Strabag has tested autonomous machines that can lay asphalt on a section of Austria’s A9 motorway between Graz and Slovenia.
The units use satellite navigation and are able to recognise nearby objects while sending back information about the temperature of the asphalt surface. The robots also install concrete modules that contain a crash barrier, gutter, curb and rainwater channel.
The contractor says in the future, paving staff will work as the controllers of machines, meaning that they will not be exposed to the hazards of traffic, vapour and aerosol particles
During the test, the paver was followed by other robots that positioned cones and painted road markings. The team behind the project has also designed a robot with a print head that can repair potholes and cracks with a cold asphalt mixture.
Kristina Wittmann, an expert in paving from Austrian motorway operator Asfinag, said: “The importance and future of automation technology is enormous from a user perspective.
“These technologies not only reduce the physical strain on workers, they also continuously record important parameters for quality assurance that are of particular interest to road operators.”
Over the past three years, 15 companies and researchers have worked on five projects for the EU-wide research project InfraROB under the guidance of the University of Vigo in Spain.
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