OEM INTERVIEW CATERPILLAR
ABOVE: Cat Connect offers
advanced telematics to
enhance fl eet management
time, he expects jobsites to become
substantially automated through the
multiplication and coalescence of
single, automatic functions.
“We’ve been automating
machines for a long time,” Rio
re ects. “Grade control; assist
features; automatic compaction;
traction control; auto-steer;
steer-to-line. ose capabilities
will increase and culminate in
machines which do more and more
things automatically.”
The march of automation
Each Caterpillar product group has
a multigenerational plan to
introduce automated functions
which will progressively trickle to
market. It has begun pushing overthe
air so ware updates to NextGen
Hex excavators to improve
automatics and could release
hardware kits to augment existing
machines’ capabilities. “We’ve
discussed teaching an excavator to
trench,” says Rio. “Maybe the next
year, we release a so ware kit which
teaches it to load trucks. e
following year, we might release an
auto-dig kit. You can foresee a Cat
excavator somebody bought in 2020
becoming more and more
automated in the next ve years.”
Rio expects automation, not
autonomy, to de ne future
construction. Autonomy implies
machines making their own
decisions, but automation will still
involve instructing machines to
perform speci c tasks. “However
smart systems become, there will
always be a human element,” he
24 iVTInternational.com February 2020
predicts. “Somebody will need to
validate all the proposed actions.
Machines may get stuck or become
confused from time to time. ere
are some operations we don’t see
value in automating, like laying pipe
in a trench – unless, in the farfuture,
we start 3D-printing that
pipe.” He foresees a tra c-controller
approach with single operators
overseeing a jostle of machines
executing automated cycles, with the
remote-control station as a fulcrum
for the entire site.
Reshaping the world
Another fundamental development
will be the shi from managing
individual machines to digitally
optimising work across a whole site
or project. “In automotive
autonomy, each car has its own,
independent mission and it’s a good
day if they don’t interact,” says Rio.
“But in construction, there is one
shared goal which all equipment
must work towards in concert. You
need a way to co-ordinate those
machines: we deem that to be
Supervisory Control.” is, too, is
already beginning.
“ e industry has focused on
telematics for condition- and eetmonitoring,”
Rio continues. “But
with the advent of cloud-processing
and faster telematic rates, we’re
shi ing to using the data from assets
to manage the work. at involves
being more proactive and
prognostic. We might tell you
when you have a truck too many,
or are a couple short. By learning
the di erences between operators,
we could tell you when there’s
a training opportunity.”
Caterpillar has already released
MineStar, a Supervisory Control
solution for mining. “ e
autonomous truck module knows
two things: the mission, and how
things are right now,” Rio explains.
“ en it asks: ‘How do we close that
gap – between how things are and
how things should be?’ It needs to
know what the nal geometry or
topography should be – and
a real-time appended geospatial
model, or virtual twin, of how it is.
at creates the gap, that says:
‘You’re high over here, so take from
the high-spot and dump in the lowspot’.”
is dynamic facsimile will
depend on data from a range of
machine sources. Survey drones
will provide a working baseline
and machine lidars will provide
rich, dynamic datasets. Working
machines will generate the
data which refashions the real
world on the ideal template they
are working to.
“We want to understand where
the puck will be,” Fred Rio
concludes, “because that’s where
we need to skate to. My predecessors
were o en frustrated because they
had the vision and some of the
technology, but the market wasn’t
ready. But it’s ready now –
and I really believe a digital
transformation is happening
while we speak. Instead of being
a frustrated pusher, now I’m being
stretched and pulled and customers
want me to travel faster than my
legs can go!” iVT
“MAYBE WE’LL
RELEASE
SOFTWARE THAT
TEACHES AN
EXCAVATOR TO
LOAD TRUCKS”
Fred Rio, Caterpillar
/iVTInternational.com