Quantitative Assessment of Backhoe Operator Skill

Abstract

The safe and efficient operation of large equipment depends heavily on the skill of the operator. However, very little is known about how to evaluate what makes an operator safe and productive. This paper presents a quantitative approach for assessing the performance of backhoe operators. The approach takes advantage of electronic sensors that are built into a backhoe simulator providing data from both the operator controls and the backhoe arm itself. After a brief review of principles related to learning motor skills the paper describes a newly established backhoe simulator facility and reports about a series of experiments conducted to investigate the efficacy of measuring and comparing the performance of a backhoe operators. Several trained operators with differing work experiences participated in the study. The relevance of this work is in that the collected and analyzed data backs the well-documented correlations linking work experience with skill. It is believed that the utilization of quantitative skill metrics will lead to drastic improvements in the safety and productivity of large equipment.