Patent ID: 8016363

Claim:
An excavation method, comprising: providing an excavator comprising a cutter head for excavating in situ material, a body engaging the cutter head, and a plurality of grippers for applying pressure against opposing surfaces of an excavation to maintain the body in a selected position and orientation; manually positioning the excavator in a selected first position adjacent to an excavation face; comparing selected excavator sensed parameters against predetermined values to confirm that the excavator is properly configured; commencing an automated first excavation sequence in which a first set of grippers engage opposing excavation surfaces of the excavation to maintain the body in a selected position and the excavator excavates material from the excavation face; when a thrust actuator engaging the cutter head is extended a predetermined distance, commencing an automated repositioning sequence to reposition the excavator to a second position adjacent to the excavation face, wherein, in the automated repositioning sequence a second set of grippers, but not the first set of grippers, engage the opposing excavation surfaces; and when the excavator is in the second position, confirming that the excavator is properly configured for an automated second excavation sequence; and when properly configured, commencing an automated second excavation sequence, wherein the excavator has a rotatable boom engaging the cutter head and wherein the cutter head excavates the in situ material by rotating the boom back and forth across the excavation face while the cutter head is in contact with the excavation face for at least a portion of each boom rotation, and wherein a swing cycle optimization module automatically reverses the direction of boom rotation when at least one of a hydraulic pressure measured in at least one thrust actuator and a swing torque drops below a predetermined threshold.