Position and Attitude Estimation for Hydraulic Excavator Using External Sensors and Joint Angle Sensors

This paper proposes an end-effector position and attitude estimation method for hydraulic excavators using total stations and potentiometers. The total station is an external sensor for measuring positions in a ground-fixed coordinate, but its sampling interval is too long for a position controller. The potentiometer is a joint angle sensor whose sampling interval suits the controller. The proposed method is an extended Kalman filter that simultaneously estimates position and attitude. It combines measurements from total stations and potentiometers with different sampling intervals to estimate accurate end-effector position and attitude with a short sampling interval. The proposed method’s validity and applicability to the end-effector position control are verified using a real-time simulator of a hydraulic excavator.