Force control of power shovel for construction of subterrain line

This paper considers a force control of power shovel that is used for construction of subterranean cables. We design a force control scheme based on a velocity-based force control algorithm, so that it could be easily implemented on a power shovel which is driven by conventional velocity controlled hydraulic actuators. By applying nonlinear force feedback with dead zone, excavation can be executed smoothly under the force control. The proposed force control scheme is implemented on an experimental system and experimental results illustrate the validity of the scheme.