Posted on 01/21/2015 12:38:39 PM PST by Rusty0604
hy pay an expensive bulldozer driver for foundation work when a drone from the sky paired with an unmanned bulldozer on the ground can compute 3-D plans and do the job better and faster?
Construction workers move over. You are next to be unneeded, unwanted, and unloved.
The Wall Street Journal reports Drones’ Next Job: Construction Work.
Construction-equipment maker Komatsu Ltd. has plans to solve a potential shortage of construction workers in Japan: Let drones and driverless bulldozers do part of the work.
Tokyo-based Komatsu said Tuesday it plans to use unmanned aircraft, bulldozers and excavators to automate much of the early foundation work on construction sites.
Under Komatsu’s plans, U.S.-made drones would scan job sites from the air and send images to computers to build three-dimensional models of the terrain. Komatsu’s unmanned bulldozers and excavators would then use those models to carry out design plans, digging holes and moving earth.
The drones, made by San Francisco startup Skycatch Inc., and construction equipment would move along largely preprogrammed routes. The goal is to automate the construction site, leaving humans to program the machines and then push a button to send them to work. Human operators would also monitor progress and can jump in to take control of a machine if necessary.
(Excerpt) Read more at globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com ...
I don’t think I’d feel safer passing a driverless truck on the road, that’s for sure.
The trend has been bigger and bigger equipment, to reduce the amount of operator need per horsepower. With automation, the equipment will get small again, and you’ll have a half dozen little dozers speeding around digging holes. Between the mexicans and the robots, “operators” will be history.
Crane operators, often at the top of the pay scale, will also be out of work. The new cranes will be “fly by wire”. The mexican operator will suggest something to the crane, and the crane will do what it can, safely.
You lack imagination.
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