Performance Evaluation of Excavator Control Device with EMG-based Fatigue Analysis

Abstract

Among the many types of construction equipment, excavators have been widely used due to their versatility in various operations such as digging, crushing, and breaking, etc. In order to achieve more intuitive and intelligent control of the excavator, a new control device has recently been developed to replace the conventional joystick installed in excavators. This paper focuses on a performance evaluation method for this control device in order to determine its feasibility. The fatigue analysis method based on Electromyography (EMG) is utilized to evaluate the control performance of the devices with the assumption that fatigue can be the most critical criterion when determining an appropriate control device. Fatigue was determined by analyzing the EMG amplitude as well as the frequency spectrum. In order to investigate the feasibility of the proposed method, two different control devices are tested for performing leveling work: a haptic device and the conventional joystick lever. Through the experimental studies, it was found that the haptic device produced less muscular fatigue and the feasibility of the evaluation method was also verified.