Excavator Cab Layout Optimization Design based on Whale Optimization Algorithm

Background: During excavator operation, drivers often need to work continuously for a long period of time, and this work pattern can greatly reduce work efficiency. In addition, drivers maintain a fixed posture for a long time to operate the excavator, which can cause the phenomenon of muscle fatigue and joint discomfort, and even cause muscle strains and other injuries. Objective: In order to protect the driver's health and work efficiency, the excavator cab is optimized and designed to reduce the harm to the human body through reasonable improvement for long time work, so as to improve the work efficiency. Methods: Inspired by the patent, 16 muscles of human body were selected to conduct muscle fatigue analysis experiments on 11 operation processes of excavator to obtain the optimisation indexes, followed by the establishment of biomechanical model of human upper limbs and lower limbs according to the experimental results, and the construction of optimization model based on the value of the minimum joint moments, and finally, the optimized layout of excavator cab was re-optimized by using the whale optimization algorithm. Results: After 600 iterations of the algorithm, the total joint torque decreases from 395N*m to 348.2N*m.In the optimised excavator, the driver's total RULA score decreases from 4 to 3 when performing the right turn, left turn and backward action, while the total RULA score decreases from 5 to 4 when performing the lowering arm, extending arm, shovel unloading and left rotation action. Conclusion: The driver is more likely to cause muscle fatigue when controlling the excavator to perform forward movement and lower arm movement, the optimization of joystick position and length, pedal position, and seat height using whale algorithm improves the driver's comfort during operation and reduces the fatigue during operation accordingly. The findings of this study can provide a reference for related patent research and development.