The Elusive Dream of Fully Autonomous Construction Vehicles has been much talked about in recent years, prompting the likes of heavy equipment makers to launch initiatives in this field. Just like self-driving cars, perfecting this technology has proven to be a challenging task. When the idea was first floated a couple of years back, it held a lot of promise, including the possibility of drastically reducing traffic accidents as well as solving construction issues for housing and infrastructure.
Built Robotics, a company led by CEO Noah Ready-Campbell, was one of the first to start testing autonomous excavators. Back then, they predicted that the technology would be commonplace on construction sites much sooner than autonomous cars on public roads. However, after close to seven years working on trenches, the team announced shifts in their focus towards the installation of solar farms. To that end, they launched the RPD-35, a robotic pile driver capable of smashing steel beams into the ground. Ready-Campbell stated that they would be committing more time to solar projects and that it would likely become the dominant form of energy in the US in the next 10 to 20 years.
Despite some progress made in terms of autonomous vehicles in both China and the US, the same can’t be said for AI in construction. Major companies such as Caterpillar, Doosan and Volvo have been involved in experiments with heavy-duty machinery for construction sites, but the technology is yet to become widely available. This is due to the difficulties of manipulating objects in a 3D space and the unpredictable nature of a construction site. Meanwhile, other firms like Caterpillar have had more success in making safe self-driving cars, as the roads tend to change more slowly.
Caterpillar is a world-renowned manufacturer of construction equipment and has extensive experience in the field of AI. The company made headlines in 2007 for their autonomous car created for the Darpa Challenge, and since then, they have managed to roll out almost 600 autonomous trucks in mines around the world. They set an ambitious target to increase the sales of autonomous machinery software in 2020 in response to a drop in revenue from heavy-duty equipment, but so far they have yet to make any fully automated dozers or excavators available for construction.
Now, let us talk about the company Built Robotics.Built Robotics was started with a vision of bringing automation to the construction industry. Founded in 2017, their mission is to train machines to do larger tasks on the construction sites than ever before. Off late, the team has shifted its focus towards the installation of solar farms, and in lieu of that, they have roll out their very own robotic pile driver, RPD-35.
Now, let us discuss the person mentioned in the article, CEO Noah Ready-Campbell. Ready-Campbell is an industry veteran with a wealth of knowledge in robotics and automation. He is the cofounder and CEO at Built Robotics, a company started with a view to make construction sites safer, faster and more efficient. He was the brain behind the shift of focus of the company towards the installation of solar farms and he is determined to make this venture a success. He believes that with the help of the recent climate-change and infrastructure fund passed by the Congress, solar energy will dominate the US energy grid in the future.
