Obstacle detection and safeguarding for a high-speed autonomous hydraulic excavator

摘要

Hydraulic excavators are large, powerful machines which are often operated in high-production settings. Successful automation of excavators for mass excavation tasks require safeguarding algorithms which do not negatively impact productivity. We present a two-level sensor-based safeguarding approach which utilizes obstacle detection to prevent collisions and motion detection to halt operation when unanticipated vehicles or people approach the excavator.