Autonomous Rollers & Pavers deployed on China Highway Project
Chinese construction equipment manufacturer XCMG reports that it has successfully used unmanned asphalt compactors and pavers on maintaining a section of one of the country’s busiest highways.
The company says it deployed 10 autonomous tandem rollers and two autonomous pavers on a section of the Nanjing-Shanghai Expressway. The autonomous paving equipment was commanded via BeiDou satellite positioning. The “fleet completed the scheduled tasks including driving, steering and rolling compaction,” the company says.
“The unmanned fleet has met all construction and maintenance requirements through the grid format tests of thickness, compaction and friction coefficient.”
XCMG also deployed its continuous asphalt thickness measurement radar technology to the project, which it says measures paved asphalt thickness without traditional core measurements. It says it can reach a depth of 120 millimeters and has a measurement error of 1 millimeter.
“The technology provides an accurate basis for real-time control of the paving thickness and improves paving accuracy and construction quality,” the company says.
The unmanned project follows the company’s deployment last year of autonomous rollers and pavers to build a section of China’s Panzhihua-Dali Highway, also known as the Panda Expressway. A remote monitoring data center submitted instructions to the autonomous machines’ onboard control system.
The technology for the autonomous machinery was developed in a partnership of XCMG, Sichuan Railway Investment Group and Tsinghua University. XCMG is also testing the machinery on other highways in China.