AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES
our highway?” says Niccolini. “As a research
center and part of a big global group, we have to
look to the horizon, and we have to be ready.
There are a lot of technologies we need to prepare
for the next generation. We need to be equipped
when this moment comes as many technologies,
even if well-established in the factory
environment, need to be modified and improved
in order to work in the field.”
Numerous disciplines within the building
construction processes are ripe to be robotized.
At the same time there is demand from the yards
to increase productivity, improve quality and
enhance the safety of the operators. With the
massive introduction of building information
modelling (BIM) in buildings design and yards
management, everything is becoming digitalized,
thus facilitating robots to be introduced into
construction processes.
Last words
“We strongly believe that the introduction of
robots will gradually transform the construction
site to a temporary factory where robots and
humans work together in a clean, well-organized
environment,” says Niccolini. “Progress is being
driven by improvement in the performance
of sensors and batteries, and also the
computational power of the CPU. Tiny electronic
components with a very high computational
power allowing the robots to reason are being
developed. There are new algorithms and
technologies that allow robots to recognize their
surrounding environment by means of vision and
artificial intelligence. Plus a thriving robotics
community is sharing tools and code between
universities and organizations. We know where
the future is heading.” iVT
42 iVT International Off-Highway 2020
The concept vehicle
combines robotics,
machine vision and
autonomy, with
electric power
“WE STRONGLY BELIEVE THAT THE
INTRODUCTION OF ROBOTS WILL GRADUALLY
TRANSFORM THE CONSTRUCTION SITE INTO
A TEMPORARY FACTORY WHERE ROBOTS AND
HUMANS WORK TOGETHER IN A CLEAN AND
WELL-ORGANIZED ENVIRONMENT”
Marta Niccolini, robotic group leader, Yanmar Compact Equipment