Video-game tech digging real dirt for Caterpillar, Komatsu
IN CHICAGO, not far from Lake Michigan, the driver of a Caterpillar bulldozer looked left, right and forward to manoeuvre the 230,000pound (104-metric-ton) machine through a desert obstacle course of sand mounds and old tires. But for all his effort, he didn’t go anywhere.
Instead, as he sat inside a stationary box lined with video screens at UI Labs in the city’s Goose Island area, the operator worked the controls on a yellow earth-mover about 1,700 miles ( 2,700 kilometres) away in Arizona.
Welcome to the new world of big machines, where manufacturers including Caterpillar and Komatsu are trying everything from remote- access technology to driverless trucks to revive slumping sales and adapt to changing markets.
“In the future, manufacturers will also become like the software industry,” Kazunori Kuromoto, a senior managing executive officer of Komatsu, said at the company’s Tokyo headquarters. “Digital transformation, ubiquitous networks and big data all reflect the world trend today.”
Makers of big diggers, loaders and trucks were hit hard by the global commodity slump, which forced mining companies and builders to cut their workforces and buy less equipment.
Iron- ore prices are half what they were six years ago, and most other metals are also way down.
From a peak in 2012, quarterly sales of mining equipment plunged more than 80 per cent, data from Parker Bay Co. show.
Automation and robotics aren’t new, but they continue to transform all sorts of industries. Retailer Amazon.com is experimenting with deliveries of customer purchases by drone,
In the future, manufacturers will also become like the software industry. Digital transformation, ubiquitous networks and big data all reflect the world trend today. Kazunori Kuromoto, a senior managing executive officer of Komatsu
Tesla Motors has autopilot systems in its cars, and Deere & Co. uses global positioning systems for more precise steering of its tractors and harvesters.
While change is slow in mining and construction – a single bulldozer like the one that Peoria, Illinois-based Caterpillar demonstrated in Chicago a few months ago can cost US$ 3 million ( RM14 million) – new projects developed during the low- commodity price era are featuring many of the same technologies to cut labour costs and boost efficiency.
It’s a potential growth area for Caterpillar and Komatsu, which have seen multi-year declines in unit sales.
The industry’s drive to protect profit margins will lead to a surge in development of new machines that will peak over the next 10 years to 15 years, according to a report by the International Institute for Sustainable Development. — WPBloomberg