Development of the autonomous hydraulic excavator prototype using 3-D information for motion planning and control

Civil engineering work still involves many dangerous and grueling tasks, so improving work environments and ensuring safety are challenges facing this field. The development of construction machines are also essential to prepare for the aging problem of construction workers and shortage of young experienced workers in near future. This research project was conducted to overcome these problems by development of the basic technologies with three-dimensional information, and realize the autonomous operation of hydraulic excavators, which is, a typical general purpose construction machine. We have implemented a prototype of the autonomous hydraulic excavator, which performs the soil excavation and loading work under basic conditions. The achieved work speed and finished product precision were almost same as those of normal work by humans.