Why Are There Two Main Control Patterns For Excavators?

Familiarity is a critical component to the safe operation of any heavy equipment, including the

compact power that comes from Bobcat excavators, and because of this, standardisation is a critical part of any design.

Whilst operators should take some time getting used to any piece of machinery they have not used before or have not used in a while, every excavator should have a similar enough design and control scheme that an operator can easily get used to any machine once they learn one.

In the world of excavators, there is the rather unusual issue that there exists two main operating control patterns which are largely similar but differ in enough critical ways to cause problems and frustrations for operators.

Both of them use two joysticks as the main controls for the swing, bucket and dipper, but which directions do which actions vary depending on which of the two standards you use.

There is the Society of Automotive Engineers standard that is primarily used in the United States and has the left-hand joystick controlling the swing (which moves the bucket left or right) and main boom (which moves it up and down).

The right-hand joystick controls the bucket (left and right tucks it in and out respectively) as well as moving the dipper closer and further away from the excavator (up for away, down for close).

However, there is also an International Organisation For Standardisation standard,ISO 10968, which stipulates a similar but distinct set of standards.

Under the ISO system, the boom is controlled by the right hand, whilst the dipper is controlled by the left hand. As everything else is identical, it is possible for someone to get into an excavator with a different control standard and accidentally hit the wrong controls.

Thankfully, Bobcat has a feature known as Selectable Joystick Control, which uses a drive-by-wire system to allow for programmable controls more familiar to individual users.