Integration of Autonomous Equipment in the Heavy Civil Industry

The heavy civil industry plays a pivotal role in shaping the infrastructure landscape, with construction equipment serving as the backbone of any project. In an industry that is constantly looking for ways to improve efficiency, productivity, and safety, autonomous construction equipment has emerged as an innovative solution to help improve these factors on a heavy civil project. The purpose of this paper is to present an in-depth look at the current state of new technology involving autonomous construction equipment, and how prevalent it is in today\u27s heavy civil industry. Qualitative interviews that were completed with a project manager, superintendent, and a foreman that work for Toro Enterprises were used to help emphasize where autonomous equipment is at related to a smaller heavy civil company, and if it\u27s worth it for them to implement this equipment into their everyday work. With autonomous equipment being a relatively new technology, future research that can be studied is cost-benefit analysis, initial investment costs, maintenance expenses, potential productivity gains, and how it can work side by side with BIM