As robots are quickly infiltrating the construction job site in order to increase efficiency and combat the shrinking labor workforce, so too have autonomous, self-driving vehicles.
We recently wrote about an autonomous attenuator truck that is set to hit US streets this year. That truck is equipped with a “leader-follow” system, which is designed to stay a safe distance away from and follow a leader car, which would be driven by a human. Attenuator trucks are designed to absorb impact of cars when struck to protect roadside workers.
This time, we’re talking about a 320 Ton Hauling machine with a highly sophisticated GPS system and sensors that allow the truck to operate 24/7/365 without a human driving in or near it. In the video below, you’ll see the Komatsu 930E-4 Autonomous Vehicle drive though rugged terrain in for the mining industry. Some of the areas that mining companies have to work in are in hostile or extremely remote conditions, making it difficult to find qualified professionals to fill the jobs. The self-driving system also increases productivity by approximately 12%, as it is not required to take occasional breaks and can’t call in sick to work.
Currently, Australian mining company Rio Tinto is using a fleet of Autonomous mega machines and they control them from over a thousand miles away at their control center in Perth, which is located in Western Australia. In total, Rio Tinto employs 53 autonomous vehicles for their mining activities.
Video by AutonomouStuff
As you may already know, the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks officially opened their new home, the Fiserv Forum, for the 2018-2019 NBA season last October. That new stadium is being heralded as the “World’s First Bird Friendly Arena,” due to many of the design features. Well, since the new one is open, we can only expect that the old, non-bird friendly (I’m assuming) arena has overstayed its welcome and has to go.
The Smithsonian channel is airing a series of shows titled America in Color, in which they enhance lost or forgotten video footage of the 1900s, beginning with the 1920s. Part of the first episode in the series shows the men that worked on skyscrapers in New York City and it’s been edited to show color, as opposed to black and white, for the first time.
Everyone has a camera in their pocket these days and when something goes down on the jobsite, you can bet it’s going to be captured on video one way or another. That can either be a great thing for marketing or an awful way to showcase your business.
2018 was a noticeably slow year in the world of demolition videos , but it’s not exactly clear what caused that. Even though the quantity of videos was down last year, we have scoured the earth for some extremely high quality and fun-to-watch demolitions.
Look, you could mobilize on site the boring old way by loading your heavy equipment on the bed of a trailer and driving it to site, or you could take a note from the Bravo Company of the 37th Engineer Battalion of the United States and spice things up a bit.
“World’s Largest” is definitely a sought after goal, especially in the construction industry. Sarens, a crane rental, heavy lifting, and engineered transport company in Belgium, has recently released a supersized crane that is being regarded as the largest crane in the world, by both size and lifting capacity.
Multiple buildings imploded at the same time with multiple different camera views? Sounds like the making of a great demolition video.