An autonomous excavator with vision-based track-slippage control

Abstract

Abstract-This paper describes a vision-based control system for a tracked mobile robot (an excavator). The system includes several controllers that collaborate to move the mobile vehicle from a starting position to a goal position. First, the path planner designs an optimum path using a predefined elevation map of the work space. Second, a fuzzy logic path-tracking controller estimates the rotational and translational velocities for the vehicle to move along the pre-designed path. Third, a cross-coupling controller corrects the possible orientation error that may occur when moving along the path. A motor controller then converts the track velocities to the corresponding rotational wheel velocities. Fourth, a vision-based motion tracking system is implemented to find the 3D motion of the vehicle as it moves in the work space. Finally, a specially-designed slippage controller detects slippage by comparing the motion through reading of flowmeters and the vision system. If slippage has occurred, the remaining path is corrected within the path tracking controller to stop at the goal position. Experiments are conducted to test and verify the presented control system. An analysis of the results shows that improvement is achieved in both path-tracking accuracy and slippage control problems.

Review of modelling and remote control for excavators

“…In [13], a vision-based control system for a tracked excavator was presented. The system includes several controllers that collaborate to move the excavator from a starting position to a goal position.…”

A review on modeling, identification and servo control of robotic excavator

“…We have just discussed the low level servo control problems here, besides, various intelligent control methods for task planning or navigation had been studied to demonstrate fully autonomous execution of excavation tasks in unknown environment Rowe, 1999;Shi et al, 1996;Wang, 2004.). The hot topics of vision-based control (Saeedi et al, 2005), haptic control (Kontz, 2007), and remote teleoperation (Krishnaswamy, 2004;Kim et al, 2009) are also not discussed here.…”

Earthmoving Construction Automation with Military Applications: Past, Present and Future

“…This system was composed of two sub-systems, an automatic surface finishing system and a laser guide systemfor excavating ditches up to 8 km. A vision-based control system for a tracked mobile robot such as an excavator was developed in [56], including several controllers that can be collaboratively operated to move the mobile vehicle from a starting position to a goal position. A prototype of autonomous hydraulic excavator was introduced to improve the basic technologies of construction machinery such as hydraulic shovels [57], which was also able to complete the autonomous loading for the crawler dump truck.…”