commercial products, the teleoperated excavator can be very quickly replicated and upgraded.
Little additional design and construction time is necessary to put this solution into motion on
another excavator. The teleoperated excavator can be used in as many ways as the original
equipment. Additionally, the remote control system can be implemented on any hydraulic system
with very few design changes. This asserts that the design has far reaching economic potential.
At a relatively low cost, many branches of the military and countless companies could
benefit from equipping existing hydraulic systems with remote control capability. Construction
equipment manufactures can offer customers a remote controlled version of their existing
equipment for little extra cost. Also, a remotely controlled version of their equipment can replace a
human on the test track, where operators have spent countless back-braking hours. The platform
developed in this research has potential for becoming a launching point for the production of more
intelligent hydraulic equipment.
Consistent with the vision of the Joint Robotic Program, this research aspires to become a
“catalyst for the insertion of robotic systems” into the current economic climate [3]. While millions
have been spent on similar teleoperated systems, the cost-effectiveness of the solution presented
herein affirms the economic potential for the development of these systems in today’s economic
marketplace.