KINEMATICS OF EXCAVATORS (BACKHOES) FOR TRANSFERRING SURFACE MATERIAL

To use construction machines effectively in the dark, severe weather, or hazardous and/or unhealthy environments, their operations should be controlled automatically. It can be realized if the kinematics and dynamics of the machine are understood. To help achieve this goal, the kinematics of specific construction machines-excavators (backhoes and loaders)-are investigated here. A systematic procedure is presented to assign Cartesian coordinate frames for the links (joints) of an excavator. Then, the homogeneous transformation matrices that relate two adjacent coordinate frames are given. The kinematic relations of the pose (position and orientation) of the bucket, the joint shaft angles, and the lengths of the cylinder rods in the hydraulic actuators for an excavator are studied. Explicit expressions for the forward and backward (inverse) kinematic relations are presented. Then, the corresponding kinematic velocity relations for the excavators are developed. The kinematic relations presented provide the foundation for engineers to realize the automatic computer-controlled operations of the machine.