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Autonomous Dozers

Hobbytime

Senior Member
Joined
Sep 21, 2016
Messages
709
Location
usa
this will be the future in almost any industry that has to deal with repetitive work in a local environment..just look how much automation in factories, and soon fast food and movie theaters, lowes and home depot have self check out lines..anything to cut down on human involvement is the future will go forward at a fast pace to save money..no sick time, no personal injuries, no vacations, no personal conflict with co workers..the list is endless,,there will be a learning curve and some goof ups along the way, but when the kinks are worked out many jobs world wide will be lost...
 

DMiller

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2010
Messages
16,432
Location
Hermann, Missouri
Occupation
Cheap "old" Geezer
I was around the years gone by when they tried this in the US as the early GPS controls came on(early 90's). Had a contract customer with machines that worked the rice fields SE MO, they tried driverless back then but failed as miserably as I suspect these will. Humans can spot hazards as to soft spots, crumbling rock and hear the noises that alert a alert operator that the machine is throwing up. Not all faults will code up as we all know, hard mechanical issues left unexamined quickly become finals reduced to grindings or running gear destroyed faster than can re-install. There is a place for a operator, there are places heartless unthinking autonomy fails to meet the mark.

Goes back to cannot fix stupid, neither can a blind or fully deaf operator avoid the same problems. RC trains, RC highway trucks I can see but with caveats. For offroad there are a quandary of unassociable pitfalls that cannot be machine addressed.
 

crane operator

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 27, 2009
Messages
8,275
Location
sw missouri
I recently read a article on cranes, and the idea was to outfit the cranes with camera's, sensors, etc, and the "operator" isn't even on the site, run remotely. The last part of the article then stated that they could even have just one operator, running multiple cranes at multiple sites, all by remote. Of course written by a engineer, where it all looks great on paper.......
 

DMiller

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2010
Messages
16,432
Location
Hermann, Missouri
Occupation
Cheap "old" Geezer
The nuke I worked at was written in by engineers to only need 100 people to run it. At last count over 750 worked there with an additional 1-2000 for refuels.
 

Buckethead

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 4, 2007
Messages
1,055
Location
Waterfront
Occupation
Operator
I recently read a article on cranes, and the idea was to outfit the cranes with camera's, sensors, etc, and the "operator" isn't even on the site, run remotely. The last part of the article then stated that they could even have just one operator, running multiple cranes at multiple sites, all by remote. Of course written by a engineer, where it all looks great on paper.......

How does a remote operator inspect all those cranes, if he's not even there?
 

catman13

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 22, 2011
Messages
435
Location
oregon usa
Occupation
refrigeration engineer/excavation contractor
hows does he know when things are not right for the lift? some camera or bad sensor says is it fine and now you have fatality's because it went bad , not on my watch
 

DMiller

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2010
Messages
16,432
Location
Hermann, Missouri
Occupation
Cheap "old" Geezer
Exactly the main issue, dependency on the written instructions and inability to fully visualize the site would be bad. I do not care for autonomy, too many conditional statements get made they cannot overcome just deal through. Machines need inspected, lubed, warmed up for use, cracks do appear, stresses do take their toll and unless the machine is educated as to how these develop and how to inspect are useless as taking a dweeb off the street and setting them in the cabs.
 

Hobbytime

Senior Member
Joined
Sep 21, 2016
Messages
709
Location
usa
hows does he know when things are not right for the lift? some camera or bad sensor says is it fine and now you have fatality's because it went bad , not on my watch
then just for argument sake, there should be no crane accidents when humans operate them..but there are many accidents from humans and most of the time its human error that causes it..the crane operator takes a risk in wind or weight or is distracted on his cell phone or something else that a computer wont have..where a sensor would shut down the crane if any of those factors were present...automatics has its place and will be the future in more areas...but the companies figure the money saved from paying salaries and possibly avoiding human error are worth the risk for the payback..unfortunately technology is here to stay..
 

John C.

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 11, 2007
Messages
12,865
Location
Northwest
Occupation
Machinery & Equipment Appraiser
In today's world can a sensor be bad and the machine computer not know about it.

How many cranes have tipped over because of a failure in the LMI? How often does an operator inspect the frame of any crane for cracks? How many mines large enough to utilize a D11T will have soft spots where they can get stuck?

How can you compare what a piece of heavy equipment does in relation to an autonomous car or truck driving down the road in terms of safety?
 

Hobbytime

Senior Member
Joined
Sep 21, 2016
Messages
709
Location
usa
In today's world can a sensor be bad and the machine computer not know about it.

How many cranes have tipped over because of a failure in the LMI? How often does an operator inspect the frame of any crane for cracks? How many mines large enough to utilize a D11T will have soft spots where they can get stuck?

How can you compare what a piece of heavy equipment does in relation to an autonomous car or truck driving down the road in terms of safety?
All true, but that doesnt matter to the bean counters that run the corporations, when they show the money saved to perceived risk, they will take it..when there is a catastrophic failure they will reevaluate and go from there...perfect example is telsa cars.. they had a failure with death and they are still being sold and will continue to push driver less cars... the argument can go both ways..im not pushing automation, but its coming and its the future, it wont get rid of all operators, but in a controlled environment like a mine that digs the same day after day...it will be the first areas to go driver less...look at all the factories that are automated..years ago everyone said it wouldnt happen..guess what it did..this is just the next phase..it wont happen overnite..
 

John C.

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Jun 11, 2007
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12,865
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Northwest
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Machinery & Equipment Appraiser
Hobbytime, I'm agreeing with you.

Right now there are driverless farm tractors tending fields in Kansas and Nebraska with a nerd on a computer screen overseeing multiple machine operations.
 

DMiller

Senior Member
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Feb 21, 2010
Messages
16,432
Location
Hermann, Missouri
Occupation
Cheap "old" Geezer
As to those automated assembly lines, a friend works for Fiat Chrysler, he drives and stays at Belvedere Il for weeks on end then comes home as can. They attempted to automate the lines for body weld assembly, was fine until the first glitch, destroyed three days production run of body shells, welds in wrong spots, failure to adequately fuse, these made it thru to paint where they started falling apart in the paint vats. They had five personnel trying to do QA on these as the machines churned them out, failed to catch them then had to shut down for two weeks to determine Which robotic welder had sneezed out of fifty of them.

Machine in question had a tight bearing on a rotation joint, would slip and set erratic position indications, then slip back and run as normal. Machine had no idea it was FUBAR.

Line is still automated but there are now seventeen techs walking the floor and fifteen QA associates looking over the bodies. Oddly in that there were only 30 personnel on the floor swinging spot welders and four QA prior to automation.
 

Birken Vogt

Charter Member
Joined
Nov 30, 2003
Messages
5,305
Location
Grass Valley, Ca
Line is still automated but there are now seventeen techs walking the floor and fifteen QA associates looking over the bodies. Oddly in that there were only 30 personnel on the floor swinging spot welders and four QA prior to automation.

They can probably spit out more units per hour though. That is what automation is all about, being able to produce more with less people or alternately the same people can produce more than ever before.

In an ideal world, this means everybody has more of x for cheaper than was possible before.

Although getting from where we are now to there can be painful for certain people who are not up to the task of moving from spot welding into a QA position, for instance.

Just like always, the individual has to be able to be nimble to move to where the work exists, and not count on somebody else giving him a "job".
 

Hobbytime

Senior Member
Joined
Sep 21, 2016
Messages
709
Location
usa
one of the biggest complaints from machine operators I noticed here was getting beat up on a machine over time,,that leads to sick time, or workers comp claims, physical injury and if you cant work disability..now if you could eliminate all that and the expense that goes along with it, add on all the no shows and down time on equipment, coffee breaks, cigarette breaks and so on..a computer will give you 12 solid hours of nonstop work..if it wasnt worth it the companies would not pursue automation... im sure there are plenty of down side items with automation...it sux for the person whose job is replaced by a computer or robot and cant get retrained to another job..but its much easier to control a computer than a human..and lets not forget rough handling of the machinery, you know the old beat the heII out of it because it aint mine...a computer wont do that either.. all this tech is not for the benefit of the worker, its for the benefit of the owner or whoever the bottom line is good for,,and they call this progress....:(
 

lantraxco

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 1, 2009
Messages
7,704
Location
Elsewhen
Sensors fail all the time without throwing a code, as long as it's within normal range limits, it can be anywhere in that range, so you can have up to 100% error and the computer will accept it as gospel. How about an anemometer with a bad bearing that only reads five or six mph when the wind is actually blowing forty? Redundancy can lead to redundant errors. Nothing is foolproof, the universe keeps breeding smarter fools.
 
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