Automated driving is coming to Resource Roads in Canada.
FPInnovations
Driverless truck technology is being adapted to double the amount of lumber one driver can transport from a harvesting site to a sawmill. The motivation? A critical shortage of drivers willing to take trucking jobs in remote regions of Canada.
Automated Driving Systems (ADS) developer Robotic Research, LLC (RR) and FPInnovations, a Canadian private non-profit research and development center supporting the forest industry, announced today their plans to develop an off-road truck platooning system for the forest industry. This first-of-its-kind project will combine Robotic Research’s extensive experience in off-road autonomy with FPInnovations’ knowledge of forestry and related logistics. (Disclosure: I am an Advisor to Robotic Research.)
As a quick review: truck platooning refers to safe close following (drafting) to improve fuel economy via “connected braking” between trucks, enabled by low latency vehicle-to-vehicle communications. Truck platooning has been in active commercial development for several years, as noted in several of my previous Forbes articles. Those developing and demonstrating such systems include startups Locomation and Peloton, as well as truck-makers Daimler, Ford-Otosan, Traton, and Volvo Group.
First generation platooning systems relied on actively involved drivers in all platooning trucks, where longitudinal control for follower trucks was automated and follower truck drivers were responsible for steering. Nowadays, commercial activity focuses on second generation systems, which completely automate the driving of following trucks, combining fuel savings with labor savings. Essentially, the driverless follower trucks are taking advantage of human intelligence in the front truck, creating a stepping stone to fully automated driving.
Platooning is complementary with solo driverless trucks, i.e. at some future time individual driverless trucks may “couple up” to draft on one another and save additional fuel.
While several of the previously noted players were laying low due to the pandemic, Locomation has the been quite active in bringing 2nd generation “autonomous relay convoy” platooning to the market. Last year, they announced an order from Wilson Logistics for over 1,000 vehicles with deliveries starting next year.
Commercial platooning systems thus far have been designed to operate only on multi-lane, divided, limited access highways because that’s where the large number of users are operating. The multi-year project announced today aims at “accelerating the adoption of off-road automated-vehicle technology to improve safety and address an acute labor shortage, thereby improving the quality and viability of rural jobs where natural resources are located.” The partners note that developing this technology “would not only benefit Canada’s forest industry, but other Canadian sectors such as mining resources and natural resources in Northern Canada.” This is in line with FPInnovations’ mission to “accelerate forest sector growth and transformation, create new market opportunities, and identify, develop and deploy innovation.” FPInnovations has research and development laboratories in Québec City, Montreal, and Vancouver.
Founded in 2002, Maryland-based Robotic Research specializes in localization, autonomy, and robotic technology. Robotic Research is widely active across the automated driving space, both on-road and off-road. Earlier this year, RR announced a partnership with New Flyer to develop the Xcelsior automated electric transit bus. For the FPInnovations project, RR will create unmanned convoys of Class 8, ADS-enabled trucks that follow a driver in a lead vehicle. The announcement notes that “the project will adapt existing technology to challenging Canadian conditions such as four-season weather and operations on off-pavement roads, particularly for resource roads in continental and polar climates.”
“We are extremely proud to have been selected by FPInnovations and believe this project is a transformative model of how ADS can aid industries, like forestry, operating in perilous conditions or facing workforce shortages.” said Alberto Lacaze, President, Robotic Research. “The unmanned truck convoys work in concert with commercial drivers to enhance their efficiency, while also protecting their safety.”
In Phase I, truck convoys will be put through safety trials that mimic the routes from harvesting sites to sawmills. Once the system is proven to be secure, FPInnovations will run trials on actual resource roads, known to be challenging because of dust, sharp curves, and steep slopes.
Automated follower platooning on unpaved roads has no shortage of technical challenges, including … [+]
FPInnovations
RR has their work cut out for them. Truck ADS developers aiming to deploy on highways can pretty much take for granted having lane markings and a smooth (ish) running surface. In forestry operations, these driverless follower trucks must handle conditions and situations such as non-line-of-sight turns, vehicles with heavy loads, and vehicles with high centers of gravity. Furthermore, FPInnovations notes that “most of the testing and commercial operations will occur on very rural low volume public roads” which means that other vehicles and pedestrians may be present and must be safely handled.
“We are very pleased to partner with Robotic Research whose leading-edge expertise in the commercial on-road and defense transportation will greatly benefit Canada’s natural resource sectors and help address an acute labor shortage” stated Stéphane Renou, President and CEO, FPInnovations.
An FPInnovations spokesperson commented on the approach and objectives, noting “We hope to begin testing these types of convoys by the Fall of 2022 on resource road environments in Canada. We are targeting pre-commercial operations in 2025. The end goal of the project is to develop the technology solution required for a working prototype that is ready for commercial deployment. We will adapt RR’s technology to a suitable truck configuration for Canada’s resource requirements and we intend to haul logs and other material resources by the end of the program.” As to funding, FPInnovations says they are “actively pursuing various forms of financing which will allow us to accelerate the development of the project. Funding sources include Canadian Federal and provincial programs along with private contributions both cash and in-kind from key project collaborators.”
The forestry industry is geographically vast and key to the economies of Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Russia, Sweden, and the United States, among others. The number of trucks purchased for forestry operations in any given year are tiny compared to overall truck sales. In partnering with RR, FPI aims to bring availability of platooning-for-forestry ahead by several years.
In the same way automated driving will revolutionize over-the-road trucking, you can bet we’ll see the application of this technology in any domain where driving jobs are dull, dirty, or dangerous. Even in the woods.
