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Tyrone J. Machado

New MORE publication published in Robotics and Autonomous Systems

A new MORE publication has just been published titled “An exploratory study of software engineering in heavy-duty mobile machine automation” in Robotics and Autonomous Systems. The article is fully open access and can be read online: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921889023000635?via%3Dihub#d1e2742

Abstract

As the amount and complexity of software for automating heavy-duty mobile machinery is increasing, software engineering in this domain is becoming more important. To characterize the industry’s current state of software engineering and its issues to guide future research, we performed an empirical exploratory study. We interviewed 16 software engineering professionals from 13 different companies conducting business in heavy-duty mobile machines and their automation. The interviews were analyzed qualitatively, and quantification of the analysis results is presented. We first create an overview of software engineering in the heavy-duty mobile machinery industry. We then identify problem areas affecting software development and discuss some of the possible solutions found in literature. Our findings indicate that the major problem areas faced in the industry that require more research are its digital transformation, autonomous machine functional safety, low availability of workforce for developing software for robotic mobile machines and the lack of established software standards.

First Future innovations and MORE newsletter published

Hot Topics for Heavy-Duty Mobile Machines

What’s going on and what can we expect?

In this newsletter, we want to have a closer look at the trends that define the current developments in the heavy-duty mobile machine (HDMM) sector. This way, you will get to know what is influencing as well as motivating our work in the MORE project. David will start by elaborating topical powertrain technology with a focus on construction machinery, and Tyrone will highlight some developments within automated and autonomous HDMMs.

Articles

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knowMORE: FAQ video series online

Have you ever wondered what our early stage researchers (ESRs) were are talking about when they mention optimised power management or what exactly perception sensors means? Have we ever used acronyms such as HDMM or BAGEL which just are not clear? Or have you ever wondered what the daily tasks or our ESRs are?

Our ESRs receive questions or are asked to explain parts of their research on a daily basis which may seem obvious to researchers in heavy duty machinery but for all us others can be overwhelming or difficult to follow. Based on this, the MORE ESRs have recorded the knowMORE series, a frequently asked question in video format answering the main FAQs they receive in an easy to follow way.

Second annual MORE network event held in Sweden

The second annual MORE network event was organised by Örebro University in Sweden from the 18.-20. May 2022. During the annual network events the focus is to give all the MORE early stage researchers the opportunity their research results and work progress and to obtain valuable input from their supervisors, industrial collaborator and external experts.

The annual events are always combined with other activities, such as technical sessions about relevant topics, onsite visits as well as social networking activities. During this annual event, we received a lab tour through the AASS lab at Örebro Universtiy as well as a visit to Munktell Museum. Time was further devoted to the training of the MORE early stage researchers from partners within the network. This included sessions on Communication, dissemination and exploitation activities in MORE: As open as possible, as closed as necessary (Julia Götz, accelopment); Towards robot-, task- and environment-agnostic multi-robot fleet control (Federico Pecora, Associate Professor at Örebro University); and Ethics for Robotics & Automation (Masoumeh Mansouri, Assistant Professor at the School of Computer Science, University of Birmingham).

We would like to thank Örebro University for hosting the meeting and for all participants for their active contributions and engagement during the meeting.

Tyrone starts his secondment at KAMAG Transporttechnik GmbH & Co.KG

Tyrone, our MORE Early Stage Researcher 1, moved to KAMAG Transporttechnik GmbH & Co.KG located in Ulm, Germany for his secondment. Together with the SCHEUERLE Fahrzeugfabrik, NICOLAS Industrie and TIIGER, KAMAG Transporttechnik forms the TII Group – Transporter Industry International. The TII Group is the world’s market leader in the development and production of heavy-duty vehicles equipped with hydraulically-supported pendulum axles. KAMAG is active in the production of industrial vehicles, modular transporters and vehicles for terminal logistics.

Tyrone will work at KAMAG from 01.02.2022 until 31.05.2022. During this time, he will investigate new potential business cases and business models for automated and/or autonomous ‘Swap Body Transporters’ and ‘Terminal Tractors’ offered by KAMAG. The secondment will provide Tyrone with practical exposure and an avenue to test business and management related research concepts in the field of terminal/yard logistics, while KAMAG will benefit from the research insights that may help their future business and research collaborations.

First face-to-face industry training held in Tampere

The MORE project has been running for nearly two years and due to travel restrictions, all meetings and trainings up to now have been held virtually until today. We finally had the opportunity to meet in person for the first time from the 15th-17th November 2021. In total, 23 members from the MORE consortium including the eight Early Stage Researchers met up for the 3rd Industry training event organised by TAU in Tampere, Finland.

The three-day training event included presentations from invited external speakers on Robotics, manipulator, trajectory optimization (Arun Singh, Univ. of Tartu) and a number of MORE network members on a number of relevant topics covering Hydraulics boom (Marcus Rösth, HIAB), Forestry Applications and Technologies (Timo Käppi, J. Deere), BIM in Infra Construction (Teppo Viinikka, Novatron), Control of Articulated Hydraulic Robotic Systems, (Janne Koivumäki Novatron), Operator assistance (Manuel Bös, Liebherr), Robot learning for heavy mobile machines (Nataliya Strokina / Reza Ghabcheloo,TAU) and Automation, Robotics in heavy machines (Christine Brach/Ulrich Lenzgeiger, Bosch Rexroth)

We also had the opportunity to visit our local hosts’ labs and demonstrators. TAU to showcase Robots in action in our RoboLab Tampere https://research.tuni.fi/robolabtampere/ At the end of each day, we held roundtable session to discuss the technical topics which were presented during the day.  In these discussion academia and industry collaboration was intensively elaborated. Being able to meet in person has provided the MORE members the possibility to get to know each other on a much more personal level and to strengthen team spirit. We would like to thank all the contributors to the Industry Day and are looking forward to MORE!