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Remote controlled operation of construction equipment has been state-of-the-art for some years. The availability of remote controls which have been designed and developed for general use on commercial machines is a recent development that is the subject of this paper. The John Deere teleoperated excavator represents a new capability that is now available to the construction industry for use on construction sites that preclude the on-site presence of human operators. This paper will describe the basic machine, the controls, vision system and integration of the remote control adjunct to the operational system. Much of the development of the initial capability was done with the cooperation of Vectran Corporation of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The Air Force needed an excavator that could perform multiple tasks for repairing bomb craters in airfield runways. A cooperative development program with the Air Force resulted in modifications to an excavator to provide for digging, dozing, compacting, and breaking functions with quick attach components. High mobility was provided with a rubber tired undercarriage. The project conception, design, build, and testing are discussed.

Customizing machines at their origin of manufacture is one method of providing specialized equipment to meet unique requirements of the end user. The Deere & Company Industrial Equipment factories provide customized units for governmental and customer sales.