Vision

Imagine a landslide. Key transportation passages are blocked and people need to be rescued. Today, you need to secure the area before the rescue mission can begin. Precious time is lost. We envision a new generation of heavy remote controlled machinery that gets the job done. Fast, secure and in any environment. Without putting the operator at risk.

Potential Scenarios

Radioactive Environments are an acute danger for the human health. Nevertheless nuclear emergencies require a quick and effective countermeasure. We want to make it possible to work on contaminated ground long before access to these grounds would be safe for humans.

Explosive disposal is still one of the great challenges many regions of the world are facing. Devices such as landmines, ammunition or undetonated bombs pose a huge risk for people in their surroundings.

Collapsed Buildings pose a big risk for workers who are trying to remove debris and clear the area, as the remaining parts of those buildings are still likely to collapse.

Steep Slopes are one of the core qualities of a Menzi Muck excavator. In combination with our remote control, tasks can be completed in this difficult landscape without the need of putting the operator at risk.

Our Concept

We take the world’s most agile excavator and make it remote controlled. Our teleoperation platform will give realistic feedback to the operator. It enables precise operations from a secure distance. We design our system to be compact. It can be transported alongside the excavator on regular roads. ibex. Teleoperated excavators. Innovation made in Switzerland.

Cockpit An ergonomic seat and adjustable screens provide a user experience similar to a real excavator cockpit. We integrate the same joysticks and pedals as found in the original excavator cabin.

Bearing We pivot our cockpit in its central. Using servo-actuators we can turn it 360º around its axis just like the real excavator. In addition this bearing concept allows us to use lightweight components as the pivot offers weight support.

Motion simulation Our motion base consists out of two postition-controlled excenters. By individually controlling the excenters position we can precisely control the cockpits roll and pitch angle. Sensors mounted on the real excavator give us acceleration and velocity data which we imitate live with our teleoperation platform.

Key Features

Full Motion Representation of the excavator enables the operator to feel every motion performed by the excavator. Provided with this feedback the operator can control the excavator more intuitively and precisely.

Mobility is achieved by combining compact components with close packaging. In addition the platform will be designed to allow easy disassembly in case small transport size is needed.

Visual Feedback of multiple cameras, mounted on the excavator, allows the operator to control the excavator without having it in sight. Furthermore data from different sensors may be added to the interface on demand.

Wireless Communication is an advanced way of controling the excavator over long distances without restricting its mobility. The excavator will be fitted with multiple systems of communication, in a way, that a backup system is always available.

Menzi Muck Excavator

To achieve maximum agility we work with a Menzi Muck M545. This excavator is famous for its unique concept of movement. Four independently moving legs allow a matchless degree of mobility. Difficult terrain is countered with a highly innovative approach. The flexibility of the four legs lets the M545 climb every obstacle. Menzi Muck product site

Main Sponsors

Provides custom aluminium profile solutions and housing.

Supports us with high-end gearboxes and motors.

Supports us with high-end motors and servo drives.

Supports us in production of parts.

Sponsors

Supports us with electronic parts.

Supports us in production of parts.

Supports us financially.

Supports us with simulation Software.

Supports us with a custom computer solution.

Supports us with a Laser safety system.

Patrons

How to support us

The whole team works hard to reach its goal, but as we are a student project we have a very limited budget. To overcome the challenge of funding our project, we are extremely grateful for your support. We work closely with industrial partners, who are willing to offer either production of certain parts, donations in form of products, financial support or discounts on products. Moreover we deeply appreciate every advice helping us to reach our goal. In return for your support we offer different platform of services for your company, such as, publicity on our website and on social media. If you would like to support our project or get some more detailed information please contact us here!

Our Team

We are a group of 9 students studying Mechanical- and Electrical Engineering at ETH Zurich. All of us are in our last year of our bachelor studies. At ETH students get the unique chance to work on a, so called, “focus project”. These projects are comparable to small start-ups, where a certain idea for a product is realized as a “proof of concept” and boundaries of engineering are being pushed forward. Every project is supported by a professor and his or her institute. At ibex we are proud to be part of Prof. Dr. Marco Hutter’s Robotic Systems Lab.