Pavement construction requires many types of heavy equipment . Though those equipment has reduced simple and physical labor drastically , they still need skilled labor in order to control the equipment precisely. Since Japanese construction industry expects shortage of skilled labor in the near future, it requires automated construction equipment which needs no or less skilled labor. The Ministry of Construction, the Advanced Construction Technology Center and a group of private companies started development of an automated paver (asphalt finisher) in 1990. A computer with radio communication system enabled the paver to lay down asphalt mixture without drivers and operators. The system showed enough performance at quality control in comparison with the conventional manual operation. (A)
Samenvatting