​​JME 4110: Excavator Articulated Arm Position Tracking System​

Language

English (en)

Publication Date

Summer 2026

Document Type

Final Report

Problem Statement

The core objective for this project was to develop a system to output the arm and bucket positions of an excavator in real-time. This information could be utilized to estimate the work completed by the excavator, in future autonomous systems, and to estimate the time and costs of a future project. The design employed a miniature remote-controlled excavator, encoder sensors to track angular rotation, a time-of-flight sensor, a processor board, and custom software to produce a rendering of the current arm positions to a computer dashboard. The encoder produced an error close to 1 mm on our model with the time of flight showing a much higher error of 10.67 mm. These results demonstrate the system’s viability if installed on a full-size excavator, where encoders could be employed at every pivot point. The system could be upgraded with another encoder set up to measure the angular rotation of the cab compared to the tracks to produce a 3D output.

Author's School

McKelvey School of Engineering

Author's Department

Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science

Class Name

Mechanical Engineering Design Project (UMSL JME 410)

Comments

Item record only. Report will not be available for download.

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