Intermat 2024: European premiere of Develon Concept-X 2.0 machines

Develon Concept-X 2.0 excavator (Photo: PPI)

Develon has held the European premiere of two Concept-X 2.0 machines at the Intermat trade show, being held at the Paris Nord Villepinte exhibition ground.

The two models involved in the unveil were the DD100-CX dozer and DX225-CX crawler excavator. A live demonstration of the autonomous-capable machines was available throughout the event.

Both machines feature a linear design, in part thanks to there being no operator cabin on the body.

The Concept-X 2.0 machines can be operated in three ways. The first involves remote control by an on-site operator. The second has machine control managed by a remote operator, with delivery of commands for the machine transmitted over the internet. At Bauma 2022 in Munich, a predecessor of the current concept models was operated using commands from South Korea.

The third has the machines operating autonomously using preprogrammed information, such as machine position and topography of the surrounding site, combined with data collected by sensors on the machines.

The core benefit of the Concept-X is X-Center, the control system which allows the user to view the equipment on the construction site.

The Concept-X 2.0 dozer uses a 129 kW diesel engine (Photo: PPI)

Using information from various sources, including scans carried out by drones, the machines can receive instruction, while supporting integration of on-site fleets.

There is also a Prognostics and Health Management systems which supports equipment analysis to diagnose machine condition and alert users to the possible failures. Maintenance history can be taken into account, measuring the anticipated lifetime of a given part versus the actual working lifetime.

Improvements to the Concept-X 1.0 include a new 3D MC algorithm which is reported to deliver a 13% improvement in work efficiency. The algorithm also supports more detailed and complex operations.

The Concept-X 2.0 Dozer further features advanced safety technology, including 180-degree detection of people and objects in the near vicinity. The relationship between people and machines is set to be further enhanced with the debut of Concept-X 3.0 tech.