Workers are expanding a high-traffic intersection near my home and I’ve been watching the progress they and the heavy machinery are making in almost doubling its size.
Yesterday, as I drove through it, I noticed that two of the corners were being dug out for utility rerouting. As I sat at the red light I noticed two young people, one on each corner holding tablets but they weren’t just standing around, one was operating a small square yellow articulated box about 8’ long and 5’ wide from his vantage point above the hole and operating it remotely. I’m not sure exactly what it was doing.
The other was remotely operating a large excavator using her tablet. What I found interesting was the older workers were driving the dump trucks, shoveling dirt, and flagging traffic.
Then I read an article about remotely operated construction equipment from For Construction Pros about the very thing I witnessed.
Offroad equipment technology is evolving to enable fewer operators with less skill to do more either on-site or from a remote, centralized location while automating with a higher degree of accuracy.
Longtime operators of offroad construction equipment may be extremely facile with travel sticks and pedals or levers for blades, booms, and end effectors. But an expert operator in every cab is already hard to achieve, and demographic patterns and the volume of work projected suggest it will get even harder.
Operate Anywhere: Remote Operation
Technologies that enable an operator to control an excavator, wheel loader or other piece of equipment remotely have been on the market since Cat first began exploring remote operation in 2015, leading to the launch of Cat Command and regular expansions to more and more of the Cat product line from line-of-sight control Cat 988 wheel loaders in 2017 to loading, dozing and excavating operations in 2020 and excavating in 2021.
CLICK HERE to read the entire For Construction Pros article about the Four Trends.
CLICK HERE TO READ JULY’S ISSUE
Gary Fleisher, the Modcoach, author
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