Application of distributed actuation mechanism to a hydraulic excavator

It has been recently proven that the distributed actuation mechanism, as a new actuation mechanism, provides additional design freedom to maximize the performance of a given system. In this paper, we proposed a new type of hydraulic excavator which adopts distributed actuation mechanism to enhance its excavation performance. We first defined the measure of digging forces and numerically analyzed the effectiveness of the proposed mechanism. Through simulations, it was verified that the digging force increases up to 172% by virtue of distributed actuation.