Automation in infrastructure construction

Infrastructure construction has experienced significant recent advances in automation. Such advances will only accelerate in the future. They are founded on enabling technologies such as positioning systems, advanced control methods, and graphical interfaces. This paper begins by describing the relevance of these enabling technologies to automation in infrastructure construction. It then focuses on classes of applications, including earth moving, compaction, road construction and maintenance, and trenchless technology. Because of the less regulated, relatively repetitive, and wellfinanced nature of such work, it is likely to experience quicker progress than other application domains.