pedal powered excavator

when you look at the age old shovel----and the science behind it, it does seem remarkeable no one has made solid progress towards a pedal powered shovel system.

there are hoe's mounted on a bicycle, , that just as well could be pulled by an oxen,

there are pedal powered 2,3,4 wheelers with mounted plows for plowing snow.

what I am talking about is a a small scale excavator . It does not have to have an arm with a shovel on the end like a conventional excavator. it could. but the point is to be able to dig into the earth with a scoop/spade and lift out some dirt and then move it somewhere.

I think realistically , the machine/system has to be build in a manner of optimizing it to its task.

in this case, to build a hole in the ground for a pool, and to place all the dirt into a low grade retaining hill around the pool. essentially a crater.

it seems that in average soil a decent shape adult male should be able to dig about 2 cubic meters of dirt in a shift , 8 hours of hard work with breaks. that's VERY variable depending on what type of soil, how far the dirt is thrown from the shovel..etc...

seriously, of all the things that could be super useful,this challenge of mechanical engineering is worth taking on.

the reason the manual shovel is to excellent a tool is because it's simplicity is a force multiplier of the already complex, many degrees of freedom system we call the human upper body, which itself is rooted in the core.

the idea of detaching the entire existing shovel through the upper body and mechanically reproducing the degrees of freedom through a mechanical arm that is powered by the over simplistic rotary motion of a pedal powered by spinning legs-----well, thats a complex mechanical challenge.

first off, it may be most practical to have 2 people manning this machine. one to pedal and one to move the business end of it around and into place, almost like applying the end of a pneumatic , hydraulick,or a fixed jerking system ( a long static element pulled back and forth and jerking upon a bearing/bushing at the end of it that allows for a back and forth motion.

really, the possibilities for implementing this are endless and perhaps the best way to find out what works best is to have a competition.

it's possible the most pracitcal machine would allow hookup of rotational power from at least 10 bicycles being hooked up to the rotating element that powers a mechanical arm controlled by a person . with the arm itself just being mounted on a moveable tripod.

that's about