Design of robotic excavator arm control utilizing proportional-integral-plus

Following up the task of design and implementation of intelligent control system for a robotic excavator in the project of Lancaster University computerised and intelligent excavator (LUCIE), this paper focuses on the joint arms control system design for low level control in automatic excavation. Based on the data based excavator dynamic models using simplified refined instrumental variable (SRIV) algorithm, a dipper controller is designed utilizing proportional-integral-plus (PIP) control theory to provide smoother, more quickly and more accurately movement in excavation. The simulated responses and preliminary implementation results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach which is about to be applied to the motion control of the whole joint arms.