Partners: FORD, TAI, TCELL, TB, KATAM, ROBONIK, BUYUTECH , AVU, CC

Employment of drones in construction sites are limited. Smart construction can be enabled by precise perception, mapping and reliable communication which is provided by emerging drone capabilities. In ADACORSA Demonstrator 7.3, our goal is to prove effectiveness of drone support in construction sites. In this demo, FORD OTOSAN's autonomous Truck and BÜYÜTECH's autonomous Excavator performs loading and unloading operations on a smart construction area, centrally controlled by TÜBİTAK's Ground Control Station using the developed route planning algorithms and inter-vehicle messaging infrastructure.

TÜBİTAK's drone;

(i) reaches the operation area and inform the Ground Control Station about any situation that may jeopardize the safety of the operation through the sensors on it, and

(ii) provides surveillance while the other vehicles operate by providing real-time video to the Ground Control Station. In addition, another drone provides communication with its portable 4G base-station load for construction sites in rural areas where internet infrastructure is unavailable.

In the demo, both vehicles reach the excavation point autonomously and with the supervision of Ground Control Station, Excavator starts autonomously loading soil in its bucket, then unloads it in the middle of the Truck’s trailer body, location of which is tracked and informed by the Ground Control Station. After excavation completes, Ground control Station triggers the Truck that autonomously navigates to the final dumping point where it drains its soil inside the trailer. All traveling, excavation and dumping operations are performed autonomously by the support of drones without any human intervention.