Sediment Release Control in Excavator Bucket Using LiDAR

Recently, the number of people working the construction industry has been declining in Japan. One solution to this problem is automating heavy construction machines. In this paper, we focus on controlling sediment release within the bucket of an excavator. We introduce a geometrically approximated bucket model to estimate the sediment volume within the bucket using LiDAR point cloud data. Based on this model and sediment volume estimation, we propose a sediment release control method that utilizes two degrees of freedom controller. Finally, we evaluate the precision of this control method using a small-scale experimental excavator.