Dynamic cognitive force control for an automatic land excavation robot

The automation of the land excavation machines can find applications in the excavation of soil in both terrestrial and planetary mining and construction. The automation requires planning at different levels such as task and trajectory pre-planning, and the automatic execution of these pre-planned tasks. In the execution of the pre-planned digging trajectories, the unexpected soil properties along the trajectory raises problems such as excessive ram-forces that may harm the machine, or cannot be applied because of the power limitations. The cognitive force control for the automation of the land excavation is developed to include the dynamics of the excavator arm. The control of the ram forces of the arm is proposed by regulating the digging depth and the trajectory speed. The developed control system is able to track the preplanned digging trajectories, and if the ram-forces becomes excessive then the trajectory is modified in time and path to control the ram-forces.