Future
JACK ROPER, iVT INTERNATIONAL
control
PRIOR TO CONEXPO, CATERPILLAR’S FRED RIO SPOKE TO
iVT ABOUT REMOTE CONTROLLED, DIGITAL WORKSITES AND
HOW CONSTRUCTION VEHICLES ARE ALREADY EVOLVING
RAPIDLY TO REQUIRE LESS AND LESS HUMAN INPUT
Fred Rio already works in the
future. Indeed, we all do: but we
might not have noticed it arriving.
Caterpillar envisage three macrotrends
shaping construction sites in
the next decade: the convergence of
automated functions, digital
supervisory control and remotecontrolled
machines. This vision
itself is far from remote; it is arriving
already, by steady instalments which
will build to a critical mass and carry
us over a threshold of digital
adoption we may never realise is
there: until one day, we wake up to
find that machines no longer need
humans to control them – except,
perhaps, at Command stations.
Cat Command enables a user to
operate a dozer from a remotecontrol
station situated up to 400m
away. An over-the-shoulder console
can be used for short tasks, and
longer duty cycles are performed
from the comfort of a seated
operator station with familiar cab
22 iVTInternational.com February 2020
layout, working efficiently with
near-real-time machine sound and
video feeds. Cat expect remotecontrol
stations to provide the focal
point for connected and automated
jobsites of the future, bringing
benefits which are manifold.
Reasons to go remote
“The first benefit is safety,” says Rio,
Caterpillar’s worldwide product
manager for construction digital
and technology. “If people aren’t in
harm’s way, they can’t get hurt.”
Removing the human from the
machine eliminates danger to life in
hazardous applications like steel
mills, demolition, work on hard or
soft ground, or under embankments.
“The flipside is, with no operator, can
we now perform the job faster,
possibly taking more risks. If only a
properly-shielded machine is at risk,
you could save time on high-wall
maintenance by starting at the
bottom instead of the top. Pioneering
customers have cut the timeline of
certain operations by 50%.”
Remote control could improve
staff utilisation, allowing operators
to guide multiple machines from
a single terminal. “Then there are
unforeseen benefits,” says Rio. “An
airport contractor spends forever
certifying personnel to work on
airside, but they often leave after
a few weeks. If he set up remotecontrol
stations outside, he would
no longer need to certify people.”
Command for dozing has been
available for five years, but with
ConExpo 2020 in prospect, Cat’s
next-generation Command offering
will centre on a universal station
which can connect to several
machines of different families and
sizes. “From the same Command
station, one operator will be able to
switch from trenching with an
excavator, to using a dozer to
backfill, then finally picking up a
compactor to wrap things up – all at
the touch of a button,” says Rio. “It’s
eerie to see a humanless jobsite: the
machines are running around, but
there isn’t anybody on them.” The
future according to Caterpillar is not
one of self-driving vehicles so much
as the Command station as focal
point for remotely-guided machines
which perform increasingly
automated tasks with diminishing
human intervention.
“A Cat NextGen excavator comes
factory-instrumented so we always
know where the bucket-tip is,” Rio
explains. “We might plausibly release
a kit with a stereo camera and ECM
engine control unit which allows
that machine to perform autotrenching.
The remote-control user
could log into the machine, teach it
where the trench should be by
driving along a line, then hit auto. It
would trench automatically for
20 minutes while the user picks up
another machine. That’s one user,
two machines. As machines get
smarter, 20 minutes becomes an
hour and instead of two machines
maybe I can tend six, just tweaking
and approving instructions
suggested by software rather than
programming them. That’s how
autonomy unfolds.”
Rio’s grand vision
The future will not be unveiled
complete on one bright morning far
from now, but arrive by increments,
barely noticed. “We’re not going into
the lab then coming out to deliver
the jobsite of the future in 10 years’
time,” says Rio. “There’s no big bang.
We won’t realise what’s happened
until we look back. Today, operators
don’t operate blades: that’s done by
GPS. There are satellites in the sky,
millimetre-controlling a blade in
Ghana. It’s mind-blowing, but
nobody really marvels at it.” Over
BELOW: Digitisation is
already helping workers to
understand their machines
– in the future it will enable
direct control of multiple
vehicles simultaneously
/iVTInternational.com