Trajectories planning and simulation of a backhoe manipulator movement

Abstract

An excavator is a highly widespread heavy-duty construction machine. The working equipment of the excavator can be thought of as a hydraulic manipulator mounted on a vehicle. To carry out the workflow effectively an operator is to move the bucket teeth along the given path with certain velocity and acceleration under the restrictions imposed by the kinematic parameters of the manipulator and the configuration of the working area. It requires very high skills of the operator. To accurately move the bucket teeth along the desired path the automatic control system can be used. This paper focuses on the excavator manipulator trajectories automatic planning and control. Firstly, the manipulator joints trajectories were obtained to perform digging and levelling operations. Then, a virtual model of the excavator equipment was built based on the MATLAB Multibody to simulate working operations. Finally, digital PID controllers were designed to improve the accuracy of the bucket teeth movement along the path required. As the example, the attached backhoe equipment of the excavator Boreks 2201 is considered.