Hardware modifications for electro-hydraulic conversion and implementation of computer-assisted control on a large mining shovel

Computer-assisted control with human supervision plays a key role in efficient control of surface mining equipment such as excavators. A control architecture that incorporates human control input and sensory feedback has been developed for application in multilink electro-hydraulic machines in mining industry. This system was successfully tested and demonstrated on a small-scale excavator at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR). The aim of this thesis is to investigate the feasibility of implementing this computer-assisted control technology on large mining shovels used in surface mining. In order to implement this control system on Hitachi EX3500 excavator, several hardware modifications are proposed. The major modification is conversion of hydraulically operated machine into electro-hydraulic control. A Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) has been used to interface the new electro-hydraulic system with the control computer that implements the computer-assisted control. The hardware was tested on a test bench in a laboratory setting and the electro-hydraulic valve control was demonstrated. The test results show that the control technology can be implemented on the large mining shovels to provide efficient and coordinated control of the machine.