Why aren't haptic gloves or motion tracking devices used to control digging vehicles like excavators?

[Archinist]

As the title says, why do excavators still use two joysticks to control the arm? Would a haptic glove or "device" be better? Would reduce the time taken by a operator to become skilled? Be more intuitive as they'd be able to gauge the movement more "naturally" (i.e. by moving their own arm, and controlling the attachment/rotator with their hand or fingers)? Would a haptic device be more tiring to work over a long period of time if the device expected the operator to hang their arm in the air? What if the haptic device allowed the operator to rest their arm in a more "recommended" height or angle? Wouldn't a haptic controller be cool and fun to use? The operator could pretend they're king kong and break things easier. A meth addict that breaks into the workplace and hasn't used a excavator stick before could easily jump inside and start smashing everything like in the movies

There sometimes (from looking at youtube videos) seems to be 1 or 2 webcams on the boom or the stick, but why don't they add a more "tech'd out" system of lasers, lidar and extra webcams so the operator can more properly see what the attachment is doing, to help lower skill/new operators?

What about double arm excavators, where there's two arms at the front for a single cab? I think there's only one type like that and it's experimental or discontinued (was never mass produced.) Would haptic controllers make the operation less complicated?

Haptic glove like this:

[Jaglavak]

Cost, complexity, and reliability. Its tough to compete with a spool valve. It can be manufactured at low cost from bar stock and steel castings, and can accurately control hundreds of horsepower with fingertip effort.

Also, your standard issue human can wire up the appropriate reflexes good enough to dig a hole in just a few minutes of monkeying around with it. Although it takes a year or two before you can call yourself an operator.

So once again, sure you could if you pour enough money on it. But the fact that nobody does that is a giant clue-by-four from the folks who do it every day. You should get a joystick and one of those excavator games. Its can be habit forming, though.

[Archinist]

Originally Posted by Jaglavak

Cost, complexity, and reliability. Its tough to compete with a spool valve. It can be manufactured at low cost from bar stock and steel castings, and can accurately control hundreds of horsepower with fingertip effort.

Also, your standard issue human can wire up the appropriate reflexes good enough to dig a hole in just a few minutes of monkeying around with it. Although it takes a year or two before you can call yourself an operator.

So once again, sure you could if you pour enough money on it. But the fact that nobody does that is a giant clue-by-four from the folks who do it every day. You should get a joystick and one of those excavator games. Its can be habit forming, though.

But it'd be cool
In your opinion do you think there's any merit to double arm (for one cab) excavators (Not backhoes or dual cabs) or is it mostly or literally a marketing stunt for the brand? The video seems to show it moving slower and more awkwardly then a regular model, or maybe that's because it's a demo that wasn't doing any work.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEmZ6ZOZbEA
Another video of an older model: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZGcNS5gY9A
The first channel seems a bit dubious but the machine seems (?) to be real? Is it some kind of stunt? Is this a real thing? The first video looks a bit similar to a menzi excavator. It's supposed to be called a "rescue excavator", why aren't there more machines like it? The two arms probably aren't as stable or powerful, so would it be better then a regular one with a tiltrotator and grab thing? There's lots of videos of really skilled operators using tiltrotators and detach/attach modules without getting out, those seem to be pretty precise, maybe there'd be some benefit from having two arms to use one as a brace or a support? Hypothetically, could that dual arm climb storeys using it's two arms to latch onto the floor above and pull itself up, is it strong enough? There's some videos of bigger machines doing stuff like that.

It's marketed at rescue, so presumably human life is worth using more expensive equipment (though it doesn't seem to be very common.), would having haptic controllers to control the 2 arms be useful? Presumably it'd only be used by experienced operators for rescue. Is haptics similar to laser pointers mounted on guns which supposedly aren't helpful to experienced shooters? In a world where cost isn't any issue (nor is reliability to a extent, or it can be improved to be reliable enough) would haptic control have a benefit?

[Jaglavak]

Take a close look at an excavator bucket. Those things are made of boiler plate pivoting on big whopping hardened steel pins and bushings, and they still get the crap beat out of them. There's an entire industry called line boring and welding, dedicated to repairing them. No precision anything is going to live through that.

But yeah it would be kind of cool.

[Archinist]

Originally Posted by Jaglavak

Take a close look at an excavator bucket. Those things are made of boiler plate pivoting on big whopping hardened steel pins and bushings, and they still get the crap beat out of them. There's an entire industry called line boring and welding, dedicated to repairing them. No precision anything is going to live through that.

But yeah it would be kind of cool.

Well yeah, precision tools wouldn't be used to bashing into rock or dirt. But that's a bit different to a control method in the cockpit. The thing at the end of the arm would be... whatever *thing* that's necessary but you probably wouldn't need a super duper controller if you/your people were expecting to only ever smash holes into the ground. Maybe it'd be useful for those worksites where the excavator seems to do lots of things, like dig soft soil and move pieces of equipment or material about? Or when it's "etching" a digsite into the pavement?