ARE AUTONOMY, Al, AND ALTERNATIVE POWER ROAD CONSTRUCTION'S FUTURE?

Research and development teams across the sector are working on autonomous solutions, electric power and increased digital integration – Andy Brown asks just how different road construction could look by 2030?

Ammann soil compactors at work in Germany

(Background image) Ammann soil compactors at work in Germany

The road construction sector is continually changing and evolving. By the year 2030 it is likely that the trends that we see now will have accelerated rapidly, such as in the areas of sustainability and new technology.

“Like in many other industries, digitalisation will have a huge impact on roadbuilding in the future. Many countries are working on or are on their way to establishing BIM (Building Information Modelling) methodologies for infrastructure projects,” comments Hans-Jürgen Vogel, product manager at Volvo Construction Equipment.

“For instance, Germany’s Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructures master plan foresees building and maintaining all major highways from 2025 onwards with digital methods. This will be one of the challenges to ensuring data flow from the planning stage to the machine control systems on our pavers and rollers. Furthermore, automation and alternative drive systems will increase the technology level dramatically in the next five to ten years.”

Hans-Jürgen Vogel, product manager at Volvo Construction Equipment

Research and development

That increase in the technology level in road equipment is something that is being worked on now – it doesn’t happen overnight. Research and development teams are developing solutions now that may well be commercialised and used in the next few years.

There is no doubt that digitalisation is increasing in road construction

Vinci Autoroutes recently announced the completion of a new 24km-long bypass in France with a strong environmental integration focus

FULL PROCESS DIGITISATION

Wirtgen’s WITOS FleetView fleet management system is one way for those in road construction to make processes more efficient by using system-supported processing, sharing, visualisation, and analysis of machine and position data.

The solution offers a variety of features, from monitoring the operating status of machines on a daily basis to supporting maintenance and diagnostic processes – thereby minimising response times and downtimes and optimising maintenance work. WITOS data can also be imported into existing systems via suitable interfaces.

The SmartServices inspection and maintenance agreements are said to complement fleet management features. With WITOS FleetView, customers can keep track of where their machines are and what operating mode they are in, at any time and from any location, allowing them to respond to upcoming maintenance work to ensure machines retain their value over the long term.

The Wirtgen Group has developed intelligent software solutions and integrated them into the WITOS infrastructure in the form of modules to optimise the process of connecting value chains in planning, execution, and operation. Practical WITOS modules are available for the documentation of projects using construction machinery from Wirtgen, Vögele, and Hamm.

China-based LiuGong is working on an automated roller for the sector. Mr Tan, general manager for LiuGong road equipment, says that they have partnered with a contractor to test the product and solve any issues, such as signal failure.

He says that, “LiuGong has made more effort for this automation control,” and that, due to the testing, “I believe that, probably in another two years, we will have a much better machine.”

This technology adoption is happening– albeit at different speeds – around the word. “There is no doubt that digitalisation is increasing in road construction. Interestingly, we’ve seen that adoption rates have varied geographically, and a particularly exciting territory we are seeing uptake in is Africa,” says Sjoerd Stoové, team manager, 3D paving for professional services at Topcon Positioning Group.

“Increased investment in African infrastructure is improving internal transport links and giving tourism a boost with more frequent flights in and out of busy international airports. The key to success for a lot of these projects is a smooth, quick and reliable paving process, which is why digitalisation and automation is so vital.”

Sustainability focus

Road construction that is taking place now is already focused on sustainability. For example, Vinci Autoroutes recently announced the completion of a €561 million (US$607 million) project to build a new 24km-long bypass in France. Of this, approximately €130 million (US$141 million) of the total cost of the A355 in Western Strasbourg went towards environmental integration.

To offset the negative environmental impact of its construction, 1,315 hectares (13,150,000m2) of land was ‘re-natured’ to allow biodiversity to flourish. In fact, the ‘renatured’ area is approximately four times greater than the area covered by the road – and the bypass itself includes 130 passages that allow safe crossing for wildlife.

Furthermore, through the rerouting of up to half of the heavy goods vehicles that use the A35 motorway (renamed M35), Vinci says the A355 will save up to ten million hours of time lost by drivers each year, helping to lower air and noise pollution in the area through shared, low-carbon mobility solutions.

LiuGong is working on automation and electric powered road equipment

Vinci called the project a “new generation highway” and said it was “the culmination of a project launched in October 2018 after three years of studies and preparatory work, which involved 6,000 people and over 300 companies.”

Volvo CE’s Hans-Jürgen Vogel says that reducing emissions is, “an increasingly important factor for road construction sites. Local authorities in many countries impose limits on CO2 emissions and/or make them part of the tender requirements.”

Mr Tan, general manager for LiuGong road equipment

Ralf Brutschin, strategic commercial manager, light equipment at Ammann, agrees that sustainability and emissions are key considerations. He comments that, “Emissions have been driving machine development for the last few years. This is a key focus for Ammann – and that commitment has delivered enormous improvements in our product portfolio.

“Think about where emissions are now, compared to ten years ago. Our 11 tonne heavy soil compactor produces the same amount of CO2 emission as a small family car, which is absolutely amazing.”

A key point driving the industry’s emissions output is that many governments and cities are starting to demand that the equipment used in them is emissions-free. “Major European cities require emission-free machines in their city centres. The government mandates it, so contractors must have that equipment if they want to land those jobs,” says Brutschin.

“At the moment, ‘emission-free’ essentially means electric drive. More manufacturers are marketing these machines, and contractors and rental houses are looking for them.”

LiuGong’s Tan adds that the China-based OEM is also working on an electric-powered model but that issues with the battery life remain. “I would say the working time is only six hours per day, so there is still a gap between the demand and what is available. The price is also another problem, but I believe this will be solved in several years.”

Looking ahead to the future

There’s no doubt that alternative power sources (whether that is electric, hydrogen, fuel cells or something completely different) and autonomy are widely seen across the industry as two of the biggest changes that the sector will see by 2030. However, it is worth pointing out that autonomy happens in stages – it is not a case that the industry will go from no autonomy to full autonomy in the blink of an eye.

Regarding autonomous machines, Scott Crozier, general manager for Trimble says that, in the next few years, “the reality is there might be one or two of these machines operating in a very specific environment doing a very specific task. However, in general, the mass adoption is going to be in increasing levels of assistance on these machines to help less skilled operators be as effective as skilled operators.”

Technology is increasingly being integrated in all types of road construction equipment

This is a key point – the biggest benefit that autonomy provides (for the moment, at least) is in providing operator assistance, in making operators perform their job better. The much-publicised skills shortage only makes this importance even greater.

Many OEMs are integrating features into their equipment that provide more data for operators, such as Volvo CE’s Pave Assist

“The technology level on pavers is already quite high but can still be improved. A higher degree of automation in all aspects of the roadbuilding process will also increase efficiency. I think it is no secret that we can find even more room for improvement in process optimisation,” says Volvo CE’s Hans-Jürgen Vogel.

“That still requires some development in open interfaces and standardisation for mixed fleet job sites. Volvo already offers Pave Assist at the core of paving to support paving crews to keep track of their work and provide process data that they would usually need to acquire manually.”

NEW OPTION FOR ROLLING ROADS

Road Widener has released a new spray bar system that increases the versatility of the patented Offset Vibratory Roller attachment. This accessory fits on all Offset Vibratory Roller attachments and aids in suppressing dust particles, compacting aggregates and preventing clumping when rolling hot mix asphalt.

It can be easily attached to the Offset Vibratory Roller, a compaction attachment that allows the host machine to drive safely on flat ground while compacting shoulders, ditches, trenches and other hard-to-reach areas alongside the road. The company says that the spray bar system will allow contractors to increase efficiency and versatility when compacting a variety of materials including asphalt, stone, gravel and topsoil.

Lynn Marsh, Road Widener president, said, “We’re excited to now offer the spray bar system for the Offset Vibratory Roller. We knew the attachment was capable of many forms of compaction, but it was not until the product reached our customers that we realised its full potential.”

Trimble has a paving control platform for compactors

While accepting that the technology won’t change overnight, what might the road construction sector look like in 2030? Eight years, in terms of how quickly technology evolves, is actually quite a long time in this fast-paced world.

“What I do see in 2030 is actually a combination of robotic or autonomous machines working on a site doing repetitive tasks, maybe things like trenching, loading trucks, bulk loading. I think compactors will be one of the first machines that we will see – they are relatively repetitive and simplified,” says Trimble’s Crozier.

“I think we’re going to see mixed machines, with mixed technologies, and I think we’re going to have mixed autonomous and operating machines, all working cohesively, managed by, or instructed and guided by, a site management system. I think the site management system becomes the brains, the intelligence of the site.”

Transformational decade

Topcon’s Stoové agrees that technology will be increasing integrated into all processes. “Looking to the future, as digital adoption increases in construction, we will no doubt be innovating to deliver more autonomous solutions for paving,” he says. “One thing is for certain though – the next decade will be transformational.”

A site with a significant number of machines operating autonomously that are all able to share data, despite being a mixed fleet from various OEMs with different software packages from competing technology companies, would be a significant change.

One of the key things with AI, which powers automation, is that the more decisions that autonomous machines and software make, the better they become. The more data they have to study and evaluate, the smarter they become. This means that, in the future, the whole process of road construction – even from initially placing the bid – could be automated. “

When we think of automation and construction, one of the biggest focuses for my team is automating decisions. There’s the autonomous machine itself, but how do we help make some of those decisions contractors have to make better and simpler?” asks Patrick Stevenson, general manager of Civil Construction Software at Trimble.

By using all of the data that Trimble has accumulated from around the world, by looking at all of the different decisions that have been made and running all the scenarios, better decisions can be made. “I also think that by 2030, we are going to see this evolution in project delivery, for sure,” adds Stevenson. Technology that can help contractors through the whole process of road construction, from the bidding to the planning and execution, really would be transformational. iC

Augmented reality at use in road construction