President, Machine Control Division, Leica Geosystems AG (part of Hexagon AB)
Safely moving along the road to autonomy, Neil Williams of Leica Geosystems talks to Peter Haddock
Peter Haddock talks to industry leader Neil Williams of Leica Geosystems part of Hexagon, about how the business is working ...
Transcript (17 segments)
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Peter Haddock0:23
Hi, I'm Peter Haddock and I'm here today in the arena here at the school with Leica Geosystems. I'm joined by Neil Williams. Neil, you've created this arena here for training purposes, but also to get people familiar with the technologies that we're talking about. And the Leica Geosystems and Hexagon teams are bringing in today. Folks, we're here with one of those technologies that you've started to integrate into the actual tablet and the whole array of the machine control. Yeah, tell me a little bit about the importance of that, because we always talk about the road to autonomy when we meet, and this is that stepping stone, isn't it?
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Neil Williams1:05
Yes, we know the UK or TRL and National Highways got aspirations for 2040 as well, documented the road to autonomy. In our opinion, for that road to autonomy to work, then we need to have a safe working environment. We know about plant-people interface, we're trying to reduce that, but there will still be a need for some kind of people-plant interface. I don't believe we'll ever go away from that, but unless we go to the road fully autonomy, in order for that to happen we need a safe environment. So introduction of X-Watch into our solution will be a stepping stone into that, hopefully the road to autonomy. Looking at how technology adoption will be, what's coming in the future, I do firmly believe we will see some form of autonomy in aspiration of 2040.
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Peter Haddock1:51
I think you're right there. I mean, there's a lot of things that we've been talking about. Last year, Neil, I went to see this semi-autonomous machine that you'd worked with one of the leading plant hirers, and so that's out there already, so that's going to become the norm over the next few years. But the thing I talk about, Neil, and I guess the operators out there will understand this, is we've had a lot of this retrofit and a lot of these things, and again Leica Geosystems is now factory fitting with a lot of manufacturers. But it's cluttered that cabin there, there's all sorts of things around you, all distracting me as an operator when actually I should be looking out the window. That's part of this journey, isn't it?
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Neil Williams2:31
It is. And the feedback we get from in particular excavator operators is that there's a lot of third-party integration solutions and it does clutter the cab and it could distract the operator. I've seen examples of five, six, seven different solutions inside an excavator. So we have listened to the operators and especially manufacturers, and how do we reduce the clutter if we want to call it that. So what we did in this case with X-Watch, we integrated that into our MC1 panel. Normally you would look at the MC1 operation in the dig mode, and as soon as the X-Watch gets alerted, then that screen automatically changes to the X-Watch screen and vice versa returns back. And I guess that could happen with other integrations as things evolve. Cameras as an example, we're working on that now where we can integrate cameras into our solution. So yeah, it's really to declutter the cab, make it a better environment for the operator. Because we all talk about autonomy, but we still need the operator as it stands today, and the operator is the brains in the machine.
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Peter Haddock3:36
And I've just grabbed my particularly exciting little personal alert device here, folks. This is actually integrated into that panel as well. So if I get too close to the machine, this is going to send it. I've had to turn it off because we don't want all the sounds and signals while recording this. But this is part of that journey, Neil, as well, isn't it? To actually not just be focused on the operator, but also the people that have to be in some cases around the machine. I know there's lots of discussions about tags in the marketplace, people have either like or don't like, they have opinions.
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Neil Williams4:09
Yeah, this has come from our mining industry, so it's been well proven and there's tens of thousands of these units in operation. But what we're trying to do here is when people do need to be around the machine, is take the onus away from just the operator, let people be aware that they're near a machine that could be dangerous. Yes, they get alerted, the machine gets alerted, and it's pretty much the same as the thumbs up used to be, but this is another addition to that. So we're not advocating that people are safe in a bubble that this protects them, it just makes them aware, and that's why it's a personal awareness tool.
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Peter Haddock4:45
Neil, one of the other things that is really interesting about this collaboration is we talk about 3D machine control. Folks, we talk about generally people think about it as digging below the ground to get all of the great sort of swells and things. We've got on this particular unit a steel wrist tilt rotator integrated to your co-pilot system. But you know, a lot of the elements of safety is what's above the machine as well. So when you are working in those environments where you've got things that you don't want to reach up with the boom and smash the pieces or electrification lines and things like that, having the 3D model means that you can go up, down, and all around, doesn't it? And that's another part of this sort of journey, isn't it?
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Neil Williams5:28
Yeah, it is. And you can simplify that as well, you can put height offsets. So there's a lot of functionality in the basic MC1 solution that I think a lot of people aren't aware of. Right, and this is the reason why we've got this training center here. We have the product, but there's lots of nice little features in there that maybe the users don't currently understand or aren't aware that they're in the system. And this is what we're doing here is to enhance that.
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Peter Haddock5:53
And the other element that I'm really, you know, surprised at, you know, you're a big company like Leica Geosystems owned by Hexagon, but you know, you're working with businesses like X-Watch that have got a big community using them in the UK and saying, 'Look, come to us, you know, we might be a big business, but actually we'd love to work with you as a specific provider to actually benefit all of our users.' And it's a vice versa situation, isn't it?
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Neil Williams6:21
I think most businesses, large business people have perception they're not agile. Absolutely, they can be agile. If you see a solution that fits into your portfolio, if you like, then why not collaborate? X-Watch in particular in the UK, I can only speak for the UK, but it's been adopted widely and quickly. And from our perspective, well, why not? Let's look at if we've got complementary technologies, then why not look to interface? So I think there's a misnomer that large organizations aren't agile. They can be.
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Peter Haddock6:52
And this is all about the MC1 system that you said there, Machine Control One. It's a system that really is important, though, Neil, to stress these key factors. That the tablet inside there, folks, can be taken from this excavator to the dozers that you see training behind us, and fundamentally all the integration can go with it as well, Neil, can't it?
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Neil Williams7:18
Yeah, and the cradle inside here actually holds the data of what is this machine, all the calibration work. So it really is a solution that you're adding to that can literally be carried from machine to machine. That's really important, isn't it? Especially for owner operators. If they've got multiple machines, we're not expecting them to buy a complete system, but pre-enable each machine at a relative cost. Obviously there are cost implications to that, but you can move the panel from machine to machine. And we often see that in owner operators, not so much on large scale contractors because the machine is utilized all the time. But certainly in the owner operator market.
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Peter Haddock7:53
Yeah, and I think we're certainly seeing an explosion right now in the house building sector as well, Neil, aren't we? Where things like this, systems like this, are going to be really much more important because they're much more confined spaces in house building as well. So it's great news for everyone that's looking to take advantage of all the productivity and efficiency gains, and of course the lack of people there with sticks, so reducing that.
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Neil Williams8:19
Yeah, like I keep saying this over and over to people, we're not removing engineers from doing their tasks, we're just changing the tasks that they're doing. We don't want them in and around the machine. If they have to be around the machine for any particular reason, then at least they need to be aware, the operator needs to be aware, they need to be aware of what's going on. We're not removing engineers or surveyors. That is something that I'm very passionate about. Absolutely, we still need engineers and surveyors, but they will be doing different tasks on the job site.
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Peter Haddock8:46
And as we move to the connected work site, folks, which I love to talk about, you know, we're able to get things done better, we're able to create more exciting projects because we're able to do things in 3D we couldn't do before. So Neil, you know, this is yet another step forward for Leica Geosystems in the UK, and you know, it's great to see that people can take advantage of this. Is it right now or?
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Neil Williams9:08
Yes, it's available now on the MC1 platform. We've got a handful of systems in operation. We've done UK testing, we've done global testing. It's all in the market and it's good to go. And it's for us a good enhancement on the MC1 platform. And again, technology will keep evolving, and I'm sure we'll meet again and we'll have another solution to talk about.
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Peter Haddock9:30
Well, Neil, it's great to kick off 2022 with something that's really important, this great integration with X-Watch and Leica Geosystems. And let's get some people training on it in this arena, right, Neil? Yep.