Remote control of excavator using head tracking and flexible monitoring method

- A portable control station using camera-based visual feedback was proposed.
- A wearable display device was utilized to replace conventional monitors.
- The observation system was based on the head tracking and flexible monitoring method.
- Our method reduces the operation time in digging and leveling work.
- The method improves usability, usefulness and ergonomics (health and safety).

A contemporary technique used to control tele-operated excavators based on naked-eye feedback exhibited inferior performance compared to those using camera-based visual feedback due to the effect of operator position. To improve the quality of visual feedback, this report presents a novel observation method with regard to the portable control of a tele-operated excavator. First, the former replaced traditional monitors through the implementation of a head mounted display (HMD) to improve user mobility and flexibility. The latter, combined with a head tracking and flexible monitoring method, provided operators with realistic working environment interactions in real-time. The performance of the proposed system was applied to a 1.5-ton excavator for testing based on the experimental approach. The experimental results revealed that operators of the excavator achieved superior performance through usage of the novel observation system.