While self-driving cars have gotten the attention, the market for autonomous construction vehicles has been quietly building.
California legislators are considering whether to allow fully autonomous cars and trucks on the road as early as June. And Deutsche Post DHL has announced it may start testing self-driving trucks in 2018, likely in Germany.
But while automakers are logging those firsts, the $10 trillion global construction industry has been experimenting with autonomous vehicles. In Pilbara, Western Australia, global mining firm Rio Tinto uses 73 autonomous trucks to haul iron ore 24 hours a day. The company has been using self-driving construction vehicles since 2015.
If such vehicles — which take advantage of robotics and advanced artificial intelligence — live up to their promise, it will make the construction industry both safer and more efficient.
Major Players Jump In
All of the biggest construction equipment manufacturers have announced plans to offer autonomous vehicles. But Japan’s Komatsu, which supplies self-driving trucks for Rio Tinto, is the furthest ahead. Komatsu is aiming to both provide autonomous equipment and virtualize construction areas so they can be analyzed by humans and machines.
In late 2017, Komatsu announced a deal with Nvidia to use its GPU chips to visualize and analyze construction sites for such use. The deal is the latest for the Komatsu Smart Construction initiative, which the company launched in 2015 to connect data related to on-site workers and machines to make them more productive.
Autonomous trucks are integral to Komatsu’s vision of digitized construction projects. At this writing, Komatsu has the world’s largest fleet of autonomous bulldozers, dump trucks and excavators.
Although Komatsu is the leader, it is not alone. Here’s what the other major construction equipment manufacturers are doing on this front:
- Caterpillar has announced it will provide self-driving technology to Fortescue Metals Group for mining, also in Western Australia. The company will retrofit its own vehicles and old Komatsu trucks.
- Hitachi Construction Machinery has tested three autonomous Hitachi EH-5000 trucks at a coal mine in Queensland, Australia.
- Volvo Construction Equipment announced last year a prototype autonomous wheel loader and articulated hauler.
Startups Eye The Market
Any of several startups could disrupt the market for autonomous construction equipment. Chief among them is Built Robotics, created by ex-Googler Noah Ready-Campbell. The company, which has developed a self-driving bulldozer, has raised $15 million to bring the fledgling product to market.
Another is Cyngn, formerly known as Cyanogen, which recently pivoted from developing smartphone operating systems to autonomous vehicles, according to Recode. Other startups in this market segment include Cooper Gray Robotics, which makes autonomous skid steer loaders; Fastbrick Robotics, which makes CAD-based robotic systems that build an average-size wall in two days; and Cazza, which makes robots that use 3-D printing to build structures.
Why Construction?
Proponents of autonomous construction vehicles say they will be safer, use less fuel and produce fewer emissions. While these are the same claims that proponents of autonomous vehicles make generally, there are some benefits that are specific to the construction industry.
First, construction is a relatively dangerous industry. Some 10,000 injuries in the United States each year are associated with construction vehicles and other machinery. Autonomous vehicles could reduce that number by removing humans from dangerous work sites.
Second, the construction industry is facing a severe labor shortage. About 60 percent of construction companies have had trouble hiring skilled workers, according to the Commercial Construction Index. Autonomous vehicles could help fill that gap.
Finally, construction is among the least efficient industries. Productivity in the sector has remained pretty much the same since 1945, according to a recent McKinsey report. Comparatively, over that time period, there has been a 1,500 percent boost in productivity in agriculture, manufacturing and retail. In part, that’s because construction is cyclical, highly regulated and dependent upon public sector demand. But adding to the problem, the industry puts relatively little into research and development and is highly fragmented. McKinsey estimates that by instituting improved technologies, including autonomous construction vehicles, the industry could improve productivity by 50 to 60 percent.
Boon Or Menace?
Many fear that self-driving construction equipment will prompt huge layoffs. The World Economic Forum predicts that by 2020, automation will cost the industry a half-million jobs worldwide. The rebuttal to such claims is that self-driving construction equipment will prompt the need for high-skilled labor to oversee the machines and perhaps even train them.
How autonomous construction equipment becomes part of everyday work is one of the biggest questions of the next decade, not only for the construction businesses but also for other industries that stand to benefit from autonomous machines.
