Caterpillar sees autonomy moving closer on construction sites

Caterpillar is the world’s largest construction OEM by sales. Image; Caterpillar

Speaking to International Construction at ConExpo in Las Vegas, US, Mineart said customer demand for improved productivity and labour efficiency is accelerating the adoption of new technologies.

“In general, everyone’s getting quicker to adopt technology because they have to; they have to stay competitive,” she said. “There’s more demand for construction than our customers have the ability to serve.”

While autonomy has already been widely adopted in mining, Mineart said advances in artificial intelligence, edge computing and simulation are bringing construction sites closer to greater levels of automation.

“Even a couple of years ago, bringing autonomy into construction felt impossible. It’s very chaotic. You have to make split-second decisions. There’s constant change in the operation. There’s a lot of construction that’s not repeatable,” she says.

“But now with edge computing, AI models, data and simulation we can use all of that information to train our models for a more variable jobsite, enabling us to bring a lot more autonomy into a construction site.”

Mineart also highlighted the link between autonomy and electrification, suggesting automation could help optimise charging and improve productivity on jobsites.

“In my mind, you really need autonomy to maximise the value of electrification,” she said.

A full interview with Mineart, exploring Caterpillar’s technology roadmap in more detail, will appear in the upcoming issue of International Construction.