I N D U S T R Y I N N O VAT I O N
through something over the phone with somebody we can
go into the machine and trouble-shoot it right away. And,
if we do have to go out to the site, it’s usually because it’s
been determined there’s a hardware issue and we know
exactly what we’re getting into before we go.”
While fully autonomous vehicles have been tested at
oilsands operations and mining sites, they’re not yet commonplace
on road building projects. Birch says autonomous
vehicles will eventually be used on road building sites, but
the concern just now is how to ensure workers are safe.
Workers on a road building site could be outfitted with
sensors so they’re detected by the vehicles, he notes, but
the problem is that such sites are busy places and people
often wander onto them.
“You’ve got third-party trucking companies that are
trucking in material. It’s also not in the middle of nowhere
so you can’t keep the general public out. You try to keep
them out, but on a highway project, for example, you
can’t be sure that someone’s not going to walk onto the
site somewhere.”
While drones are already in use on road building sites
to provide engineers with an overview of a project, Birch
envisions the day when robots, along with augmented and
virtual reality, become common tools.
Sometime in the future, he says, an architect will be
able to hold up a smartphone and use augmented reality
technology to get an image of what a building might look
like on a site before it’s built.
“If you go on a site you could hold up your phone and
say, ‘Oh, that’s where that building is going,’” he said.
Exoskeletons for workers are also in the cards, he says.
“You’ll be able to put on this exoskeleton and lift 50
pounds with one finger. Those are the technologies that
are being used in the industry these days and that’s where
the puck is going to.”
Mohammed, meanwhile, figures that telematics –
whereby computers and sensors in the heavy equipment
receive and send information that can be used to improve
operations – is destined to expand.
Data from an excavator, for example, could provide
information on how many loads were transferred and
Tatiana Shepeleva/123rf
While drones are already in
use on road building sites
to provide engineers with
an overview of a project,
Birch envisions the day
when robots, along with
augmented and virtual reality,
become common tools.
number of kilometres that were driven, which could lead
to a larger bucket being installed so the machine can carry
a bigger load and make fewer trips, or take a shorter route
to save fuel.
“At one time, we would collect information and all
these data points from how the cycle times occurred for
hauling and dumping and we analyzed that manually, but
now the computers can do all that for us.” n
This story originally appeared in The Journal of Commerce
on June 24, 2019. It is republished with permission.
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