Study on the optimal digging range for intelligent excavation

Abstract

Excavators play an important role at construction sites owing to high application and economic advantages, but the number of skilled operators of the excavator decreased because young operators do not like to enter to construction business. Research on automation of excavator and earthwork equipment was actively done such as IES (Intelligent Excavating System) in Korea. Much of research relied upon skilled worker's heuristics at making decision of minimum working unit without considering the conditions of the ground and excavator load, and it exposed to fall down of excavator at collapse of the ground and difficult to improve working efficiency. This study suggested optimal digging range considering heuristics of skilled workers, ground of various kinds of working areas and excavator specification to supplement existing methods and to improve safety and performance.