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Self-Driving Track Loader Debuts on Construction Sites

via Youtubevia Youtube

The ATL is powered by a rooftop cargo carrier that is filled with electronic equipment, including Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR).  LIDAR utilizes a pulsing laser in order to measure distance and range from objects around it. These lasers are specifically designed to withstand high-vibration and high-impact environments, like the ones found in the construction industry.

Once the coordinates are loaded into the ATL’s software, it uses the LIDAR and GPS, which is accurate to the nearest centimeter, to get to work cutting and dumping the soil. Another sensor on board the robot allows it to avoid collisions, but as Wired points out, a supervisor with a large red and orange kill switch must remain on site to shut it down, if needed. 

The ATL is only being used on small pilot projects in the San Francisco area at the moment, but the Built Robotics team believes we’ll start seeing robots on job sites well before self-driving cars hit US roads.

This robot is not a speed demon, however, as its makers only claim that it can match the pace of a human worker.  Robots can obviously make up for speed with overall duration of work, however, as long as there are not restricted work hours and noise ordinances.

You can check out a short video of the ATL below:

Concrete is an extremely strong building material, but has a notoriously weak tensile strength.  In order to resist tension, bending, and shear forces, steel rebar or other reinforcement materials are added either prior to the placement or into the mix.  Even with reinforcement, concrete is still extremely rigid and prone to cracking.  In the event of a major earthquake, the uneven and horizontal forces can cause structures to crack and, in the worst case, cause failure.

The immense technological growth the construction industry has seen in the past decade has been a refreshing change, to say the least.  Fax machines, large filing cabinets, and redundant work are slowly becoming a thing of the past. More importantly, software developers are actually paying attention to the construction industry, making our lives collectively easier, while giving us more data to make better decisions. Bluebeam, maker of one of the industry’s favorite construction document software, has recently announced a wireless digital sensor specifically for under construction buildings.

In July, we shared an article about a new augmented reality app that would allow iPhone and iPad users to use their devices’s camera as a tape measure.  That app, Air Measure, is now available for download after Apple’s iOs 11 release. 

As electric vehicles are becoming more and more popular around the world, researchers are trying to find ways to adapt the technology to heavier duty applications.  Due to the large size of projects and amount of money in the industry, the mining industry has seen its fair share of technological advancement. Several manufacturers, like Komatsu, have developed and released driverless dump trucks for mining operations in the past few years.  A team of companies in Switzerland is now working on a gigantic battery powered dump truck that will be tested for 10 years.

Video feeds on a construction site are not only great for timelapse videos, they can potentially help stop intruders who enter your site.

On August 18th, around 200 new tools were showcased at the annual DeWalt Media Event.  This particular event was held in Nashville, Tennessee, where you can’t escape country music no matter how hard you try.

Below are what we thought were the highlights of the event.  Let us know what new release you’re most excited about!

Falls from height is one of the leading causes of death among construction workers and ladders are a major contributor to that number. According to the CDC, falls from ladders caused 64 fatalities and 11,500 injuries in the construction industry alone in 2011. There are many things ladder users can do to make their work safer, like setting it at proper angles on level ground, checking for damage, and maintaining 3 points of contact, among others. One technology company is trying to take some of the thinking out of ladder set up.