Hyundai announced that they will be showcasing Concept X, their smart construction technology, at CES 2022.
Hyundai Concept X is said to be the world’s first smart construction solution that successfully demonstrated the entire process from the measurement to the use of equipment to be automatically operated without any human intervention.
In other words, Hyundai is showing off their new robotic construction equipment with the suggestion that it’s more than just proof of concept, but a peak at what is to come.
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The goal of this “smart” and unmanned equipment is to save time and cost while increasing productivity and improving safety at the construction site.
Hyundai press materials start off by saying:
Steel-toed work boots and hard hats not required. The construction worker of tomorrow is a desk jockey in a control booth managing reams of incoming data.
The premise sounds plausible, with work beginning with drones that measure and analyze the topography of the construction site and create a 3D operation plan.
The robotic construction equipment would be brought in next, including excavators, wheel loaders, and dump trucks.
Self-diagnostics and reporting would be carried out to monitor operating conditions and alert management about any possible problems.
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The “X-Center” lives at the heart of things, and tis is where the user and fleet manager monitor everything that is happening at the jobsite.
Concept-X doesn’t simply involve robotic equipment that is remotely controlled; there are autonomous implementations as well.
The unmanned excavator, for example, will be able to:
- Recognize surrounding environment
- Estimate and carry out local work sequences & operation trajectory
- [Navigate] driving routes autonomously
Its control system is said to help prevent collision and roll-over.
Hyundai’s head of his initiative says that:
Automated and unmanned machinery using artificial intelligence, big data, cloud, and other advanced ICTs will dominate the market.
Hyundai Doosan Infracore announced Concept-X in 2019 – at least going by their launch video. The latest announcements do not elaborate on how they have “demonstrated the entire process,” but the company says they expect their first commercial solutions to be ready by 2025.
Jared
I figure this had to happen eventually. It must be tricky though – I imagine having autonomous vehicles analyze terrain that can be bumpy, slippery, soft, etc. is no easy feat.
Imagine the gains that might be possible if they make it work though. I imagine it could affect all kinds of different areas. The obvious change is not being reliant on human operators who have sick days and make mistakes, but you could also work all day and night without break and not stop for holidays or weekends.
Then you can make other tweaks too – e.g. perhaps program the computer to be gentler on equipment and operate the machinery extremely smoothly. I bet it makes data collection easier too – which you can then analyze to develop other efficiencies.
Jon
Those human operators also may also feel the fiber optic line and stop excavating before taking out communications to a few thousand people.
Outside of simple earth moving, there are a lot of criteria and data point to manage and dial in. This will come long after we master autonomous driving.
MM
I agree, this has a long way to go.
I do not use much heavy equipment myself but I have friends and co-workers that do. Their experience with the ultra-modern equipment has been nothing but negative. Many of the newer Ag machines simply lock out the whole machine if the onboard computer detects a problem. $250,000 new tractor detects that the Diesel Exhaust Fluid has expired? Machine shuts down, you can’t move it. It won’t even release the parking brake or let you shift to neutral so you can tow the machine with something else. It’s just dead right in the middle of the field. Machine happened to die on a road? Tough, it’s a roadblock now. There’s no limp mode that lets you get out of an emergency. Then you get to call the dealership and pay outrageous hourly field service rates for them to come and fix it because only they have the service codes for the computers. The construction equipment hasn’t been much better…endless hassles with emissions error codes, the complexity makes the machines extremely difficult to work on. There are so many sensors involved that it’s very easy for any one of them to malfunction and shut down everything. Once again, you better hope the machine decided to shut down in an inconvenient spot otherwise it might be very difficult or dangerous to fix it.
I was with a friend at a machine expo a while back and Volvo had shown off a new mini-excavator and a small wheel loader which were entirely electric. Then my friend asked the obvious question: So, how long does it take to charge this thing? When mine runs out of diesel it takes about five minutes to get it back up and working. The sales rep wouldn’t answer the question but was happy to point out how conveniently located the charging port was.
Matt the Hoople
I imagine you can have your diesel generator nearby and an extension cord and just keep it plugged in as you operate it so it never runs out of charge. Oh, wait…never mind.
MM
Jokes aside, it is my understanding that many of the very large machines used in mining do indeed run off a massive electrical cable but that isn’t practical for construction. There are at least some pieces of construction equipment that are diesel-electric where the diesel engine runs a generator and the various functions of the machine are powered electrically. I know that Caterpillar makes a version of the D7 bulldozer that works like this.
Mike
Your buddy is stretching the truth a little about working on those machines. Legally they can’t have a fault that just parks the machine for you in the middle of the road. If they are moving the software can’t just put the thing in park but they can have a derate mode. Now if it’s already parked you might have a code that won’t allow you to put it into gear without fixing something first to protect the machine. I work for a big equipment manufacturer on the engineering side so I deal with that regulation all day every day.
Bob
Wow, heaven forbid a person get sick.
Rx9
Exactly. The sales pitch on this is the same tone deaf blather coming out of every “disruptive” start-up in silicon valley.
And to add insult to injury it’s spoken as if computer viruses, code defects, and runtime errors never existed.
Worst of all is the “let them eat cake” mentality about every livelihood they destroy.
Andy
They create a bunch of livelihoods too. Aside from the production of the machines, every American can invest in the companies that use them. That is the future of this country.
Marty L. Gerdes
I certainly agree how long will it take for autonomous equipment to be able to feel water-sewer-gas-fiber optic lines as well as a human can? Of course humans have bad days. Being a lifelong operator for 52yrs I’d be very interested in being any help if I am able, please contact me
Lionel Carlin
Et que fera t on des hommes?
Pelleteuses automatiques
Métro automatique
Train automatique
Voiture autonome
Drone taxi automatique
Etc etc
Eric
I’m glad I’m only 20 ish years from retirement and not in my early 20s. I really feel bad for the younger generation. I for one hope this fails miserably.
fred
I was a toddler when WWII broke out – so I’m a long way past my early 20s.
But I’m much more optimistic about how new technology will impact out future. What we work on and with will undoubtedly be different. Some may be better and some worse for job satisfaction. But the prospects for enhancing worker safety, reducing drudgery and improving environmental stewardship are all present. Perhaps there will be fewer heavy machinery operator jobs – but the new machines will need folks to build, program and maintain them. The problem is that workers or those entering the job market can get caught in the paradigm shift. As a youngster – I’m glad that no one suggested that I become a milk delivery man (a still ubiquitous job at that time.) For those who were – they like others having obsoleted jobs – probably suffered through a period of angst and possibly hard times. Most likely, I will not be around to see Concept-X make big inroads – but ideas like it should be looked at for what new opportunities they will engender, rather than decried as bad.
MM
Bingo. I think you hit the nail on the head.
A classic example goes back the earliest days of the industrial revolution. One of the first industries to be mechanized was weaving, and of course some people didn’t like the idea of their manual weaving jobs being replaced by machinery. This is where the term “Sabotage” came from: in France, anti-industrialists would throw their wooden shoes (sabots) into the delicate machinery of a power loom, wrecking it, and thus theoretically supporting the jobs of manual weavers. While it was true that the power loom supplanted manual weaving, it was actually a boon to the industry, and the number of people being employed in the business of making textiles, stockings, and such exploded. So while some jobs were lost far more were created, they were simply *different* jobs.
I don’t think too many of us lament how the invention of the automobile put many horse breeders out of business or how the internet killed paper magazines.
IronWood
Excuse me, but I was just lamenting the lack of local horse breeders the other day! OK, not really. Kidding aside, I think that bringing up unintended consequences is an important part of moving forward. It’s not pessimistic about the future to say, “we have 3.5 million truck drivers in the US, that’s a lot of people to find new jobs for, what’s the plan?” Those people really will need a place to go. Your horse breeders likely still had livestock or agricultural options that they were suited to explore. Or in fred’s example of the milkmen, there were still lots of other driving and delivery jobs to pick up the displaced drivers. But now we’re moving towards entire classes of work being automated: transport, equipment, manufacturing, sales, accounting, surveying, and on and on. That’s what I worry about. I think there will be huge benefits economically, but raising concerns about the workforce seems like the responsible thing. You can’t stop progress, as they say, but we should at least try to minimize the damage in its wake.
Sam Spivins
Good luck getting mechanics to work on this future equipment. I have worked on heavy iron for decades. Companies cannot get my replacement now. Maybe you should be working on robot mechanics.
Jim Felt
The Koreans already make the best flat panels and this new (to us) robotic tech will likely be as awesome.
Why is this? Culture? Education? I dunno. I do know that they aren’t bashful about hiring the very best European auto designers to “assist” them though.
And as an aside the North American OTR trucking industry can not wait for full autonomous Class 8 tractors. They’re being tested as I type.
The big truck lines are already in possession of the most amazing hi tech satellite based tracking centers and without human trucker error they’d feel they’d hit the sweet spot of on time deliver, maintenance and logistics. Hyundai, Daimler, PACCAR, CAT, Komatsu, et al are fully onboard. Like yesterday.
IronWood
Yeah the trucking industry is in a weird place right now. They need automation because they can’t get enough drivers because people don’t want a job that will be automated because they can’t get enough drivers because people don’t want a job that will be automated because… And railroads and airlines won’t be far behind.
John
I don’t think fear of automation is really affecting the trucking industry. I’ve never heard a trucker mention it, not even offhand. The driver shortage is simply because people aren’t getting paid enough for it to make sense. Almost every over the road trucker I see these days is either brand new or has something that making them otherwise unemployable. Who would want a job that keeps you away from home most of the time (making it hard to have any type of real relationship) when it barely pays more than regular retail jobs?
IronWood
You’re right that quality of life versus pay is the biggest turnoff. As well as it becoming harder and more expensive to get and maintain a CDL. WA requires you to go to an approved driving school now, a far cry from when I got my CDL in the 90s (step 1: medical card, step 2: permit, step 3: pass the tests.) Now add in TWIC cards and HazMat background checks, medical card changes, and lower pay, yeah you’re going to have trouble finding people.
Here in WA State our local mom-and-pop company Amazon is pushing really hard for autonomous highway trucks. They have already done autonomous testing on the interstate (with safety drivers at the wheel, obviously) and are hoping to replace their line-haul fleets with self-driving. One of the major Amazon trucking subcontractors down in Portland was recently advertising driving jobs, with the bonus of offering new drivers training in technical/maintenance trades to stay with the company WHEN their fleet becomes autonomous. So at least that’s a strategy to both attract drivers and adapt your workforce ahead of the game.
Dave
I don’t agree with that statement, here in southeast WI truckers can make 80-90 grand a year and still be home nights and weekends. That’s a respectable amount vs. other professions in my area.
Tom D
We don’t even have autonomous freight trains and those don’t need to steer at all.
I suspect it’s going to be a bit longer than people think.
IronWood
Reminds me of the train dispatcher’s joke that air traffic controllers have the easy jobs, because airplanes can turn and change altitude, try doing that with a coal train!
Autonomous freight trains are being tested already; my guess is they’re operational within 10 years, at least for certain corridors. Like aviation, railroads are massively federally regulated so it takes a long time to get new technology approved. There’s a little more to running a train than just go and stop, although (also like aviation) it’s easy when everything is going well. It’s when the unusual happens or an emergency requiring judgement crops up that us humans pull our weight. But the robot never sues after it slips on the ice getting off the engine, or complains that the toilet is bad order, or quits because they’re sick of missing their kids grow up. I spent a decade on the railroad in several positions and I can tell you that the big railroads see their employees primarily as liabilities to be managed and reduced. That’s been the trend for 50 years, with railroad payrolls shrinking dramatically across all crafts well before autonomous vehicles were on the horizon.
I think that for now nobody wants to sign off prematurely on a technology that could crash an oil train and blow up a city six months later. Who would want to be on the committee that okayed that?!
Yadda
Most trains are manned by two people and the industry is trying to move to one. Fully autonomous trains aren’t far off, but the infrastructure to run them well may be more than a decade away.
Randy
I could not find the Amazon link. Are you holding out on us?
Nathan
automous road going veichles I’m mostly ok with – much like I’m ok that 98% of all commercial air traffic is on auto pilot to day anyway. (yes yes make up whatever statistic you like but most planes do fly on autopilot today)
Point is – that’s a very defined set of movement and instructions. go from A to B on this path and don’t hit things. actually prety simple I mean auto pilot on aircraft has been a thing for quite some time – applied ot cars why not.
applied to an excavator or a dump truck or crane. hmmm no thanks.
aside from the removal of skilled trade which is another concern too, I don’t like it in general.
the dump truck I can be behind faster than the other stuff.
aside though – why do they have to look like RC car toys?
Matt P.
Color me unimpressed. There are so many subtle things that a skilled operator can observe and then adapt to…buried utilities, unusual sounds/vibrations from the equipment before something fails, environmental factors- the list could go on for days. There will be some people that applaud this as some kind of amazing proof of concept but I think the industry is better served improving existing human-operated machines, not chasing some SkyNet pipe dream that makes for shiny press releases.
Derek
While I agree completely with what you said, human operators will be replaced. This is just the first step, to replace a skilled operator on a standard job site, were talking 20 years away, but it all has to start at some point.
It’s the times we live in, sticking your head in the sand is how most will deal with it. Automation/robotics is spreading every year to more & more fields.
If you’re a cashier your job will last 5 years, stocking shelves maybe 10, truck driver under 15, and skilled trade I’d guess ~20 years.
Humanity is coming to a crossroads, and were all going to be either living in poverty, or prosperous. time will tell. 🙂
MM
I’m not saying I like it, but I think you’re largely correct. I still think there will be niches for old operators, however. A couple examples:
I knew a gentleman in Canada who ran a heavy recovery business. He was the person they’d call when a normal towing company couldn’t do the job, for example, when someone rolled a mobile crane a few hundred feet down a steep embankment and the insurance company wanted it recovered, that weight was far in excess of what even a heavy tow truck could handle. His trick was owning a couple 1970’s vintage Caterpillar D8s. Those old machines had mechanical winches which were driven through the torque converter of the engine and could easily pull 100 tons without the use of a snatch block, so nasty recovery jobs like that were very easy for him.
Another is something I had read about a few years back: Apparently for many years most cranes used on jobsites are hydraulically operated. This is much easier for the operator, and much safer, compared to the old lattice-boom cranes operated with clutches and gearshifts. Not many operators know how to run the old cranes anymore….but there is one job that cannot be done with the more modern hydraulic cranes: using a wrecking ball. In order to drop the ball you need the ability to release the clutch on the main winch, something which a hydraulic crane can’t do. And in many places there are structures to demolish where explosives cannot be used due to a dense urban environment, so those who have the skills to operate those kind of cranes can name their price.
MM
I agree completely that there are many subtleties to being a skilled operator but there is no reason why computers cannot do the same. Consider automobile engines: decades ago it took a skilled mechanic to listen to an engine, use special test equipment, and use that information to perform regular “tune ups”. Nowadays a “tune up” is unheard of, because the computers in our cars are constantly tweaking various parameters without the driver knowing about it. It started years ago with a “knock sensor”–basically a microphone in the engine block which then adjusted ignition timing to prevent knock. Nowadays the ECU in a car does far more than that…and we, the driver, are none the wiser unless there is a problem sufficiently serious that the car throws a check engine light. We just turn the key and drive completely ignorant to the fact that all the while the ECU is measuring dozens of sensors and making constant adjustments while we head down the road. There is no technical reason why a piece of heavy equipment can’t monitor digging forces, vibration, and so on, the same way an operator might, but with far better precision. Speaking of precision, computerized equipment is already in widespread use for performing delicate surgery, a task that’s far more critical than digging a trench.
The latest generation of ag and construction equipment already has a boatload of sensors and whatnot on-board and it absolutely will shut down the machinery before any sort of serious failure occurs. If the anecdotes of the people I know who own some of this equipment are anything to go by the computer is far more likely to stop the machine than a human operator would. Though at the same time they are frustrated because there is also a lot more to go wrong with so much complexity.
IronWood
Hard to imagine what jobs we’ll actually let humans do in 50 years. I guess we can just sit around writing manuals and managing each other. Automation is steadily creating a pretty narrow range of jobs for people and not everyone is cut out temperamentally, physically, intellectually, whateverally, to be a computer programmer or maintenance tech. This isn’t just about blue-collar operator jobs either; online tax and accounting programs, legal advice bots, online ordering, banking, etc. are winnowing the white collar jobs too. Cue the political deathmatch over Universal Basic Income…
The Motts
Reminds me of the Big Trak I had as a kid.
Rx9
The only things that should be automated are simple and repetitive tasks.
Michael J Fischer
Those programming jobs you guys are talking about. They will be done by robots also. They are designing robots to write software. Won’t be any new programming jobs opening up. Better get your fishing gear in shape. They probably won’t take that away.
Paul
There are already fully autonomous mining fleets. There are huge advantages in terms of technology of doing mining and construction over self driving cars. The big advantages are that there are real profits available vs chasing something you can’t put a dollar figure on, so investment rather than crazy government mandates drive things. And other than unknown factors due to material variability, you can more or less isolate the robots so there are barriers to things going wrong. Say we put in enough GPS receivers or use radio transponders like we already do with overhead cranes and remote pendants. No matter what the normal operation system does an independent and very simple safety system runs a kill switch if it ever goes outside of the allowed boundaries for operation. They already have camera systems on all of them where the vehicle shuts down and lowers the stairs for access if you so much as walk up to one. They already have robot trucks, drills, dozers, and last I knew excavators and shovels were here or coming. Big names are of course Deere and CAT but Leibherr is right in there too.
Trust me the operator isn’t the big expense.
And you’re kidding if you think autonomous cars are ever going to happen until construction goes that way. Have you read the accident reports with Tesla’s or the agreement you have to sign to activate the beta test autopilot?
Paul
For those that don’t know Tesla requires you to sit in the seat and monitor the car, ready to take over any time it messes up. You are still the driver. They treat it as cruise control but it steers and changes speeds. The obvious oroblem is this is the ultimate operator boredom situation and there is 0.0% chance anyone is following Tesla’s requirements.
Ed
Most of this works only in a perfect situation. Which in construction is usually never. With that said the gps dozers ect. are the amazing. I don’t think a computer or sensors will ever be able to replace humans ability to recognize problems. Soils can be a huge headache especially with the added problems of dealing with the construction trash of the past. I imagine it will be a hybrid of computer and human control
Jim Simons
Has the common sense just taken a complete dive.
AI weapons, AI transport vehicles, and now AI construction vehicles.
How long before T-800s start rolling off the assembly lines.
Rx9
The people pushing for this see the rest of us as “useless eaters” , so yeah, those t-800s are around the corner.
Bob
I know right! What about all the people that will be out of a job? I own my own trucking business,I know it can be a pain in the ass dealing with employees. The fact of the matter is though I need them and they need me. Stuff gets broke people call in sick, people quit but I’d rather have someone behind the wheel than trust a computer all the time. I’m all for more efficient and cutting cost but not at the expense of an employee or their family.
dave
It’s fun sometimes working in autonomy.
Most of the small stuff like this are better on RC Controls. That little scoop, lift, move. You want to be there. The guys working on the RC controls seem to have fun.
The larger stuff with a regular path like the autonomous haul truck with load-to-dump or machines with repetitious scoop is ideal. With fuel costs spiking I would think the canadian oil sands would pickup.