Effectiveness of remote control for a concrete surface grinding machine

Abstract

Concrete surface grinding is usually executed in hazardous work environments. The operation needs to be given a certain degree of automated capabilities to overcome the hazards, and to increase operational effectiveness. The objective of this research is to provide a CAD-based path planner for the REmotely controlled Machine for COncrete Grinding (REMCOG). The planner generates a desired path that the machine needs to follow. The path displayed on screen was in turn used as a guide for the Man-Machine Interface (MMI) during the operation. GPS data were acquired to determine whether the machine was following the planned path. Field experiments demonstrated that operators can compare the planned and actual paths to gain a better understanding of whether the remotely controlled machine is moving in the right direction during the operation. As a result, the production rate showed a significant increase compared with the existing manually operated machine for concrete surface grinding.