Use your head to tilt & rotate

by Nick Drew | Wed 01 Apr 2015

Use your head to tilt & rotate

As a big fan of tiltrotator systems I am always keen to hear about new ideas and this latest development has really blown my mind!

For many years now our Scandinavian cousins have been developing modern state of the art joysticks with roller thumb controls to actuate the tilt and rotation systems on excavators. Today I can reveal that scientists could be set to launch a totally hands free design, that will allow the operator to tilt the bucket by tilting his head and rotate it by twisting his neck in the position he wants to rotate it!

According to the head of design at the respected School of Bionics in Stockholm, Dr Ulaf Ullday, the new system which has been called TurnHead A1 ST, could revolutionise the way we use tiltrotators. Talking to the Digger Man Blog Dr Ullday said, “We have been working on this exciting new development for a number of years now and we hope to launch the concept soon. We are just finishing off the headset design that holds the microprocessors which are required to send the signals to the main control box. We are also still looking at a way we can isolate the system briefly, for example if the operator needs to talk to somebody via the side window of the cab and looking at a study on RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury) to see if there could be any long term side effects”. One area of concern for me would be using the system while listening to the radio, if the operator got into the groove the bucket could end up all over the place!

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