Only a few years ago, there was immense potential in the idea of automating cars to eliminate traffic accidents, which are the leading cause of death in the United States. The use of automated construction using robot dozers, excavators, and other heavy gear has the potential to address the existing housing and infrastructure deficiencies in the United States. Autonomous Construction
In 2017, Built Robotics initiated the testing of autonomous excavators with the objective of enhancing the capabilities of machines on building sites. CEO Noah Ready-Campbell anticipated that fully autonomous machinery would be widely used on construction sites prior to the widespread adoption of fully autonomous vehicles on public highways.
However, after almost seven years of using self-operating excavators to dig trenches, Built Robotics recently revealed its intention to change its primary focus from ordinary construction projects to the installation of solar farms. To fulfill this objective, the company introduced RPD-35, a robotic pile driver designed to carry out a specific and uncomplicated function. It utilizes a blunt metallic head attached to a mechanical arm to forcefully push steel beams into the earth.
We are now exclusively reliant on solar energy,” Ready-Campbell states. “Although it may seem like we are limiting our attention, I believe that solar energy will dominate the narrative of our national electrical grid in the next 10 to 20 years.” According to him, the decision is partially intended to take advantage of the infrastructure and climate-change money approved by the US Congress last year. As a result, Built will now allocate less time to other initiatives.
While fully autonomous vehicles have been deployed on roads in China and the US, the realization of driverless cars and robotaxis remains elusive. Similarly, the potential of AI in construction seems to have not lived up to expectations.
Several prominent corporations, including as Caterpillar in the United States, Doosan in Korea, and Volvo in Europe, initiated trials with fully autonomous heavy-duty machinery for construction sites several years ago. However, the concept has not progressed past the prototype phase or been publicly accessible.
Developers of AI and robotics technologies face significant challenges when it comes to construction sites. Construction operations frequently entail manipulating things in three dimensions and occur on sites that are constantly evolving. Automation is most effective when doing repeated tasks with predictable results. Developing autonomous vehicles that operate on well-established public routes, which undergo gradual changes, is somewhat simpler in many aspects.
Caterpillar is the leading manufacturer of construction equipment globally and possesses extensive expertise in artificial intelligence. In 2007, the business emerged victorious in Darpa’s self-driving automobile challenge, which entailed a 142-mile race over the Mojave Desert. Furthermore, the company commenced its tests with autonomous trucks in the 1990s. Caterpillar clients presently utilize up to 600 self-driving vehicles provided by the company in various mines globally. However, the company has not yet made automated bulldozers or excavators available for commercial use in construction.
However, this objective was not achieved, even though it was set in 2020 with the intention of boosting sales of software for autonomous machinery management and compensating for a decrease in revenue from heavy-duty equipment. Karl Weiss, the Chief Technology Officer of Caterpillar, has stated that although the company does not currently have semi-automated gear in regular use, it is doing tests on construction sites with a limited number of partners to explore automation in heavy machinery. However, he has chosen not to disclose specific details about these tests.
At what point will those experiments result in autonomous construction machinery effectively performing tasks on construction sites? “We will reach our goal,” Weiss asserts, however, Caterpillar’s collaborators must feel at ease with the level of advancement of the technology.” “There are inherent risks associated with our endeavor, and we are actively engaged in this process, acquiring knowledge and experience along the way. Our aim is to ensure that when we reach the stage of being commercially viable, our customers are well-prepared and feel at ease with our product.”
Weiss says that Caterpillar started work on automating mining operations and construction sites around the same time, more than a decade ago, but automation happened quicker in mines for a few reasons.
First, mines have semi-permanent roads, and being underground lets you safely secure the area. And since mines are generally in remote places where it’s tough to house and feed people, automation can be more attractive. By contrast, construction sites are often short-lived and in a state of constant change, without permanent roads.
Caterpillar, in collaboration with startup Teleo, asserts that achieving completely autonomous construction sites necessitates an initial stage when semi-automated machinery is controlled from a distance by people located elsewhere. During this phase of advancement, individuals who possess the requisite expertise can operate semi-autonomous machines from any location worldwide. This can be accomplished through an interface that has resemblance to a video game, with the possibility of even working remotely from home. Simultaneously, AI specialists will identify recurring jobs that are appropriate for automation
Heavy machine operators today can choose to use some limited automation features, such as automatic grading to make surfaces flat when using a dozer. But the goal, Caterpillar chief engineer Michael Murphy says, is to allow one person to simultaneously operate four or five machines at a time by having algorithms take on much of the work.
Caterpillar equipment in automation experiments today resembles conventional machinery. However, Volvo and Bobcat parent company Doosan, which pledged to commercialize its autonomous Concept-X project by 2025, are already designing machines without cabins where a human operator sits.
Volvo Autonomous Solutions head of communications Ceren Wende says the company has a single cabin-less hauler at work in a limestone quarry in Switzerland and seven autonomous trucks in a mine in Norway but no autonomous heavy equipment operating on construction sites
An excavator without a cabin for a human operator looks striking, says Anthony Levandowski, CEO of startup Pronto.ai, but he predicts that such machines are still “very, very far away” from widespread use
Levandowski was once a founding member of the pep squad predicting that self-driving cars would soon take over. Before pleading guilty to taking confidential information from Google’s Waymo autonomous driving division (and receiving a pardon from former president Trump), he helped catalyze the automated driving industry when, in 2008, he programmed a self-driving Prius to cross the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge (with a police escort) to deliver a pizza.
“I was like, ‘I think we’re about two years away from having this commercializable,’” Levandowski says. “That was 15 years ago.” Today, he judges self-driving cars to have fallen behind. Pronto, like Caterpillar, focuses on automating trucks that travel on predetermined routes in mines and quarries.
Though the trucks can weigh more than 100 tons, it’s significantly easier than autonomous driving on public roads, because the vehicles operate on simpler, privately owned road networks. Employees are trained on how to behave and what to expect around the autonomous machines.
Levandowski says Pronto isn’t working on automating construction. He expects progress will be modest in the next few years, taking on simpler tasks such as automatic grading using a dozer and water trucks for dust suppression.
Built CEO Noah Ready-Campbell says his company’s research and development efforts are now focused on the robotic pile driver, despite the company’s history with automating dozers, skid steers, and excavators. Although the company showed it was possible to dig trenches with automated excavators, it ran into roadblocks when trying to convince customers to embrace automation. “You have to solve a big enough pain point to spur adoption,” Ready-Campbell says. “People will only change behavior if it’s worth it.
