• Journal of Drive and Control
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.27-33
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• 2015

Excavators are versatile earthmoving equipment that are used in civil engineering, hydraulic engineering, grading and landscaping, pipeline construction and mining. Effective operator training is essential to ensure safe and efficient operating of the machine. The virtual reality excavator based on simulation using conventional large size monitors is limited by the inability to provide a realistic real world training experience. We proposed a flexible observation method with a head tracking system to improve user feeling and sensation when operating a virtual reality excavator. First, an excavation simulator is designed by combining an excavator SimMechanics model and the virtual world. Second, a head mounted display (HMD) device is presented to replace the cumbersome large screens. Moreover, an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) sensor is mounted to the HMD for tracking the movement of the operator's head. These signals consequently change the virtual viewpoint of the virtual reality excavator. Simulation results were used to analyze the performance of the proposed system.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.160-166
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• 2005

In this paper, to overcome drawbacks of FLC a self tuning fuzzy sliding mode controller is proposed, which controls the position of excavator's attachment, which can be regarded as an ill-defined system. It is reported that fuzzy logic theory is especially useful in the control of ill-defined system. It is important in the design of a FLC to derive control rules in which the system's dynamic characteristics are taken into account. Control rules are usually established using trial and error methods. However, in the case where the dynamic characteristics vary with operating conditions, as in the operation of excavator attachment, it is difficult to find out control rules in which all the working condition parameters are considered. Experiments are carried out on a test bed which is built around a commercial Hyundai HX-60W hydraulic excavator. The experimental results show that both alleviation of chattering and performance are achieved. Fuzzy rules are easily obtained by using the proposed method and good performance in the following the desired trajectory is achieved. In summary, the proposed controller is very effective control method for the position control of the excavator's attachment.

• Journal of Drive and Control
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.20-31
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• 2021

An excavator is a construction machine that can perform various tasks such as trenching, piping, excavating, slope cutting, grading, and rock demolishing. In the 2010s, unmanned construction equipment using ICT technology was continuously developed. In this paper, the path design process was studied to implement the output data of the decision stage, and the path design algorithm was developed. For example, the output data of the decision stage were terrain data around the excavator, excavator mechanism information, excavator hydraulic information, the position and posture of the bucket at key points, the speed of the desired bucket path, and the required excavation volume. The result of the path design was the movement of the hydraulic cylinder, boom arm, bucket, and bucket edge. The core functions of the path design algorithm are the function of avoiding impact during the excavation process, the function to calculate the excavation depth that satisfies the required excavation volume, and the function that allows the bucket to pass through the main points of the excavation process while maintaining the speed of the desired path. In particular, in the process of developing the last function, the node tracking method expressed in the path design table was newly developed. The path design algorithm was verified as this path design satisfied the JCMAS H02 requirement.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.203-207
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• 2012

The noise emitted from an excavator has long been a cause of environmental disputes, while causing displeasure to the nearby residents. So, the ministry of environment adopted the construction machinery noise labeling system to encourage the construction machinery manufacturing companies to develop the low noise construction machinery voluntarily. But, as the quality of life improves, a growing number of people desire the comfortable and quite environment to live in. Under the situation, noise from the construction machinery has been a major cause for stress and complaints. When the noise dispute happened in the construction site, the sound pressure level of the construction machinery like a excavator was measured at the lot boundary of the noise victim's residence to judge how much noise damage occur. But the sound pressure level of the construction machinery is measured differently according to the acoustic environment of construction site and the measuring position, respectively, which makes it difficulty to judge whether the noise damage occur or not. As the sound power level of noise source is not affected by the acoustic environment of construction site and the measuring position, if we use the information of the sound power level, it will be easy to judge whether the noise damage occur and to establish the soundproofing measures. Therefore, we derive the sound power level regression model of the excavator to judge whether the noise emitted from the excavator damages to residents near the construction site. Also, the sound power level regression model of the excavator drawn in this paper will help construction companies to plan the noise reduction program in the construction sites.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.13-19
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• 2015

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to assess excavator drivers in order to determine the proportion showing subjective symptoms of musculoskeletal disorders and to evaluate the association between the symptoms and characteristics of the subjects. Methods: A questionnaire survey was conducted to collect the information on participants' age, average working hours per day, duration of career (years), work-related musculoskeletal symptoms, and more. The final dataset included 141 excavator drivers. Frequency and percentage were summarized and then the associations between the characteristics of the subjects and symptoms were evaluated as odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) using multiple logistic regression analysis. Results: Seventy-six percent of the currently reported musculoskeletal symptoms. Those who have musculoskeletal symptoms attributed their symptoms to unstable posture at work, mental stress or vibrations. There was a significant association between symptoms of musculoskeletal disorders and career of excavator drivers (P for trend=0.04). Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders may be high among excavator drivers and warrants well-designed studies on work-related disorders among excavator drivers.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.195-201
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• 2015

An electric excavator consumes battery energy to drive an electric motor attached to a hydraulic pump to generate hydraulic power. In a conventional hydraulic excavator, the hydraulic pump is controlled by regulators, which are used to optimize the diesel engine efficiency. Because of a lack of battery energy capacity, an electric excavator controller should consider not only the electric motor efficiency but also the hydraulic pump efficiency. Thus, electric motor and hydraulic pump efficiency maps were constructed. An optimal operating map (OOM) was created based on the most efficient operating points under each input condition. An integrated control algorithm controlled the speed of the electric motor and displacement of the hydraulic pump according to the OOM. To confirm the utility of this algorithm, a model-in-the-loop simulator for the algorithm with an electric excavator was established. The simulation results showed that the integrated control algorithm improved the energy efficiency of an electric excavator.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.87 no.1
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• pp.82-89
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• 1998

This study was carried out to investigate working time, performance, and to predict performance that related to the factor of forest road in earth work using excavator. It was found that the real working time was 503 minutes in a day. The ratio of real working time and allowance per total working time was approximately 85.7% and 14.3% individually. The rate of soil movement(Sm) to net working time was 38.6%, and earth cutting(Ec) was 32.5%. According to performance analysis, performance of earth work using excavator($0.8m^3$) in straight part was 1.4 times larger than curve part and rock work using excavator($0.8m^3$) which had breaker in straight was 9.1 times larger than earth work using excavator($0.8m^3$) which had bucket. Performance of earth work using excavator($1.0m^3$) was 1.3 times larger than using excavator($0.8m^3$) in straight and curve part. Working performance in earth work using excavator($0.8m^3$) was influenced by the conditions of radius of curve, width of roadway, slope gradient. It is not influenced by diameter and number of root stock.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.76-83
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• 2010

There have been many studies regarding development of autonomous excavation system which is helpful in construction sites where repetitive jobs are necessary. Unfortunately, bucket trajectory planning was excluded from the previous studies. Since, the best use of excavator is to dig efficiently; purpose of this research was set to determine an optimized bucket trajectory in order to get best digging performance. Among infinite ways of digging any given path, criterion for either optimal or efficient bucket moves is required to be established. One method is to adopt work know-how from experienced excavator operator; However the work pattern varies from every worker to worker and it is hard to be analyzed. Thus, other than the work pattern taken from experienced operator, we developed an efficiency model to solve this problem. This paper presents a method to derive a bucket trajectory from optimization theory with empirical CLUB soil model. Path is greatly influenced by physical constraints such as geometry, excavator dimension and excavator workspace. By minimizing a energy function under these constraints, an optimal bucket trajectory could be obtained.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 1997.10a
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• pp.357-360
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• 1997

Abstract: In teleoperation field robotic system such as hydraulically actuated robotic excavator, the maneuverability and convenience is the most important part in the operation of robotic excavator. Particularly the force information is important in dealing with digging and leveling operation in the teleoperated excavator. Excavators are also subject to a wide variation of soil-tool interaction forces. This paper presents a new force reflecting joystick in a velocity-force type bilateral teleoperation system. The master system is electrical joystick and the slave system IS hydraulically actuated cylinder with linear position sensor. Particularly Pneumatic motor is used newly in the master joystick for force reflection and the information of the pressure of salve cylinder is measured and utilized as the force feedback signal. Also force-reflection gain greatly affects the excavation performance of a hydraulically actuated robotic system and it is very difficult to determine it appropriately since slave excavator contacts with various environments such as from soft soil to rock. To overcome this, this paper proposes a force-reflection gain selecting algorithm based on artificial neural network and fuzzy logic.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.391-398
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• 2015

The swing noise of an excavator is reduced in this study. When an excavator is under a swing motion, it produces the annoying noise which is required to be reduced. To identify the characteristics of the swing noise, the signals of noise and vibration from an excavator are measured during the swing motion. From the variation of the driving motor speed, the noise and vibration signals are picked up and plotted in the waterfall plots. From the waterfall plots, we identify the frequency components corresponding to the driving motor frequency, the gear mesh frequency of the planetary gear, and their harmonics. In addition, the natural frequencies and modes of the center frame are extracted by using the experimental modal test. It is found that the swing noise is amplified when the gear mesh frequencies coincide with the natural frequencies of the center frame. To reduce the swing noise, the structural modification is performed to the center frame. Finally, it is observed that the noise is considerably reduced by the structural modification.