Development of On-Board Weighting and Force Sensor System for Construction Machines: Static Analysis

This paper considers an on-board system for construction machines to measure weight of handling or excavated materials and/or contact force of machine tool or end effector for construction robot.Weight and force are measured indirectly by the differential pressure of hydraulic actuators of machines, driving the machine arms. This system improves the commercial weighting system, because it uses the load pressures of two actuators to detect every time the exact load position. At the same time it is able to measure direction and value of contact force without changes of hardware, moreover, it may be used with a large types of machines. This system is developed for construction robot, but it could be use for present commercial machines as weighting system and warning system to detect buried obstacles.