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Constructicons, transform phase one!

Caterpillar Inc., known for making a large range of construction, agricultural, and forestry equipment, is looking into the future of the industry. Mark Pflederer is the chief technology officer at Caterpillar and believes that the future lies in remote controlled, or even automated, driver-less machines equipped with on-board computers and GPS.

"Ten or 15 years down the road," Pflederer said in a Reuters story, "it's not too much of a stretch to think that we could run multiple bulldozers, wheel loaders or trucks on a site and move the operators to a remote location." 

Currently, Caterpillar designs its machines using a virtual reality lab "how every single component of the machine interacts with every other component in the machine as it's moving," which is a technique used by auto-makers. Other high-tech investments include the company’s research into creating the world's first hydrogen fuel cell-powered underground mining truck, which is project to be operating in a mine by next summer.

The real future, as Caterpillar would have it, is still in automation. Analysts point to the changing face of the labor force, specifically the retirement of the baby boomer generation, as reasons to why such a development would be important.

"Maybe it's just remote control. Maybe it's completely autonomous," he says. "Automation is our long-term dream."

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Transformers
By Alphafox78 on 9/25/2006 3:40:04 PM , Rating: 2
Is that a pic of all the origional transformers?! I thought they had more color choices than green and purple back then. wheres optimus prime?




RE: Transformers
By rushfan2006 on 9/25/2006 3:45:17 PM , Rating: 2
LOL...wow that picture brings back memories...back then toys were made well....the new ones are crap..just cheap plastic. Bought some transformers for one of my many nephews' birthdays...darn thing is just plastic. I used to have the original die-cast ones..they were cool...

ANYWAY....no that's not all of them just the "constructicons" as the article states...there are literally dozens and dozens of transformers though.

ok why do I suddenly feel like a little kid having told you all that? <runs and hides>

;)



RE: Transformers
By sdedward on 9/25/2006 3:47:26 PM , Rating: 3
Those are the Constructicons.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructicons

They were a set of 6 (or was it eight?) Decepticons that combined to form Devastator.


RE: Transformers
By MonkeyPaw on 9/25/2006 3:50:29 PM , Rating: 2
The above picture is the "Construction" transformers. All of those models transformed into construction equipment. They appeared a bit later than the original transformer lineup. They probably even had the halographic decal that identified them as "Autobot" or "Deceptigon" when you rubbed it.


RE: Transformers
By pnyffeler on 9/25/2006 7:18:12 PM , Rating: 5
I still own my Constructicons. They're in a box at my parents'.

I turn 30 in less than a month.

Man, I'm glad I'm already married, or else this post would be dating suicide.


RE: Transformers
By sieistganzfett on 9/25/2006 7:54:07 PM , Rating: 1
haha who looks for love on dailytech.com

this article is too much for me. transformers 10-15 years down the road will put americans and those friends of ours south of the border out of a job.


RE: Transformers
By kmmatney on 9/25/2006 7:58:16 PM , Rating: 2
From the quote: "it's not too much of a stretch to think that we could run multiple bulldozers, wheel loaders or trucks on a site and move the operators to a remote location."

I take it to mean they can hve the construction equipment controlled remotely, by people anywhere in the world. It may mean more jobs for people south of the Border - although they can work from home.


RE: Transformers
By Dracip on 9/26/2006 2:24:21 AM , Rating: 3
That seems to me to be a very short-sighted view, one I have heard many times, which implies it is a bad thing.

It was also said when Henry Ford brought in automation in his auto manufaturing, and it proved something which is still valid today:

Automation increased wealth across the board. Any jobs lost are in low-skilled jobs, the resulting wealth means the next generation can have a better life, including a better education which will allow them better skills to get better paided better jobs.

Without automation, few would be able to afford a car, computers would never have developed as fast because few would have been able to afford them, there for providing firms which the incentives and cash to develope them.

They will actually save lives and health in such sometimes dangerous occupations. The same people with have better jobs. Since the change will not happen over night, they will have more incentive to see the advantages of using the chances they have and learn something while at school because they see there are less and less low-level jobs available.

And also, these machines will affect PEOPLE, not AMERICANS. Let's leave out the nationalistic drivel out of this.



RE: Transformers
By splines on 9/26/2006 12:26:08 AM , Rating: 2
I distinctly remember being highly upset and agitated for some time after Optimus Prime died.

I, also have a significant other who I can share such things with now she's stuck with me :)


I sure hope....
By marvdmartian on 9/25/2006 3:42:16 PM , Rating: 2
....that they don't forget to include the 3 laws of Robotics in these things!!




RE: I sure hope....
By shamgar03 on 9/25/2006 3:45:58 PM , Rating: 2
Hah, yeah they will be automating...

THE HARVESTING OF HUMAN COPPER-TOPS!!1!


RE: I sure hope....
By peternelson on 9/25/2006 3:59:44 PM , Rating: 5
Yeah, it's the future:

"There are FIELDS, Neo, where humans are HARVESTED by MACHINES"....



RE: I sure hope....
By wingless on 9/25/2006 4:10:06 PM , Rating: 2
I think somebody saw the PATLABOR anime series.

I wonder how much faster planetary deforestation will happen with tireless, cold, machines raping the Earth instead of greedy humans. LOL...


Costs....
By Chadder007 on 9/25/2006 4:06:32 PM , Rating: 2
And I bet houses will still cost too much after all of the money they save by going to all robots. Housing market is freaking rediculous. There is barely any way for someone to get a decent house now that is single making 30,000 a year it seems.




RE: Costs....
By spwrozek on 9/25/2006 5:21:52 PM , Rating: 2
Move to Michigan.


RE: Costs....
By TheDoc9 on 9/25/2006 5:42:40 PM , Rating: 2
That's why you never get comfortable where you are, you bust your butt and do whatever it takes to get where you want to go. - Stopping Short of negativly affecting other people.


I wonder...
By MonkeyPaw on 9/25/2006 3:45:29 PM , Rating: 4
I wonder how these machines will react to protestors?

"You have 5 seconds to comply..."




By kmmatney on 9/25/2006 7:31:23 PM , Rating: 3
Remote controlled construction equipment with "the operators located elsewhere" - does that mean more jobs for India, or that many Mexicans can now work from home?




OMG!!!
By yacoub on 9/25/2006 4:12:33 PM , Rating: 2
A picture from an original Transformers toys brochure! I LOVE IT. <3

I remember oogling the brochures for hours as a kid. =)




By dice1111 on 9/25/2006 6:00:30 PM , Rating: 2
Laughed my ass off.

Too bad this wasn't posted at the begining of the day. It would have made it much more enjoyable.

Thanks Daily Tech.

Dice




You'd think in 15 years...
By Regs on 9/26/2006 9:05:23 AM , Rating: 2
College would become a requirement instead of an elective. With technology growing fast, you'd pretty much have to be the guy designing the robots or fixing them to make a living.




Lucky for me...
By INeedCache on 9/26/06, Rating: -1
"We’re Apple. We don’t wear suits. We don’t even own suits." -- Apple CEO Steve Jobs









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