Research on effective teleoperation of construction machinery fusing manual and automatic operation

It is known that the work efficiency of teleoperated construction machinery is lower than that of directly operated machinery. Assistance via automatic control is expected to improve the work efficiency. However, this assistance might break the feeling of control and prohibit control adjustments by the operator. We propose a semiautomatic system that fuses manual and automatic operation while maintaining the same feeling of control as manual operation. The assistance approach to the working trajectory is based on the assumption of the existence of an ideal trajectory for the hoist swing that is a major component of an excavator. We evaluate the feeling of control using a sense of agency. The results of an examination using a miniature excavator show that the assistance improved the perspective error from manual with a high sense of agency. Therefore proposed assistance was effective during teleoperation without a sense of perspective.