Preparation for turning a Bucket Wheel Reclaimer into a robotic arm

This paper presents the ground work prepared for turning a bucket wheel reclaimer (BWR) into a robotic arm for operation automation. BWR has been widely used in dealing with bulk materials by removing them from the conveyor and stack them as well as to load stacked materials onto the in-feed conveyor, such as in mining industry. Generally speaking, current BWRs are manually operated, remotely operated, or automated to simply follow predefined trajectory patterns. In order to automatically generate trajectory and manoeuvre BWR to specific stockpiles and locations to reclaim materials for the combined product grade required by customers, knowledge of the product quality distribution among stockpiles and within a stockpile is essential. In addition, a converted BWR system like a robotic arm, which can be automated to manoeuvre according to the needs, is required. This paper focuses on the preparation for converting BWR only and presents the derivation of its forward/inverse kinematics, Jacobian and dynamics. A model based controller is developed as well to move around the converted robotic arm. Simulations are conducted using Matlab/Simulink. The results demonstrate satisfactory performance and prove the initial stage of preparation is successfully completed.