Cyborg crushing: A glimpse into the future

I recently attended a trade show in France where a young sales associate lured me into his company’s booth.

The young chap promised to “blow my mind” with a virtual reality (VR) tour of one of their systems. I accepted his challenge with vigor. I had heard of virtual reality, of course, but I had never experienced it.

I must admit it blew my mind.

I stuck my head through steel hopper walls to inspect conveyor components, and I transported from machine to machine instantaneously. I was even able to pull up a control panel to see operating data such as temperatures and pressure. In the end, I realized the possibilities of this technology are endless.

I’m not suggesting VR is the future of portable plant processing. Still, tech advancements like these are telling us what’s to come. One only needs to look around our industry, use the proverbial “third eye” and look ahead.

Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk recently stated that the marriage between our cortex and artificial intelligence is accelerating rapidly. It’s only limited by the amount of bandwidth – or speed – of the information we can access.

Think about how often we use Google on our smartphones to gather information. It’s much different than how we gathered the same information only 25 years ago. But what will our world be like 25 years from now?

What the future holds

I suspect the answer is that information will be much more available to all of us more quickly and intuitively. But what does that have to do with portable processing?

Based on how mobile equipment evolved over the past 25 years, there might be some indications. For example, machines are generally more refined and reliable today. The old adage “they don’t build them like they used to” is absolutely true. It is incredible to see the production of a 48-in. cone crusher today compared to what a similar-sized machine could process during the Reagan years.

Control systems continue to get more user-friendly, reliable and functional. PLC systems data-log useful information and help keep machines running at optimal levels. I bet that if I did some checking, I could find someone who is getting text messages from their rock crusher.

Someday, machines may order their own parts, perform their own routine maintenance, and make their own adjustments to maximize performance. We are already seeing some of this through automation and interlock technology, but I would expect big leaps forward as industrial sensor technology and bandwidth continue to advance.

We have all heard the term “lean” thrown around, but no one can deny the industry is working to eliminate process waste. Machinery is becoming simpler to operate, more accessible to service, quicker to deploy, and less intrusive to the environment. We should expect portable plants to continue to be less dependent on human interface and auxiliary equipment. We should expect uptime and tons per man-hour to increase, and for fuel, labor and other indirect costs to decrease.

With much of the workforce less skilled or less eager to join our special fraternity, we will continue to lean on equipment to pick up the slack. Machines are already providing greater abilities, giving operators remote, synchronous access to make adjustments, check diagnostics and more.

Other industries, such as underground mining, are paving the way for us. I recently saw a guy remotely driving a haul truck that was seven miles underground. He operated it as if he was flying a drone over Cuba.

If a “cyborg” is defined as the marriage between human and artificial intelligence, then clearly we are already on this path. Only our imaginations can limit the potential use of technology to make our jobs safer and more profitable.

Tell your suppliers what you need equipment to do, and let them put tomorrow’s technology to work for you.

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Paul Smith is director of international sales and marketing for Astec’s Aggregate & Mining Group.