Is the Remote Control Excavator Safe?

1. National standard first - meeting safety requirements is the foundation

GBT25686-2018 Safety Requirements for Remote Control Device for Earthmoving Machinery Drivers requires that in order to avoid the loss of control of remote control construction machinery, there should be three layers of safety technology assurance of signal heartbeat monitoring, on-site remote control emergency stop and remote control parking.

 

Even though the national standard requirements have been implemented, but in the remote control test of the mine excavator, or a near accident, above the national standard, further safety assurance from where to start?

 

In reference to the construction machinery construction personnel often purchase insurance categories, the top of the border found that the operator's injury insurance, machinery and equipment insurance, site personnel and other equipment property insurance, are the more common types of insurance.

 

Remote control construction machinery to protect the safety of the operator, but the safety of the equipment, the site of the three safety and how to protect?

 

2. Equipment safety - More realistic perception of posture monitoring

In the daily work of excavators, often due to the operator's personal experience and can not to accurately sense the tilt angle of the equipment, which leads to equipment rollover accidents. And in the remote control of the excavator operation process, how to know the degree of tilt of the excavator, so as to prevent such accidents?

 

At one time, there was a six-degree-of-freedom instantaneous motion simulation function "platform seat" controlled by a computer in real time on the market. But it relies heavily on the operator's own feelings and personal experience (such as it is difficult to rely on the buttocks to feel the tilt 18 ° or 25 °), and the seat has a delayed response (after all, there are more devices to drive the seat tilt). Good-looking, but not necessarily practical. 

In response to the above-mentioned drawbacks, after referring to the design principle of the aircraft instrument panel, Topaz developed the attitude monitoring function. Adopting intelligent attitude monitoring + audio and video homophone technology, the disc-shaped pointer is used to show the tilt angle of the device.

 

When the tilt angle is greater than the safety threshold, the main screen screen edge will issue a continuous warning to prompt the operator to deal with it as soon as possible. It ensures that the tilt information of the equipment is transmitted back synchronously with the screen and sound, avoiding the danger of the equipment tipping left and right and tipping back and forth.
This feature allows the operator to get rid of personal experience and subjective assumptions, using technical means to monitor the posture of the equipment more trustworthy.

To avoid collision of excavators at the construction site, the R&D team also uses millimeter wave radar to monitor the surrounding conditions; it has developed functions such as electronic fence and height and depth restrictions to ensure that the equipment always operates safely within the limited space.

3. The safety of the three personnel accurate monitoring more timely

If the excavator is safe, how can the safety of site personnel and other equipment be guaranteed? How to avoid similar accidents like the one at the beginning of the article?

 

In order to more accurately and timely monitor the status of more people and equipment on site, some people propose: adding more cameras on the excavator, adding more screens on the remote control platform.

 

But in the remote control excavator construction work site, the driver may only focus on the operation of the excavator, and no time to take care of the surrounding personnel and other equipment. At the same time, it is also very difficult for the remote driver to accurately find pedestrians and other equipment in a timely manner with a bunch of screens in front of him. This solution not only has poor timeliness, but also affects construction because the screens are too cluttered.

 

Add more screens to observe the surrounding situation, but when a person appears on the screen, can it be the first time to find out?

Topaz, on the other hand, has developed a pedestrian/equipment recognition function that allows the operator to sense the construction site environment even when he is not in the cab.

During the operation of the equipment, when someone appears in the field of view of the equipment's rearview camera, the camera captures the person in the field of view and automatically pops up the rear view screen in the upper right corner of the main screen to prompt the operator. At the same time, the person on the screen will be circled by the box and the excavator will be slowed down to ensure the safety of third-party personnel and equipment.

 

The operator does not need to pay special attention to the condition of the surrounding people during the work, only when the pedestrian appears and touches the safety line, the screen will take the initiative to remind, which is efficient and safe.

 

The above functions, Topaz is not simply stacked together, but to achieve a multi-mode screen can freely switch the human-computer interaction mode.

 

4. Wide-angle field of view Eyes and ears to hear all directions

When the posture monitoring function and the three monitoring functions were developed, the R&D team found in the test again: the remote control of the driver needs a wider field of view, and the picture quality of the operating console directly determines whether the function is practical.

 

And the traditional webcam belongs to board splicing, there are screen breakage, distortion and other serious phenomena, and due to the installation of the location of the problem, but also can not well monitor the rear view of the device, resulting in the operation before the person behind the car is not seen.

 

After discovering the problem, the team decided to replace the wide-angle camera with a more open field of view for algorithmic splicing, and the spliced picture is continuous without distortion and can also be adjusted according to the brightness of the operating surface, making the function more practical.

 

The left screen is the webcam transmission screen, the perspective is small, and we can't see the truck appear; the right screen is the Topaz video transmission solution, in contrast, the view distance is wider, and at the same point of time, we can already see half of the truck's body.

 

5. Network security Higher-level but more easily ignored security considerations

After the above problems are solved, Topaz will aim at a higher level of security considerations - network security. Network security is a more easily neglected security risk for remote control of construction machinery.

 

In order to guarantee the network security, we encrypt the transmission data.

 

Toplander's technology for encrypting data transmission processing of remote control excavators has also been certified by authoritative institutions. v4.3.5 of Toplander's remote system platform completed the compatibility test with Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. and obtained the HUAWEI COMPATIBLE certificate granted by Huawei Cloud Open Labs and the right to use the related certification logo.

 

This certification demonstrates that: the Topaz remote system platform has high compatibility and security recognized by the industry, and is affirmed for commercial use in the 5G industry scale. When customers use the platform for remote control of construction machinery, network security can be fully guaranteed.