XCMG's Unmanned Road Construction Fleet, the Largest Scale Globally, Completes National Highway Maintenance Project

SUZHOU, China, Sept. 26, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- XCMG (000425.SZ) has deployed its unmanned road construction fleet to complete the spreading and maintenance of the Suzhou Road segment of the Nanjing-Shanghai Expressway, the busiest highway in China. As the largest scale unmanned road construction fleet in the world, its successful application as an integrated set solution is a landmark event of milestone significance in the development of intelligent highway maintenance and construction globally.

The Nanjing-Shanghai Expressway is one of the highest-class highways in China and a golden passage in the Yangtze River Delta. XCMG's unmanned fleet consisted of 10 tandem road rollers and two large-width pavers, all under the unified command of the BeiDou satellite positioning reference station. Supported by technologies including the highly precise BeiDou positioning, inertial navigation and obstacle recognition, the fleet completed the scheduled tasks including driving, steering and rolling compaction.

"This unmanned road maintenance and construction project allowed us to reach the 'intelligent maintenance' stage. The inspection pass rate is much higher than that of traditional manual construction, and XCMG's unmanned technologies have excelled in construction efficiency and control accuracy," said Li Xin, Assistant GM of Jiangsu Xiandai Road & Bridge Co. Ltd..

XCMG has applied its unique and exclusive continuous asphalt thickness measurement radar technology to this unmanned road maintenance project, which is way ahead of the traditional core measurement that continuously and accurately measures the thickness of the paved asphalt without damage, reaching a maximum depth of 120mm and guaranteeing a measurement error of ±1mm. The technology provides an accurate basis for real-time control of the paving thickness and improves paving accuracy and construction quality.

The unmanned fleet has met all construction and maintenance requirements through the grid format tests of thickness, compaction and friction coefficient. 

XCMG has always placed unmanned intelligent technology as a research focus and successfully achieved normalized application on the Panzhihua-Dali Expressway, Liuzhou-Nanning Expressway, Beijing-Xiong'an Expressway and Beijing-Dezhou Expressway.

"In the future, XCMG will continue to commit to the R&D of intelligent and unmanned products, truly achieving standardization of unmanned engineering construction and reshaping highly complex and difficult construction. With intelligent sensing and control, digital construction and unmanned technology as the core, XCMG is dedicated to providing customized, high-quality intelligent solutions for customers," said Lige Xue, R&D Engineer of XCMG.