Drones’ Next Job: Construction Work - Driverless bulldozers to replace workers...
Drones’ Next Job: Construction Work
Komatsu to Use Unmanned Aircraft, Bulldozers to Automate
Early Foundation Work
By Jack Nicas
Jan. 20, 2015 10:59 a.m. ET
Construction-equipment maker Komatsu
Ltd. has plans to solve a potential shortage of construction workers in
Japan: Let drones and driverless bulldozers do part of the work.
Tokyo-based Komatsu said Tuesday it plans to use unmanned
aircraft, bulldozers and excavators to automate much of the early foundation
work on construction sites.
Under Komatsu’s plans, U.S.-made drones would scan job
sites from the air and send images to computers to build three-dimensional
models of the terrain. Komatsu’s unmanned bulldozers and excavators would then
use those models to carry out design plans, digging holes and moving earth.
The drones, made by San Francisco startup Skycatch Inc.,
and construction equipment would move along largely preprogrammed routes. The
goal is to automate the construction site, leaving humans to program the
machines and then push a button to send them to work. Human operators would
also monitor progress and can jump in to take control of a machine if
necessary.
Komatsu plans to lease and operate the devices for
customers—a departure from its core business of selling heavy machinery. The
program, dubbed Smart Construction, will begin next month in Japan.
Akinori Onodera, president of the Komatsu unit overseeing
Smart Construction, said Japan’s aging workforce is leading to a shortage of
construction employees there. Automating job sites will help mitigate any
shortage, he said, which is crucial as work ramps up on thousands of
construction projects, including many tied to the 2020 Summer Olympics in
Tokyo. “We have to improve productivity,” Mr. Onodera said.
Mr. Onodera said Komatsu has been working on automating
its machinery for years, but a lack of terrain data that was accurate and
quickly available made it difficult to put the machines into practice. The
company has tried to use ground-based scanners, but they took too long.
“If we want to measure a large construction site,
measuring by air is much, much easier,” Mr. Onodera said. “The old way needed
two persons for one week. The [drones] can do it in one or two hours” for a
similar-size site.
Skycatch Chief Executive Christian Sanz said his company
is hoping to provide drones “to scale to thousands of [Komatsu’s] sites all
over the world, shaving costs and time for a safer work environment.” Skycatch
says Komatsu plans to lease at least 200 drones from it over the next several
years.
Companies have started employing automated trucks and
other equipment at mines in recent years, but Komatsu’s program appears to be
one of the most ambitious plans to automate work in a setting as dynamic as a
construction site.
The Skycatch drones are programmed to automatically fly
over a set area and use sensors to collect data on the terrain below. The
drones even return to ground stations and swap in new batteries when power is
running low.
Komatsu said it plans to overlay civil-engineering plans
onto the drones’ 3D models and then load that data into its unmanned bulldozers
and excavators. As the machinery dig holes and level land, they will also use
on-board sensors to collect data on how the site’s layout is changing.
“We believe there is big potential” in automation, Mr.
Onodera said. “We think this is the future job site.”
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