Excavator controls

Excavator controls specifies ways of how a human operator controls the digging components (i.e. swing, boom, stick, bucket) of a piece of heavy machinery, such as a backhoe or an excavator.

In the ISO control pattern, the left hand joystick controls Swing (left & right) and the Stick Boom (away & close), and the right hand joystick controls the Main Boom (up & down) and Bucket motions (close & dump).

This control pattern is standardised in ISO 10968 and SAE J1177.

This control pattern is standardized in J1814 [dubious – discuss].

In the SAE control pattern, the left hand joystick controls Swing (left & right) and the Main Boom (up &down), and the right hand joystick controls the Stick Boom(away & close) and Bucket motions (close & dump).

ISO excavator controls illustration, color of the control matches the moving part. Additionally there is a switch on the right hand joystick to operate attached tools.