Graphic-based human-machine interface for construction manipulator control

Large-scale construction manipulators are important to productivity and safety on the construction site. Traditionally, manipulators are controlled by an operator, who pulls and pushes levers, which open and close hydraulic values. Recently, joysticks have begun to be used as a more sophisticated control method. In either case, the manipulator control utilizes the human operator's manual skills and experience because automation of the control is difficult in a unstructured task environment. An alternative to the traditional control methods, a human-machine interface can be used to combine the human operator's intuitive judgment and skills with intelligent machine control. The goal of this research was to understand the characteristics of the human-machine interface during the telerobotic operation of construction manipulators. The paper discusses a comprehensive control framework that describes the types of control systems for an interactive human-machine interface. A general remote control structure was developed to implement the framework to the telerobotic operation of a bridge maintenance crane. Field experiments were conducted to comparatively evaluate the performance of the general remote control structure in varying task complexities. The test results indicate that the human-machine interface can be implemented flexibly to cope with different task requirements on construction sites.