Quantitative Assessment of Backhoe Operator Skill
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 133, Issue 11
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.
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Acknowledgments
The writer would like to acknowledge the many students and post-docs who worked on this project for over . Due to lack of funding everybody involved was required to use their personal time. A special thanks goes to the backhoe operators from the Mid-Atlantic Infrastructure Systems, Inc. willing to participate in this exciting study.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 133 • Issue 11 • November 2007
Pages: 889 - 899
Copyright
© 2007 ASCE.
History
Received: Nov 16, 2005
Accepted: Feb 22, 2007
Published online: Nov 1, 2007
Published in print: Nov 2007
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