John Deere Unveils its First Self-Driving Articulated Dump Truck (Video)

John Deere unveiled its first autonomous articulated dump truck to debut this week at the CES consumer technology show in Las Vegas.

A 460E-II truck has been equipped with an autonomy kit developed by Deere and its subsidiaries, Blue River Technology and Bear Flag Robotics. The truck marks Deere’s first autonomous venture for the construction industry.

{To watch it in action, check out the video at the end of this story.}

During a pre-CES press event November 13 at Blue River’s demonstration grounds in Gilroy, California, Deere unveiled and demonstrated the 46-ton self-driving truck. After research and development is finished, the autonomous technology would likely be sold as a retrofit kit for the 460 P-Tier, Deere’s largest articulated dump truck and the replacement for the 460E, according to company officials.

Deere has been testing the autonomous ADT at quarries and seeking customer feedback. No word yet on when it might be available for market, as extensive research and development is still underway.

During the November press event, Deere officials said the autonomous technology is designed to help solve construction’s labor shortage. Autonomy would bring operator reliability and safety to a repetitive task for aggregate quarries and potentially for site development.

Jahmy Hindman, Deere chief technology officer, cited survey results that indicated 88% of construction contractors have difficulty finding workers.

“That's an incredible and astounding number,” he said. “Fundamentally, nobody in construction can find the labor that they need to get the work done, that they need to get done at the time they want to get it done. That's the reality.”

How It Works

John DeereThe technology for the self-driving ADT is based on Deere’s fully autonomous tractors, first unveiled at CES 2022.

The “autonomy stack,” as Deere calls it, consists of two of the company’s Starfire 7000 satellite-signal receivers designed for its Precision Ag machine-control systems.

Six stereo cameras on the truck provide its 360-degree “vision,” and on top sits a yellow box containing two vision processing units.

“One thing that I want to point out that's exciting about this is that we're using so much ruggedized Deere hardware that already exists in other equipment,” said Grant Warden, Blue River systems architect.   

To operate the autonomous ADT, according to Maya Sripadam, Blue River senior product manager, a job superintendent or “orchestrator” would have an uploaded map that defines the haul roads the ADT would travel as well as load and dump points. The superintendent would then define the truck’s mission via the map software.

Those overseeing the truck would communicate with it through Deere’s Operation Center. The system can also be operated by app. With the retrofit kit, operators would still be able to run the truck manually if they choose.

“It doesn't go fully into autonomy until you have safely exited the cab, done your walkaround, then you'd have a visual confirmation on our app as well,” Sripadam said.

The truck also has obstacle detection to prevent conflict with workers, trucks and equipment and other objects.

Warden explained that deep-learning algorithms are run on each of the truck’s 360-degree camera frames that identify what’s in the images. Another algorithm positions items in three dimension for situational awareness for the truck to navigate and respond to changes in its environment.

“It is operating fully autonomously, which means it's not only safeguarding, but it's also making decisions and following instructions,” Sripadam said.

Watch It in Action

The second half of the video was provided by John Deere of the autonomous ADT being tested at a quarry.

Equipment World serves up weekly videos on the latest in construction equipment, work trucks and pickup trucks – everything contractors need to get their work done. Subscribe and visit us at equipmentworld.com!