Evaluation System for Hydraulic Excavator Operation Skill Using Remote Controlled Excavator and Virtual Reality

We developed a system to evaluate the skill of operating a hydraulic excavator using a remotely controlled (RC) excavator and virtual reality (VR) technology. We remodeled the RC excavator such that it can be operated in the same manner as an actual excavator, and proceeded to measure the excavator’s state. To evaluate the skill of operating this system, we calculated several indices from data recorded during excavation work. We calculated the same indices from data recorded during excavation performed by an actual excavator, and verified that there exists a high correlation between the indices of the RC excavator and those of the actual excavator.