What you’ll learn in this article:
- How different forms of automation are impacting agriculture equipment, construction vehicles, heavy trucking and more
- What factors are driving increased automation and the benefits it can bring
- The innovations making greater automation possible in these industries
Automation is changing the way heavy-duty vehicles are made and operated around the world. While fully autonomous equipment might come to mind, like excavators and load carriers operating without a human inside, other types of automation are shaping the industry as well. Partially automated equipment, like tractors with automatic steering, are becoming more prevalent. Here, a farmer still operates the vehicle while benefitting from the increased accuracy and precision in tilling, harvesting and fertilizing brought about by automation.
The ongoing labor shortage and high worker turnover are major reasons automation is growing in this sector worldwide. In the U.S., the Associated Builders and Contractors estimates a shortage of roughly 500,000 construction workers, particularly those with skilled trades experience.1 Similarly, a 2025 survey found that 69% of U.S. freight businesses are having trouble keeping up with demand due to a shortage of drivers.2
Automation can help bridge the labor gap by making workers more efficient or enabling one worker to operate multiple pieces of machinery. It can also help improve safety; for instance, operator-assist technology in a backhoe or crane can make the vehicle easier to operate for a recently hired employee just learning to use it and provide backup redundancy in case of new operator error.
Here are several forms of automation impacting heavy industry today:
Drive-by-Wire Systems
Drive-by-wire systems replace physical cables or mechanical links between key vehicle components, such as brakes and steering, with electronic signals to the engine control unit. These signals direct the vehicle to perform an action. By-wire systems can be found in both fully autonomous vehicles and those operated by a human with the help of an advanced driver-assist system.3 While drive-by-wire is currently more common in passenger vehicles, it is expected to continue to grow in commercial vehicles in the future.4
Remote Operation
Examples of remotely-controlled equipment in construction are cropping up around the world, either where the operator is directing machinery within their line of sight or from afar.5 This allows one operator to perform several functions at once (like sitting in an excavator and controlling a loader remotely for backfilling). Alternatively, an operator at an off-site location can use a control screen, monitors and joystick to direct an excavator to dig up dirt, deposit the dirt in the back of a dump truck and haul it away.6
Sensing Technology
As equipment becomes “smarter” and more autonomous, there is greater need for sensors to reliably and accurately gather data to inform the human operator or operating system. In heavy industry, a number of types of sensors collect and process this data, from position, speed and pressure sensors to TARS sensors measuring pitch, angle and acceleration. In a vehicle’s driver-assist system, for instance, sensors can collect information on the surrounding conditions and detect objects and potential hazards in real-time, enabling the system to provide insights and assistance to operators.7
Position sensors are one example of a type of sensor capturing vital information as part of the bigger picture of a vehicle’s safe and effective operation. Honeywell’s new RTY Series Dual Output Hall-Effect Rotary Position Sensor measures position and movement for heavy duty vehicles across multiple industries, helping the equipment operate at its best. It can determine the position of an excavator’s boom arm, a truck’s gas pedal, a ship’s rudder or an off-road vehicle’s wheel height. This sensor is designed to provide high-accuracy, reliable and real-time position feedback, even under extreme conditions seen in heavy industry like temperature fluctuations, vibration and exposure to dust, water and chemicals. Its two voltage output signals also provide a level of redundancy that is critical to safely operate heavy machinery.
To learn more about how innovations in sensing technology are driving automation in heavy industry, visit our website.
Sources
2 - https://www.newsweek.com/us-trucking-industry-deep-trouble-10861497
5 - https://compactequip.com/business/check-out-a-handful-of-remote-controlled-equipment-options/
6 - https://www.thedrive.com/news/watch-a-construction-crew-operate-heavy-equipment-by-remote-control
7 - https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/advanced-driver-assistance-systems-adas-market
