High-Precision and High-Efficiency Trajectory Tracking for Excavators Based on Closed-Loop Dynamics
This work addresses the challenge of precise trajectory tracking for hydraulic excavators, which is critical for automation in construction and mining, by improving learning efficiency and handling nonlinear dynamics.
EfficientTrack integrates model-based learning with closed-loop dynamics to achieve high-precision trajectory tracking for hydraulic excavators, outperforming existing learning-based methods in simulation with the highest tracking precision and smoothness using the fewest interactions, and demonstrating effectiveness under load conditions in real-world experiments.
The complex nonlinear dynamics of hydraulic excavators, such as time delays and control coupling, pose significant challenges to achieving high-precision trajectory tracking. Traditional control methods often fall short in such applications due to their inability to effectively handle these nonlinearities, while commonly used learning-based methods require extensive interactions with the environment, leading to inefficiency. To address these issues, we introduce EfficientTrack, a trajectory tracking method that integrates model-based learning to manage nonlinear dynamics and leverages closed-loop dynamics to improve learning efficiency, ultimately minimizing tracking errors. We validate our method through comprehensive experiments both in simulation and on a real-world excavator. Comparative experiments in simulation demonstrate that our method outperforms existing learning-based approaches, achieving the highest tracking precision and smoothness with the fewest interactions. Real-world experiments further show that our method remains effective under load conditions and possesses the ability for continual learning, highlighting its practical applicability. For implementation details and source code, please refer to https://github.com/ZiqingZou/EfficientTrack.