Electric and Autonomous Heavy Equipment: The Future of Construction and Mining

With the electrification of cars, buses, trucks and other transport vehicles many years in the making, it’s only natural that construction equipment is joining in. The goals of zero emissions, fuel savings and lower noise, plus improved feel and handling with comparable power, have led companies like GM to announce its ambitious desire to go all-electric by 2035, phasing out gas and diesel engines altogether.

At Volvo, we’re also committed to providing sustainable solutions — in fact, we’ve been hard at work for decades designing electric construction equipment that can not only transform current jobsites, but also open possibilities for all-new applications for heavy equipment. Autonomous solutions open those possibilities even further.

If you’re looking to be on the forefront of owning and running a piece of electric equipment, check out our full line of compact electric machines — but these models are only the beginning. Take a look below at the designs of our EX03 mid-sized electric excavator and TA15 autonomous hauler concepts to see where the future of construction and mining equipment is headed.

We’re also well on our way with our groundbreaking EC230 Electric mid-sized excavator. A preliminary trial of this 23-ton machine in Los Angeles with international construction company Skanska yielded promising outcomes. It demonstrated a 66% reduction in carbon emissions per hour and achieved an estimated 74% savings in hourly operational costs.

EX03 MID-SIZE EXCAVATOR CONCEPT: SAFETY AT ITS CORE

The EX03 is a concept battery-electric wheeled excavator — the first in our mid-size machine range. As a concept lab machine, it’s still part of a research project and not commercially available at this time. Its aim is to show how an electric drivetrain can be used to power mid-size machines with efficient, robust battery technology. And the good news is we’ve already made significant strides in commercializing a mid-sized electric excavator with our new EC230E Electric.

The electric drivetrain of the EX03 is designed to deliver the same performance as a 14-ton diesel machine, but with zero emissions, higher efficiency, lower noise levels and a reduced total cost of ownership. Lower noise makes this machine better suited for projects like road construction and site preparation in densely populated urban areas or at night.

The combustion engine normally used in machines of this size has been replaced by lithium-ion batteries. Currently, the EX03 is capable of being operated for a full workday (depending on the machine’s working cycle) with a one-hour quick charge during lunchtime. We’re aiming for a full day of operation without a quick charge in the future.

How does the EX03 electric excavator concept put safety first?

As with every Volvo concept, safety is at the heart of its design. For example, an optional feature for the EX03 is a video screen fixed to the rear of the machine. It can be configured in one of three ways:

• a real-time video stream from the front of the machine to allow cars driving behind to see clearly ahead, which is ideal for use on public highways
• a text-based safety screen to alert workers on site to movement left, right or reverse
• and a safety communication live stream where the operator can make eye contact with pedestrians and workers to minimize misunderstandings (e.g. The operator’s text message on the screen for pedestrians might read, “I’ll stop working so you can cross the street in front of me.”)

The mid-range EX03 excavator can adapt to any site conditions and has the power and durability to work on a variety of jobsites. Thanks to its zero exhaust emissions, it’s a perfect partner for inner city jobs or areas where emission regulations impose restrictions on construction. It’s capable of being fitted with a variety of different attachments for complete application versatility.

We’re excited about the huge potential of the EXO3 concept, as it represents the future for safer and more environmentally responsible construction sites on the larger end of the scale.

TA15 AUTONOMOUS HAULER CONCEPT: RETHINKING HOW QUARRIES OPERATE

The TA15 is the result of continuous development of previous concept models. The machine is now part of the TARA autonomous transport solution, which consists of several components — the base vehicles (multiple TA15s), plus required infrastructure such as charging stations, a control tower, connected cloud solutions designed to meet customer operation requirements, maintenance and repair support, and the practical operations set-up which varies site to site.

The intended use of the TA15 is to transport material in repetitive flows in confined off-road environments like quarries. The number of machines and respective charging stations will depend heavily on the target production/transport volumes as well as the haul cycle. It can start as a small fleet of 3-4 machines and go up to bigger fleets of 15-20 machines running in a coordinated effort on a site. The fleet of TA15 machines will interact closely with the respective loading equipment at the site (e.g. wheel loaders or excavators) and be supervised and controlled from a central, onsite control room.

The TA15 machines are designed for high-power opportunity charging which is a natural part of the haul cycle. This means the machines can in principle be charged every cycle with the amount of energy they need to run the next cycle. The charging process is fully autonomous, using a 150 kw high-power charger that connects via a pantograph on the ground to a pick-up on the bottom side of the TA15. The charge time will vary from approximately one minute up to three minutes depending on the amount of energy needed.

What are the benefits of an autonomous transport solution?

The primary benefits customers will experience include:

• increased energy efficiency due to the electric drivetrain and innovative design of the base machine
• lower emissions (zero local emissions) due to the battery-powered driveline
• increased safety
• an overall increase in process productivity due to the combination of automation, electrification and connectivity

The TA15 concept has performed very well as a prototype during the Electric Site project, clearly validating its benefits and potential. Our next steps are to improve the stability, uptime and overall performance of the system to reach the needed levels to move the concept from a prototype to a commercially viable solution.

And safety, which is and has always been one of Volvo’s core values, is at the forefront of the TARA solution as well. It starts with having a fenced/confined area for the autonomous operation. There’s also a redundant emergency stop system that can secure a safe stop of the complete system at all times, plus a traffic management system that continuously tracks the position of all machines to secure the right traffic flow. Finally, an obstacle detection system on the TA15 machines consists of a combination of LIDAR and RADAR sensors that helps the machine detect obstacles in the intended drive path.

What does the TARA system mean for conventional, diesel-powered machines?

The biggest change going from conventional transport solutions to the TARA system is the system thinking approach. This is not about just exchanging today’s equipment with something new — it’s about changing the way sites work to fully leverage the advantages you can get from electrification, automation and connectivity.

We see the TARA solution as an extension of today’s Volvo Group transport solutions offering. It will help transform the transport industry toward more sustainable solutions. The system, however, might not fit into every environment and customer process, so we’ll also see diesel or renewable fuel-powered trucks in parallel for quite some time.

We also foresee some changes in the way quarry sites and other customer applications will be operated in the future. This will require different jobs and new competencies going forward, and we’ll have to work closely with our customers and partners involved to help make these changes happen.

In the meantime, our focus and top priorities are to finalize our development, verification and validation process to secure a successful market introduction of the TARA solution for selected customers. This will start in the latter part of 2021, with strong ambitions to scale the solution in the coming years. As we work to bring this solution to market, we’ll continue working on many other exciting autonomous solutions that will help make future sites more productive, efficient and safe. Stay tuned — the future promises to be very exciting!

You can read more about our drive to electromobility and additional Volvo Autonomous Solutions to see what else is in store for the future of electric and autonomous machines.

Hakyong Yang: Hakyong joined the Volvo CE team in 1998 as an engine performance control and engine system installation engineer. He currently works as the director of the medium excavator platform out of the Changwon, Korea office.

Uwe Müller: Uwe started his career with Volvo Construction Equipment (Volvo CE) in 2006, where he led several research projects developing new technologies, concept machines and site systems, including the breakthrough study Electric Site. He currently serves as the Head of Sales and Marketing for Off-road solutions at Volvo Automated Solutions, specializing in automation and the electrification of construction equipment.