Developing new construction equipment or modifying an old model requires large investment in reengineering
and testing. This paper presents a virtual operator model that can be used to (1) control, test and
evaluate virtual construction equipment before building the prototype, (2) autonomously control the construction
equipment after being built. Furthermore, the virtual operator model is adaptive to properly control different
models of the same machine. The operator model is useful in evaluating a new machine design and predicting its
performance in applications under realistic conditions as a real human operator would operate it. Using this
model, potential problems can be identified in early design stage, hence reducing the costly prototype testing
stage of the machine development.
Keywords: Virtual Operator Model, Autonomous Control, Construction Equipment, Virtual Product Development,
Truck Loading Cycle, Neural Network Controller.
