Virtual excavator simulator featuring HILS and haptic joysticks

This paper presents a virtual excavator simulator featuring hardware-in-the loop-simulation (HILS) technology and haptic joysticks. First, the technical concept of the virtual excavator simulator is proposed. Then, the mathematical relations describing the behavior of the excavator are derived for the software environment. Next, for reflecting the nonlinear and dynamic characteristics of the hydraulic system in the excavator, the simulation software is integrated with the hydraulic system hardware. In addition, for improving the interaction performance between the operator and the simulator, MR fluid actuator based haptic joysticks are employed. The experimental performance evaluation verified that the proposed concept of the virtual excavator simulator is effective and practical from the viewpoint of the reality improvement.

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