Controlling an Intelligent Excavator for Autonomous Digging in Difficult Ground

This paper reports on the recent advances made in developing an autonomous robot excavator. Previous work on a fifth-scale model was reported at earlier symposia, but the technology has now been transferred to a real excavator – LUCIE – Lancaster University Computerised Intelligent Excavator. The paper concentrates on the architecture of the software control which enables the machine to modify its behaviour to cope with highly varying ground conditions. A single powerful processor controls the low-level motion of the excavator arm, as well as high level tactical and strategic behaviour. An A.I. rule-based approach has been adopted for high-level functions. Successful field trials are reported.