Evaluation of excavation control strategies using a Universal Robot UR10 robotic arm

Sammanfattning

Automatic excavation is highly relevant in many areas such as construction, process in- dustry, and agriculture, as it could improve efficiency and human safety. This thesis in- vestigates control strategies and previous articles regarding automatic excavation in con- struction. To obtain recent information about the development in the area of autonomous excavation, different companies experienced in that area are contacted. This thesis reviews available open source tools which could be applied to the task of autonomous excavation, and if no readily available tools are available, a solution would be developed and ana- lyzed. The excavation performance of potential tools was evaluated using a small-scale excavation testbed equipped with a Universal Robot UR10 6-axis robotic arm. Insights gained with a laboratory set-up can be leveraged when transferring to full-sized exca- vators. Excavation was done in a controlled indoor environment simulating construction conditions. Methods for controlling the robot arm using ROS2 and the Teach Pendant were implemented. Control strategies were tested and then evaluated. Findings and potential future works were discussed.