Komatsu Looks to Drones & Robots for Labor Shortage Relief
Komatsu Looks to Drones & Robots for Labor Shortage Relief
by Christina Urban ,Nov 23,2015
The topic of labor shortage is a relatively common theme within the construction industry, but for Japanese construction giant, Komatsu, it’s a real and imminent threat to their home country, Japan. So in an attempt to remedy the rapidly aging population of the country, which in turn has lead to a large majority of the current labor shortage, the second largest construction company in the world is looking to technologies like drones and robots for help.
Komatsu has been utilizing the regular use of autonomous technology on the construction site as early as January when they initially implemented driverless bulldozers and excavators onsite. It wasn’t long after that they looked to the minimal use of drones for some of the foundation work. Now, after trial and error with a variety of different technologies, Komatsu is looking to make drones and robots the standard of labor.
Komatsu’s newest service, Smart Construction, is meant to innovate the construction jobsite by making it smarter, more efficient, and tech-savvy. And drones are at the head of the Smart Construction movement. Komatsu is relying on UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) mapping to determine the landscape and soil of a construction site. The scanned images and data obtained by the drone are then translated into 3D completion drawings to better determine area, shape, and volume of a site prior to construction.
In addition, the construction company is eager to combine and take advantage of both drone and robot technologies to create an advanced AI-driven (artificially intelligent) construction team. While Komatsu started with driverless bulldozers and excavators, the AI machinery was little help without proper visual aid. By allowing their drones to collaborate with the driverless equipment, however, Komatsu was able to create the ultimate AI team of workers.
Now, with both their drone and robot technologies working together, Komatsu is nearly trailblazing in the construction industry with technology-driven aids. Their robotic vehicles are unmanned and guided to their destinations by a team of drones who map the entire area prior to work. The drones map the perimeter in three dimensions and update the data in real-time to better track the amount of soil and cement moving around onsite.
Recently, Komatsu announced its $25 million dollar investment in American startup, Skycatch, the company who just recently began providing Komatsu with its drones. And the startup provides a lot of new opportunities for Komatsu, one of which is time; an expense that the company cannot afford to spare.
According to Kenishi Nishihara, project manager of Smart Construction, it takes several weeks to completely survey an entire jobsite. Partnering with Skycatch provides Komatsu with the luxury of surveying a jobsite in just one day. According to Nishihara, in some instances, survey time could even take as little as thirty minutes.
With the country’s labor shortage dilemma plaguing them for some time now, companies looking for practical real-life solutions, like Komatsu, can use all the help they can get, and having the opportunity to cut down time by weeks is an advantage Komatsu should be looking forward to reap.
As a response to the labor shortage, Japan has already utilized the help of robots when the country’s government announced last month that they would begin trialing robot taxis by 2016 in preparation for the 2020 Olympics. The concerted efforts of the country and companies like Komatsu are sure to not go unrecognized, and it will be interesting to see how Japan will turn to technology for other solutions in the future.
https://zbrella.com/komatsu-looks-to-drones-robots-for-labor-shortage-relief
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