Method and system for controlling an excavating apparatus

A system for controlling a drilling apparatus comprising a rotation pressure sensor to sense rotation pressure on the drilling apparatus, a feed pressure sensor to sense feed pressure on the drilling apparatus, a controller which controls at least one of the rotation pressure or feed pressure applied to the drilling apparatus and a modulating means which applies a predetermined modulating frequency signal to at least one of the rotation pressure and feed pressure, wherein the controller includes a demodulation algorithm for extracting either the rotation pressure from the rotation pressure sensor or the feed pressure from the feed pressure sensor, to alter the feed pressure and rotation pressure respectively, to optimise a penetration rate of the drilling apparatus.

A method for controlling a drilling apparatus comprising the steps of applying a rotation force to a drillin part of the drilling apparatus, applying a feed force to the drilling part with the feed force comprising a predetermined modulating frequency signal and predetermined feed force, storing data in a controller relating to optimum feed force and rotation force for a predetermined material being cut and for a given type of drilling apparatus or part of the drilling apparatus, wherein optimum predetermined feed force is determined periodically from sensed data relating to at least one of the rotation force and feed force to optimize the penetration rate of the drilling apparatus, wherein the feed force is changed periodically by an incremental value and changes in at least one of the feed force and rotation force are monitored and referenced to predetermined data relating to different material types being drilled to determine at least one characteristic of the material being drilled.

A method for controlling a drilling apparatus comprising the steps of applying a feed force to a drilling part of the drilling apparatus, applying a rotation force to the drilling part with the rotation force comprising a predetermined modulating frequency signal and predetermined rotation force, storing data in a controller relating to optimum feed force and rotation force for a predetermined material being cut and for a given type of drilling apparatus or part of the drilling apparatus, wherein optimum predetermined rotation force is determined periodically from sensed data relating to at least one of the rotation force and feed force to optimize the penetration rate of the drilling apparatus, and further comprising the step of sampling the feed force at a sampling rate greater than a modulation frequency.