Publications / 1993 Proceedings of the 10th ISARC, Houston, USA
Frequent changes in the paving conditions of general roads in japan require considerable labor. This demands a heavy work load and a high level of skill to the asphalt paving operators and screedmen, and also affects the work load of subsequent manual operations, such as shovelling and raking. In this project, five automation items to be developed were determined, after analysing the present paving work by Industrial Engineer (IE) analysis and considering the paving work as a total system. The items are asphalt mix feeding, control of paving thickness, screed extension, steering operation, and operation of receiving the asphalt mix. The automation was achieved by using various sensors, an image processing system, and element technology using fuzzy control. The initial aim of labor savings and reduction in the level of skill could be achieved by developing this robot asphalt paver.