Developments in energy regeneration technologies for hydraulic excavators: A review

Construction machinery, especially hydraulic excavators, plays an important role in building and other industries. However, they often consume a lot of energy and emit large amounts of harmful emissions into the environment. This study focuses on energy regeneration technologies which can help reduce energy consumption and pollution in hydraulic excavators. First, potential recoverable energy sources in excavator mechanisms are analyzed. Next, energy regeneration systems are classified according to energy storage devices and their development is comprehensively reviewed through the state-of-art. The research gaps, market opportunities and future development directions of energy regeneration systems are discussed to underpin future development opportunities. A new conceptual design of ERS has been proposed to improve the energy regeneration efficiency whilst minimising the power consumption of hydraulic excavators.