Mystring=2650000000 The limit pressure set for the counterbalance valve must be

approx. 20 30% higher than the maximum

advantage of hydraulic piloting is that the piloting and the directional control
valve can be physically
advantage of hydraulic piloting is that the piloting and the directional control
valve can be physically
advantage of hydraulic piloting is that the piloting and the directional control
valve can be physically

advantage of hydraulic piloting is that the piloting and the directional control
valve can be physically
advantage of hydraulic piloting is that the piloting and the directional control
valve can be physically
advantage of hydraulic piloting is that the piloting and the directional control
valve can be physically

advantage of hydraulic piloting is that the piloting and the directional control
valve can be physically
advantage of hydraulic piloting is that the piloting and the directional control
valve can be physically
loadMy first acknowledge needs to go to my advisor, Wayne Book, whose guidance,
support
and encouragement has been invaluable. Working in your research group has
been a joy and privilege. Thanks to Nader Sadegh, Kok-Meng Lee, Amy Pritchett
and Mark Evans for serving on my thesis committee. Thank to James Huggins for
help developing the backhoe test-bed. You have also been a valuable sounding boa
rd
for numerous ideas.
Thanks to HUSCO International, John Deere and other supporting companies of
the Fluid Power and Motion Control Center of Georgia Tech for supporting this wo
rk.
A special thank to John Deere for donating the tractor, backhoe and numerous spa
re
parts in additional to monetary support.
A thanks is due to technical advice given by Shraham Tafazoli, Derek Eagles,
Mark Evans, Bob Koski, Randy Bobbitt, Maria Cristina Herrera and Simon DiMaio.
Thanks to expert operators Ron Faber, Gert Ploeg and Michael Bryson for taking
the time to talk about backhoe/excavator operation. Your perspective was extreme
ly
valuable. I would also like to acknowledge comments and suggestions from anonymo
us
reviewers who have critiqued some of the work presented in this document.
I would like to acknowledge my mentors: Rod Heisler (Walla Walla College),
Emmanuel Nwadiogbu (Honeywell) and Jeff Kuehn (Caterpillar).
Thanks to all of my undergraduate engineering professors at Walla Walla College
(Walla Walla University as of September 1, 2007) for encouraging me to pursue gr
aduate
school and for preparing me to do so. Thanks to all my teachers at the Lincoln
City SDA School who taught me from third grade to my senior year of high school.
Special thank to my parents who encouraged me to develop my strengths and
work hard on my weaknesses. A special thanks is also due to my fiancee, Maria
Cristina, for encouragement and for supplying incentive to finish. Since she has
already completed her Ph.D., I am one of the few Ph.D. students who can say that
his(her) girlfriend/fiancee/wife (boyfriend/fiance/husband) truly has empathy for
the
Ph.D. process.
Laurel Dovich (WallaWalla College (University as of Sep 1, 2007) Civil/Structura
l
Engineering Professor), you guided me from Civil Engineering with a structural e
mphasis
to Mechanical Engineering the first week of my junior year. Andrew Alleyne
(UIUC Professor), you helped me to choose Dr. Book as my advisor and then less
than two years later you helped me make the decision to stay for my Ph.D studies
.
Probably neither of you realizes the positive and important roles you played in
these
decisions.
Thanks to all of my lab mates in the Intelligent Machines Dynamics Laboratory.
It has been a pleasure working with all of you. Special thanks is due to Davin
Swanson, L.J. Tognetti and Young Joon Lee for helping to teach me the ropes when
I first started graduate school. A special acknowledge is also due to Joe Franke
l. The
quality and quantity of the work you put into your master s thesis has been a real
asset to my Ph.D. work. It was a pleasure working with you. In addition, I would
like to acknowledge officemates Amir Shenouda and Scott Driscoll for allowing me
to
vent during the more frustrating periods of my Ph.D. journey.
Lastly, I would like to thank all of the friends during my years at Georgia Tech
who supplied the ridiculous moments
Supplying haptic or force feedback to operators using hydraulic machinery such
as excavators has the potential to increase operator capabilities. Haptic, robot
ic,
human-machine interfaces enable several enhancing features including coordinated
motion control and programmable haptic feedback. Coordinated or resolved motion
control supplies a more intuitive means of specifying the equipment s motion. Hapt
ic
feedback is used to relay meaningful information back to the user in the form of
force signals about digging force acting on the bucket, programmable virtual con
straints
and system limitations imposed by the mechanism, maximum pressure or
maximum flow. In order to make this technology economically viable, the benefits
must offset the additional cost associated with implementation. One way to minim
ize
this cost is to not use high-end hydraulic components. For smaller backhoes and
mini-excavators this means that the hydraulic systems are comprised of a constan
t
displacement pump and proportional direction control valves. Hydraulic and hapti
c
control techniques suitable for backhoes/excavators are developed and tested on
a
small backhoe test-bed. A virtual backhoe simulator is created for controller de
sign
and human evaluation. Not only is the virtual simulator modeled after the test-b
ed,
but the control algorithm used in the simulator is the same as the actual backho
e
test-bed. Data from human subject tests are presented that evaluate the control
strategies on both the real and virtual backhoe. The end goal of this project is
to
incorporate coordinated haptic control algorithms that work with low-cost system
s
The word haptics means of or relating to the sense of touch or tactile. The addi
tion
of haptic feedback to human operated hydraulic machinery can improve productivit
y
and dexterity by relaying information back to the user. Using a robotic humanmac
hine
interface allows the haptic feedback to be programmed to display meaningful
forces to the operator. These signals could be used to reflect the limitations o
f the
machinery or the forces acting on the end effector. Electronic joysticks and man
ual
levers are the standard methods used to manipulate mobile hydraulic machinery su
ch
as excavators. Both of these incorporate haptic feedback; however, it is limited
and
is not programmable. Traditional manual levers reflect some forces from the line
pressures due to their direct coupling to the hydraulic system. Both manual leve
rs and
electronic joysticks have some haptic feedback from a restoring spring force whi
ch is
directly related to their displacement and the commanded velocity of the manipul
ator.
In the case of electronic joysticks this haptic feedback is inherently decoupled
from the
system being controlled. This means that the human-machine interface is unilater
al
since information signals are only flowing from the human to the remote manipula
tor.
This requires the operators to rely on other cues such as vibrations, manipulato
r
slowdown/stall and audibles such as engine speed and lug. If a haptic display is
used,
the human machine interface becomes bilateral and information can also flow back
to
the operator from the end-effector via haptic feedback.
The goal of this research is to explore how haptic feedback can be applied to
control cost effective hydraulic systems. For smaller backhoes and mini-excavato
rs
this means that the hydraulic systems are comprised of a constant displacement p
ump