The Tele-Earthwork System Best Adapted to Remote Operated Construction Equipment

The tele-earthwork system is intended to ensure the safe performance of a series of earthwork, from the excavation of soil to the loading, transportation and the disposal of excavated soil, through the remote control steered from a centralized control room located away from the working areas, by using a variety of field monitors which display stereophotographs and computer graphics of pieces of unmanned heavy construction equipment in operation at construction site, which are transmitted from communication relay vehicles. In the operation of construction equipment through remote control, advising the operators of the status of the equipment and their surrounding conditions accurately is essential. With these information judged overall, the working environment similar to that of manned equipment operation can be accomplished, through efficient operation of remote operated equipment as well. Actual field operation including breaking rocks with a breaker, digging up soil by using a hydraulic shovel, gathering excavated material with a bulldozer , and loading it on dump trucks for disposal at an off-site yard. This paper describes how a series of the operations of these unmanned equipment were remote controlled from a control room located more than 100 meters away from the project site.