LAUSR

Abstract Heavy-duty machines have been utilised for pile construction in Hong Kong for many years. These machines have reduced the one-time practise of dangerous excavation by hand. Unfortunately, it is not practical to construct large diameter piles on sloping ground using heavy-duty piling machines, so, to overcome this problem, the authors invented a robot excavator with a unique operating mechanism for pile construction. In this article, based on the authors' robot excavator designs, the forward motion kinematics and computer simulation models are described and developed. Kinematic characteristics with respect to digging operations were simulated. Kinematic constraint models were also established to eliminate any contact between the robot excavator and pile shaft. The findings provide a fundamental basis of designing and controlling the robotic excavators for pile construction in practice.