Iterative Autonomous Excavation

This paper introduces a Cartesian impedance control framework in which reaction forces exceeding control authority directly reshape bucket motion during successive excavation passes. This novel approach to excavation results in an iterative process that does not require explicit prediction of terrain forces. This is in contrast to most excavation control approaches that are based on the generation, tracking and re-planning of single-pass tasks where the performance is limited by the accuracy of the prediction. In this view, a final trench profile is achieved iteratively, provided that the forces generated by the excavator are capable of removing some minimum amount of soil, maintaining convergence towards the goal. Field experiments show that a disturbance compensated controller is able to maintain convergence, and that a 2-DOF feedforward controller based on free motion inverse dynamics may not converge due to limited feedback gains.