Development of a Bulldozer Operation Simulator

Bulldozers and similar general purpose earthmoving equipment frequently handle soil, work which must be done by operators with considerable experience. A study of an artificial intelligence technology based control system that can permit even inexperienced bulldozer operators to perform high quality earthwork has been carried out. This paper provides a summary of that study along with a report on a bulldozer operation simulator developed to provide a way to obtain operating data needed to recreate the working environment and define the operating objectives to be applied to the creation of a time-series model of bulldozer operation.

The simulator simplifies the bulldozer into a two-dimensional model and displays the position and attitude of the bulldozer in real time on a CRT screen in response to blade motion input. The study included the incorporation of the dynamics of the machine - ground system: the generation of drive force by the crawler and the cutting load applied to the blade for example.