Presentation of BSc Thesis
Currently, there is a strong research interest in autonomous construction machinery to automate dangerous or repetitive tasks. In this context, it is necessary that an autonomous excavator or the bucket of excavators is able to follow accurately a planned trajectory, despite nonlinearities and disturbances.
In his thesis “Design and Validation of a Trajectory-Following Controller for an Autonomous Excavator”, Yili Xu has examined different control schemes enabling the control of excavators on pre-given trajectories. The presentation circumferences the project and his work; i.a. the model derivation and identification, the design process of three different control schemes (PI, cascaded PI, linear MPC), comparison and experimental validation of preferred control scheme. We would like to thank XCMG European Research Center GmbH for providing the technical expertise and experimental gear.