Movers & Rollers

From their base in Pittsburgh, PA, Bluelight Machines is fast becoming a world leader in bringing affordable, fast autonomy to construction machinery.

Retrofitted autonomous systems are revolutionising construction with their ability to solve real, immediate problems whilst paving the way and lowering the barriers to adoption.

Utilising their existing equipment and fleets, contractors are quickly coming to the realisation that retrofit kits are the answer when replacing (what can be millions of dollars’ worth) of existing equipment. In plain terms, a simple installation of the latest AI technology can extend the life and value of machines already on site, without the need for extensive investment in what are the most challenging of economic times for the construction industry.

We know that new technology is the way forward, but it’s hugely daunting for many businesses to even be able to think about the purchase of new autonomous machines, many of which are still in the experimental stages of their development.

Rob Jackson, Bluelight's new Head of Customer & Dealer Success, took some time out to give us an insight into how the company is positioning itself on the precipice of a brand new, autonomous era.

Rob explains some of the many benefits of utilising the plethora of benefits that technologies such as Bluelight’s can bring to companies of all sizes:

“The Bluelight Autopilot Kit sits at an interesting intersection of bringing automation into heavy equipment in a retrofit, modular fashion rather than building fully autonomous machines from scratch. This approach has so many advantages, including a lower capital barrier and the leveraging of existing fleets, but we would be remiss not to mention the significant challenges of general integration and acceptance within the industry.

“The price point for retrofit kits like ours is a fraction of what it would cost to replace expensive plant and machinery, and installation can take as little as 90 minutes. As a result, ROI comes quickly by reducing idle time, improving fuel use and massively boosting productivity.”

It’s well-documented and that the construction industry faces ever-growing challenges, not least an ongoing chronic shortage of skilled operators.

Autonomy allows one supervisor to manage multiple machines, freeing skilled workers to focus on complex tasks and helps contractors stay on schedule even when labour is tight. The cost saving has obvious and huge implications – not least that full installation costs are likely less than the salary of one operative for a year.

From a safety perspective, autonomous systems reduce operator exposure to risky environments including compaction near heavy traffic, extreme weather or hazardous conditions and environments on site - built-in sensors and fail-safes can often detect and respond to hazards incredibly faster than a human operator. The camera functionality provides consistent hazard awareness – the cameras, radar, and lidar sensors scan the environment continuously, many times per second, with the AI trained to detect people, cones, vehicles, and other obstacles and to enable instantaneous vehicle cut off if anything enters its path.

Productivity and efficiency are increased ten-fold in some cases, with autonomy contributing to the ability to run longer shifts, maintain consistent quality, and avoid downtime caused by fatigue.

Rob continues: “Put simply, we’re translating tech into real-world adoption. Bluelight’s solution is a plug-and-play autonomy kit which can be retrofitted to rollers, compactors and trucks in 90 minutes for around $50k. For many smaller operators who thought this kind of technology was out of reach, the feedback so far as been, quite simply, phenomenal.

“Contractors are reporting idle times dropping from nearly 70% to under 10% with autonomy. Think about that for a minute… It’s a no-brainer.”

Scalable and flexible, the kit can be transferred between machines, making autonomy also portable – the modular approach means companies can scale at their own pace, adding autonomy where and when it makes the most sense.

Rob continues: “Having Bluelight machines operational on both Cat and Dynapak rollers to date shows how adaptable the system and seeing the technology running seamlessly for both is a major validation for us. These are two of the most trusted names in the industry, and proving we can integrate with their machines shows just how versatile and robust our system is.

“To go from a place where full fleets of purpose-built autonomous machines are years away for most contractors, retrofitting is a practical, incremental step which gets autonomy onto job sites now.”

It would be fair to say that Bluelight’s role is pivotal for this new and amazing era in construction with founder and CEO Dick Zhang and Rob almost evangelists in translating the latest tech into real world adoption. Retrofitted autonomy makes cutting-edge technology affordable, practical, and immediately useful. It’s not about futuristic concepts - it’s about solving today’s construction challenges in a way that contractors of all sizes can actually deploy.

Bluelight is not just another gear vendor – their tag line of ‘autonomy in construction, now’ will surely be hailed in the future as democratising the use of autonomous tech in construction.