KINEMATIC ANALYSIS OF BACKHOES/EXCAVATORS FOR CLOSED-LOOP COORDINATED CONTROL

Backhoes and excavators are an application for robotic technology. This can be done in two ways: autonomous excavation and coordinated motion control and/or haptic feedback. This analysis is motivated by haptic coordinated control of the bucket using position and velocity signals from a dissimilar master device. One issue that must be addressed is the effect of joint constraints imposed by the hydraulic cylinders. The result of this not being addressed is demonstrated. Two solutions are presented: a closed form graphically derived method based on the position of the bucket's wrist and a more general numerical optimization approach that also penalizes bucket angle error.