Design of an excavator grip : A pilot study and development of an ergonomic Human-Machine interface for excavators

Abstract: The Excavator industry is developmentally behind many other similar industries. This is, like many parts of these long living machines, true for the controls used to maneuver them. It has few competent control systems that are ergonomic, comfortable, adaptable, durable and intuitive. Existing solutions that fill some of these criteria exist, but the approximate majority of machines in the world lack a good solution and most are equipped with inadequate solutions.  The doctrine of Human centered design was applied throughout the pilot study to increase the quality of research and ease finding correlations between instances of information. International standards, Human-machine systems and Anthropometrics were consulted to achieve a result adapted for a larger variety of operators.  This thesis consists of the pilot study and prototype development of one such Human-machine-system, more specifically the joystick, or grip as it’s called within the industry. The solution developed is specifically equipped with controls adapted for tiltrotator control. As the grip is developed on behalf of the company engcon, who develops tiltrotators and also the control system including a grip, to offer a complete plug and play solution.  The first main objective was performing a pilot study of what is required in the future for excavator grips. Primarily through interviews with excavator operators, but also a benchmarking and a workshop it was determined what must be achieved in terms of technical and ergonomic solutions.  The second main objective during the thesis was to create a prototype that achieve a high level in terms of grip form. A form which is comfortable to hold, ergonomic to operate for multiple hours and that is adapted to a larger variety of hand sizes than the competitors. It also required a higher level of stability than the current solution. This shape needed to take internal electronics, ISO-standards and future controls into account. The solution must eventually achieve a high level of manufacturability, of which the groundwork was laid during the thesis, but took lower priority. Further testing is required but results so far seem to point towards this being achieved.  This will hopefully post-thesis result in a solution that leads to healthier operators, further enabling female operators entering the field, performing work with higher accuracy and a longer lasting more sustainable product that is intuitive and easy to learn.