> I think swinging (which is about 40% of dig and dump workflow by time spent) should not be manual.
It's been over a decade since I last operated an excavator, so grains of salt as usual - but I'd say it should be manual, or at least semi-automated. You need to take care where you unload the bucket on a truck, to avoid its weight distribution being off-center, or to keep various kinds of soil separated on the bed (e.g. we'd load the front with topsoil and fill the rear with the gravel or whatever else was below.
I agree - the dumping and digging itself (where you move boom, arm, bucket much more than swing/tracks) should be manual. But swinging to the truck and back to pit (pure swinging motion to center around these areas of interest) do not have to be manual. I agree with your and other comments that the transition has to be smooth and that's something we're working on.
It's been over a decade since I last operated an excavator, so grains of salt as usual - but I'd say it should be manual, or at least semi-automated. You need to take care where you unload the bucket on a truck, to avoid its weight distribution being off-center, or to keep various kinds of soil separated on the bed (e.g. we'd load the front with topsoil and fill the rear with the gravel or whatever else was below.