Latest Stories

Executive Viewpoints

AR/AI

Aftermarket Augments Off-Highway Autonomous Efforts

Continually transformed with more than a century’s advances in capabilities, hydraulics and fuel efficiency, today’s heavy mobile equipment must also become more intelligent and...

News

Manned Systems

Batteries Go Underground

Diesel-powered mining vehicles add risk and complexity underground. Operators need extensive ventilation infrastructure to manage the exhaust gases, and this becomes exponentially larger as mines go deeper. That...

News

AR/AI

Autonomy Takes Off-Highway

Autonomous operation for on-highway commercial vehicles has grabbed headlines and public attention, rightfully so since these haulers increasingly will share the roads with passenger vehicles. But there is a...

Articles

Manufacturing & Prototyping

Autonomy Is Coming to Commercial Vehicles

Despite a pandemic that continues to punish global economic markets, not to mention vehicle manufacturers’ and suppliers’ product plans, many heavy-duty truck makers are not relaxing on...

News

Manned Systems

Scalable Hardware-Software Interface Answers Overlooked AV Testing Need

In 2016, Oregon-based PolySync introduced DriveKit, a set of open-source hardware and software tools that enabled skunkworks engineering teams to electronically...

Articles

Defense

Kontron’s Embedded Boards Help Drive Autonomy Forward

Transportation technologies driven by autonomy are making partnerships an increasingly important part of vehicle-development strategies. That has created significant openings for...

Articles

Manned Systems

Building Geofences to Speed AV Adoption

Vehicle and system developers have always pushed to get the most from every component and material, but design teams focused on autonomous vehicles are increasingly adopting a less-is-more...

News

Test & Measurement

When Will AVs Become Reality? Answer: When Safety Science Catches Up.

Over the last 70 years, computing solutions have fundamentally shifted major parts of the world economy. The first wave optimized centralized G&A functions through...

News

Communications

Caterpillar Reveals Seven New Next-Gen Excavators, Increases Push for Remote Control

Caterpillar began launching its next-generation hydraulic excavators in late 2017, and the rollout continues two years later with the introduction of...

News

Software

Shifting Design of Autonomous Architectures

The controls for fully autonomous trucks must deal with inputs from a number of sensors, analyzing this data and taking actions that enable the vehicle to complete its route safely and...

Articles

Unmanned Systems

Autonomous Construction Sites

In the construction world, some companies are not just looking to electrify and automate individual machines—they have their sights set on something much grander: the entire jobsite. And Doosan Infracore...

Editorial

Test & Measurement

ConExpo & IFPE 2020: Go Big or Go Home

My inbox has been inundated with notifications of press conferences and exciting new construction equipment, power systems, and other advanced technologies to be revealed at the rapidly approaching...

News

Manned Systems

Volvo CE Showcases 100-Ton EC950F Excavator, New Hybrid Assist That Cuts Fuel Use by 15%

The entrance to Volvo Construction Equipment’s ConExpo-Con/Agg exhibit (F3432), through what the company has dubbed “excavator alley,” will...

Technical Innovation

Manned Systems

Leak Testing of Commercial-Vehicle AC Systems Critical as Move to HFO Refrigerants Looms

Passenger car and light-truck makers in the U.S. already have switched to more environmentally friendly hydrofluoroolefin (HFO) refrigerants from...

Articles

Connectivity

Far and Away: Remote Drivers Monitor Autonomous Vehicles

Eliminating the safety “watchdogs” who typically ride in autonomous vehicles (AVs) is a big step for technologists and legislators alike. A shuttle at Texas A&M university...

News

Test & Measurement

Cab Air Quality: A Critical Component of Operator Comfort

Review the design specs for any new haul truck, excavator, dozer or other off-road machine, and you’re not likely to find requirements related to cab air quality—yet....

News

Unmanned Systems

Trucks with Intuition

The automotive and commercial vehicle industries are working on answers to a tremendous number of questions no one bothered to ask before. Volvo, for example, wants to know if vehicles can have human intuition.

News

Transportation

Cummins CTO Sees Increasing Power Source Diversification, Digital Innovation

Jennifer Rumsey has been a member of SAE International her entire career and has participated in the organization’s COMVEC event as an attendee and...

Q&A

Manned Systems

Volvo CE Trials 5G Mobile Connectivity

For years Volvo Construction Equipment has operated wheel loaders via remote control in underground mining operations, first for very dedicated tasks and more recently increasing the flexibility and...

News

Power

Caterpillar Ventures Invests in Fisker for Electric Future

As automotive manufacturers compete to produce lower-cost electric vehicles (EVs) with greater ranges than ever, the off-highway construction and mining equipment industry has...

Articles

Unmanned Systems

Automating Machines for Off-Highway Environs Is Simple, Yet Difficult

It is the best of environments and the worst of environments for designers of autonomous off-highway vehicles. Freight haulers and some agricultural equipment are in...

News

Robotics, Automation & Control

Caterpillar, Newmont Partner on Underground Vehicle Automation Technology

Caterpillar and Newmont Mining have partnered to validate and improve underground hard rock mining vehicle automation technology. Nevada Cat dealer Cashman...

NASA Spinoff

Mechanical & Fluid Systems

Demolition Probe Gives Construction Workers a Break

Initially designed for use on the Moon, the Electro-Hydraulic Fracturing system — developed at Auburn University with NASA funding — relies upon short, high-pulse power created by...

Briefs

Materials

Methodology for the Effective Stabilization of Tin-Oxide-Based Oxidation/ReductionCatalysts

NASA Langley researchers, in work spanning more than a decade, have developed a portfolio of technologies for low-temperature gas catalysis. Originally developed to support space-based CO₂ lasers, the technology has evolved into an...

Articles

Mechanical & Fluid Systems

High-Pressure Spiral Hose

The EC600 X-FLEX high-pressure spiral hose from Eaton (Eden Prairie, MN) is designed for demanding applications that require very high-pressure performance in small areas, including construction, mining and industrial equipment. At 50% of the SAE 100R15 bend radius, the hose’s flexibility makes installation in tight...

Briefs

Electronics & Computers

Addendum of Self-Aligned Ion Implant to Design and Processing of SiC High-Temperature Transistors for Durable Operation Above 400 °C

Researchers at NASA’s Glenn Research Center have developed a revolutionary new generation of silicon...

News

Materials

Wear-Resistant Pumps

Duechting Pumpen’s WRX single-stage centrifugal pumps were developed for the transportation of abrasive materials and are suited for use in dredgers and other applications in the mining and processing of gravel and...

Executive Viewpoints

Sensors/Data Acquisition

Building Blocks Toward Collaborative Innovation

Global trends of population growth, the consequent infrastructure replacement and expansion, and the basic need to feed people, combined with ever-increasing environmental concerns and...

Articles

Defense

2013 Create the Future Design: Aerospace & Defense Category Winner

Microwave Extraction of Water for Space Propellant Edwin Ethridge, Ph.D.
NASA (retired),
Huntsville, AL

Space exploration is extremely expensive because very...