooga, TN (US)
Filed on Aug. 1, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/816,541.
Application 17/816,541 is a continuation of application No. 16/229,070, filed on Dec. 21, 2018, granted, now 11,407,585.
Application 16/229,070 is a continuation of application No. 15/244,291, filed on Aug. 23, 2016, granted, now 10,196,206, issued on Feb. 5, 2019.
Application 15/244,291 is a continuation of application No. 14/276,423, filed on May 13, 2014, granted, now 9,428,334, issued on Aug. 30, 2016.
Claims priority of provisional application 61/824,605, filed on May 17, 2013.
Prior Publication US 2023/0015879 A1, Jan. 19, 2023
Int. Cl. B65F 3/02 (2006.01); B65F 3/04 (2006.01); B65F 3/14 (2006.01); G06Q 10/30 (2023.01)
CPC B65F 3/041 (2013.01) [B65F 2003/025 (2013.01); B65F 2003/0279 (2013.01); B65F 2003/146 (2013.01); G06Q 10/30 (2013.01); Y02W 90/00 (2015.05)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A refuse vehicle, comprising:
a container coupled to a chassis of the refuse vehicle;
a lift coupled to the container, the lift comprising an arm assembly configured to engage a refuse receptacle;
a plurality of sensors configured to monitor the lift and output sensed data;
a multi-mode operator-actuated controller;
an automatic control system comprising a processor configured to execute instructions stored in memory to:
based on a state of the multi-mode operator-actuated controller and at least a portion of the sensed data, instruct the lift to execute a dump cycle to dump refuse from the refuse receptacle into the container; and
an operator interface unit configured to display an operating mode of the operator-actuated controller and a state of the lift based on at least a portion of the sensed data,
wherein the plurality of sensors comprises an arm position sensor attached to the arm assembly of the lift, and wherein the sensed data comprises a value from the arm position sensor indicative of a position of the arm assembly, and
wherein the processor of the automatic control system is further configured to execute instructions stored in memory to:
i) determine a measured angle of the arm assembly of the lift relative to the refuse vehicle based on the value from the arm position sensor, and
ii) determine that the refuse receptacle has been dumped based on the measured angle.