Contractor STRABAG has successfully tested automated paving in Austria. The test was carried out using innovative technology on the A9 motorway near Graz.
Robotic solutions and modular pilots within the pan-European research project InfraROB. The aim of the project is to implement automated technologies to improve the safety of workers and road users during road construction and maintenance. Autonomous robotic equipment performs work on installing fences at the construction site, applying road markings and repairing asphalt pavement.
STRABAG’s TPA Competence Centre and its partners in the pan-European research project InfraROB are testing new automation technologies in practice during the ongoing reconstruction work on the A9 motorway. The aim of the innovative solutions is to contribute to making road construction and maintenance safer, more efficient and more cost-effective in the long term. Over the past three years, a total of 15 companies and research institutes from eight countries have implemented five InfraROB sub-projects led by the University of Vigo, Spain.
The fully automated asphalt paver automatically laid the asphalt on a 180-metre-long test section near Spielfeld, with the implementation and logistics coordinated by the STRABAG team in Graz. The road operator and InfraROB partner ASFINAG provided the test section. TPA and its three German partners in the InfraROB 1 subproject have thus achieved their main goal: the automated control system now developed is the missing element for fully automated asphalt paving; it complements the innovative measurement and sensor technology that MOBA AG, TU Cologne, TU Darmstadt and TPA previously developed in the German research project “Robotics – Road Construction 4.0”. Sebastian Czaja, Head of PSS (Process Stability in Road Construction) at TPA Group, points out that automation in asphalt paving can improve health and safety on road construction sites in the long term: “In the future, asphalt pavers will increasingly take on supervisory functions. They will be able to work at a greater distance from moving vehicles, thereby reducing exposure to fumes and aerosols during the paving process.”
MOBA (Mobile Automation) AG has developed a special module for automatic control of the equipment, which is connected directly to the digital CAN bus interface of the asphalt paver and provides the machine with target data for the paving area. Object recognition sensors and satellite navigation (GNSS) dynamically maintain the course of the asphalt paver during the paving process. The second innovation of the InfraROB 1 subproject is a newly developed asphalt paving attachment, which enables the successful integration of a fiber optic cable with a sensor (FOS cable) into the surface layer during the asphalt paving process. The installed temperature and motion sensors provide additional information on the load on the asphalt surface during operation. In the future, this data can be used to monitor road maintenance work.
The innovative robotics technology of the InfraROB project can enable further automation of work processes on road construction sites in the future, significantly reducing the risk of accidents for workers and road users. For example, mobile robotic safety cones are used to demarcate test sections: coordinated and networked by unmanned aerial vehicles (RPAS), a swarm of autonomously moving towers (robot cones) are equipped with object recognition sensors to ensure a safe distance from moving vehicles (subproject 4). After the asphalt is laid at the end of October, the road will also be marked by small autonomous three-wheeled robots with spray paint cans.
A mobile robot with a similar design and 3D printing head is being developed as part of the InfraROB road maintenance subproject: with its 3D printing head, the robot will autonomously repair potholes and cracks using cold asphalt mix. At the same time, modular manufacturing aims to increase the cost-effectiveness of road construction projects: InfraROB partners in subproject 3 have developed multifunctional safety barrier modules that effectively combine a safety barrier, gutter, curb and storm drain in one integrated precast concrete component. The research project also developed models for integrating the InfraROB solution into pavement maintenance systems (PMS) and traffic management systems (TMS) to improve worker and traffic safety (subproject 5).
Post time: Mar-25-2025