State of the art in excavators

Survey of literature has revealed research on excavators in trajectory analysis, modeling, control, soil-tool interaction, energy efficiency, and simulators. Kinematics of excavators has largely remained unchanged over time. Dynamic models of 3 degree of freedom (DOF) manipulator have been applied in literature. Soil-tool interaction models are becoming computationally less demanding and more accurate, for predicting interaction forces of end effector or bucket. Control of excavators through adaptive/robust control and high level behavioral control may fully automate such systems. Simulators provide platforms for testing and operator training and require dynamically accurate models. Even though much research has occurred in different areas of excavators, still fully automated excavators are rare. This paper investigates the state of art in excavators and reports the recent progress. The aim of this paper is to identify gaps in existing technology and the demands on excavators with the idea of suggesting future trends in research and as a reference for new research.