Strabag trials fully autonomous asphalt paving

The company chose a section of the A9 motorway on the border with Slovenia, which it is renovating, to road test the system.

The system uses a special module for autonomous control of the machinery. It is connected directoy to the digital CAN bus interface of the asphalt paver and feeds the machine target data for the paving section. The machine also features object recognition sensors and satellite navigation (GNSS) to keep it on the right course.

The machine also has a newly developed paver attachment that integrates a sensor-equipped fibre optic cable directly into the surface course during paving. Along with temperature and movement sensors, they feed back information about the load on the asphalt during use.

The project is being led by Strabag’s TPA materials technology competence centre and its partners in the European Union-wide research project InfraROB.

The autonomous paver laid the asphalt on the 180-metre-long trial section completely autonomously, with implementation and logistics co-ordinated by a Strabag team from Graz.

It complements innovative measurement and sensor technology developed by machine control company MOBA, TH Köln University of Applied Sciences in Germany, Darmstadt Technical University in Germany, and TPA that was previously developed for the research project Robot – Robot Construction 4.0 in Germany.

Strabag said it hoped that autonomous paving would improve the safety, efficiency and cost-effectiveness of road construction.

Sebastian Czaja, head of TPA Group PSS (Process Stability in Road Construction), said, “In the future, paving staff will increasingly be performing the task of controller. They will be able to work at a greater distance from moving traffic, keeping them less exposed to vapours and aerosols during the paving process.”

Other robotics technology was also used on the project, including mobile safety cone robots that were used to segment the trial section, co-ordinated and networked by drones.

Following asphalt paving, small, autonomous three-wheeled robots with paint tanks will also mark the road at the end of October.