The high-tech future seems to be here now on Hyundai excavators.
By their very nature, excavators come with their own safety concerns on job sites—there are the movements inherent in boom reach, tail swing, lifting or craning to height, truck loading, and sometimes, workers in and around the excavation itself. Add in buildings, other objects, and the rest of the equipment zipping around a job site, and you can have a volatile and rapidly changing mix.
So how can an operator see everything that’s going on around the machine?
Enter the Hyundai-exclusive AAVM video camera system. It’s a multicamera option available on HX Series excavators (HX160L, HX180L, HX220L, HX260L) that “maximizes operator awareness of the surrounding areas,” says Corey Rogers, Hyundai’s marketing manager.
“The system allows a 360-degree field of vision to help prevent accidents. Operators can maintain a constant view of the workplace in the front, the rear, the right, and the left,” Rogers says.
The AAVM provides a field of vision in all directions, with a total of nine views, including a 3D bird’s eye view and a 2D four-channel view. The system also includes an IMOD (Intelligent Moving Object Detection) capability to alert the operator to the presence of people or objects within a pretty impressive distance—16.5 feet.
Displays are found on an 8-inch color touchscreen monitor (photo above). The input comes from cameras located on various sides of the excavator (see below).
If that’s not enough gadgetry for you, HX Series excavators already employ another neat piece of technology, borrowed from the world of luxury cars: haptic controls. “Haptic control makes selecting menus and adjusting settings easy,” Rogers says.
The haptic remote control uses vibrations and pulses to guide the operator through menu selections, enabling control of the accelerator, air conditioner, and all functions within the cluster. Luxury car, meet luxury excavator.
Cool stuff.
