Piloting construction equipment like an excavator can take a lot of skill, and the best drivers have honed their ability to accomplish all kinds of zany tasks. But the most basic job of pushing around dirt and moving it from pile to pile are, in fact, simple enough to be automated. That's right folks, the self-driving bulldozer has arrived.

Built Robotics was founded by ex-Google engineer Noah Ready-Campbell, and the Autonomous Track Loader (ATL) is the star of its show. Using a combination of the LIDAR tech similar to what you can find in self-driving cars, and souped up GPS technology that allows for location-sensing down to the centimeter, the ATL is able to perform simple but arduous tasks like digging a hole once you tell it where and how large that hole should be.

This content is imported from YouTube. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

In some ways, programing an autonomous construction vehicle is easier than programing a care. Namely that while secluded in its workzone, it doesn't have to worry about dodging other vehicles and can simply halt all movement if it detects a vehicle or person it might hit. But some things it is designed to hit, like the piles of dirt around the worksite, so ts LIDAR had to be specifically engineered with the rough and bumpy conditions in mind, and with modifications to help detect how much dirt it is hauling around at any given time.

Ready-Campbell and Built Robotics have raised some $15 million to bring this, and presumably more equipment like it, to market. If successful, autonomous construction machines could obviously have a huge effect on the construction industry, doubtlessly only the first of many machines that will come to automate worksites. For the time being though, I'd like to see an autonomous excavator try and open a beer.

Source: Wired, The Verge

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io