Yesterday I came across this European Patent application by Japan's Daiho Corporation. It has been filed in 1995. Interesting.

(19) J (12) (88) Date of publication A3:
18.06.1997 Bulletin 1997/25
(43) Date of publication A2:
29.05.1996 Bulletin 1996/22
(21) Application number: 95203171.4
(22) Date of filing: 20.11.1995 Europaisches Patentamt |
European Patent Office
Office europeen des brevets (1 1 ) E P 0 7 1 3 9 5 5 A 3
EUROPEAN PATENT APPLICATION
ation A3: (51) |nt. CI.6: E21 D 9/10, E21 D 9/08 (84) Designated Contracting States: • Kondo, Norio
DEFRGBNL Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104 (JP)
• Inoue, Masami
(30) Priority: 22.11.1994 JP 314027/94 Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104 (JP)
(71) Applicant: Daiho Corporation (74) Representative: Petri, Stellan
Tokyo 1 04 (JP) Strom & Gulliksson AB
Box 41 88 (72) Inventors: 203 1 3 Malmo (SE) • Kashima, Yutaka
Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104 (JP)

(54) Shield tunnel boring machine
(57) A shield tunnel boring machine having a parallel link excavator includes excess excavating cutters joined to the excavator as divided into a plurality of steps, the excess excavating cutters of the respective steps being coupled to separate ones of jacks respectively actuatable as controlled independently of each other, for allowing the position of the machine to be effectively controlled to be able to quickly correct any rolling.

https://data.epo.org/publication-server/document?iDocId=1462714&iFormat=0