Abstract
The bulldozer is a heavy-duty earthmoving machine generating tractive force between its tracks and ground to cut and push soil with an onboard blade. The productivity of the machine is determined by the amount of soil moved per hour, which is influenced by the travel speed and the amount of material carried by the blade. In this paper, we present a high-level controller for a hydraulic bulldozer to drive the machine’s track slip to a value corresponding to maximum soil removal power. The proposed system sets online reference signals for the blade elevation and track velocity to produce a smooth ground profile and high productivity. The primary traction control strategy manipulates the load on the machine by blade adjustments. When a track slip threshold is exceeded, track velocity control is used to limit the slip to the said value. A comparison to blade-only control strategy shows improvements in ground profile smoothness and productivity on uneven terrain without any prior knowledge of the worksite ground profile.
