Researchers Develop Autonomous Excavator System for “Un-crewed” Excavation

Researchers from Baidu Research Robotics and Auto-Driving Lab (RAL) and the University of Maryland, College Park, have introduced an autonomous excavator system (AES) that can perform material loading tasks for a long duration without any human intervention while offering performance closely equivalent to that of an experienced human operator.

AES is among the world’s first un-crewed excavation systems to have been deployed in real-world scenarios and continuously operating for over 24 hours, bringing about industry-leading benefits in terms of enhanced safety and productivity. 

The researchers described their methodology in a research paper published on June 30, 2021, in Science Robotics.

“This work presents an efficient, robust, and general autonomous system architecture that enables excavators of various sizes to perform material loading tasks in the real world autonomously,” said Dr. Liangjun Zhang, corresponding author and the Head of Baidu Research Robotics and Auto-Driving…