New products of Volvo Construction Equipment Co., Ltd.: automatic machine prototype
Is the Swedish Eskilstuna municipality held Research Forum, Volvo building equipment company shows the joint operation of automated wheel loaders and articulated truck prototype.
Held in Sweden in Eskilstuna Municipality June 9 9 to 14 on the exploration of the forum, Volvo Construction equipment company shows the joint operation automation of wheel loaders and articulated truck prototype, so that the audience greatly. First of all, wheel loader prototype and articulated truck prototype perfect docking, and then loading the material to the truck, and continue to repeat the process. In an hour of loading and unloading operation comparison, the automatic wheel loader can complete 70% of the work load of skilled workers. This is not an armchair discussion, and the machine has personally "served" a Swedish asphalt plant customer for Volvo construction equipment".
"After programming, these display machines can collaborate with each other and complete the specified series of tasks according to the predefined route," explains Jenny Elfsberg, emerging technology director at Volvo building equipment. These machines are able to repeat the same task along a fixed route, with relatively long working hours. But the technology is still in its infancy. We are developing solutions to meet the security and performance needs of the market."
Jenny Elfsberg added, "there is no industrialization plan yet, because we still have a lot of work to do. At the present stage, these machine prototypes can't communicate with each other. But machine interaction (that is, dialogue between machines or dialogue with central control points) is critical, helping to avoid collisions and drive efficient workflow of devices."
Looking forward to the future
In the exploration of the forum, Volvo machine construction equipment to its customers, the global media, representatives of the government and scholars display is the Volvo standard equipment -- L120 wheel loader and A25F articulated truck, but the use of automation technology upgrade. Once the final solution is identified, Volvo building equipment will apply this technology to other products.
Jenny Elfsberg says: "automated machines can improve operational safety in hazardous environments and eliminate accidents caused by human error.". Second, automated machines can perform repetitive tasks more efficiently and more accurately than operators. In addition, once the machine's operating efficiency is optimized, customers will benefit from machine performance improvement, productivity, fuel efficiency and durability. In the future, an operator can operate 3-4 machines at the same time, so as to further improve production efficiency and reduce costs. Looking to the future, I think automation machines will become smaller and more powerful. At that time, customers will no longer need to hire drivers or distress for production interruption, just as at the discovery forum, we have the same HX1 concept loader in the field work electric system research project. (see the press release for more details)"
Intelligent machine
Volvo has been working on automated machines for more than a decade. By studying the future technology such as automation machines, the company can promote the development of medium-term innovation technology. New technologies, such as semi automation or automation, can provide support for more direct development projects before achieving their ultimate goal. The market has a lot of automation and operation of auxiliary functions related equipment. For example, earlier this year, Volvo launched Volvo Co-Pilot construction equipment (Volvo driver assistance system), which can provide a series of Intelligent Machine Service: loading assistance, assistance, assistance and mining solid paving assistance to help the operator to achieve better operating results, and shorten the operation time and reduce the workload.
Jenny Elfsberg said, "we've witnessed the emergence of operating systems that are less dependent on the skills of operators - they can provide guidance or control some of the main functions for operators. In the future, we will further witness the upgrading of the level of automation, and operators will play a more regulatory role. In this way, the operation pressure of operators will be greatly reduced, and the interest will be greatly improved. One operator can even remotely control several machines. Of course, some of the tasks are quite complex and require the operators to go into the battle themselves. In this kind of application, we still need the operator to sit in the cab and control the machine."
