After hearing visibility concerns from customers, Doosan came up with an industry-first: a see-through loader bucket. But how does the system work? And what type of impact could it have on the industry? Check out the video for all the details.
It’s not extremely often when covering the construction equipment industry that you see an innovation or new feature introduced to the market that has the potential to really make an impact on machines for many years to come.
But I think we've got one here.
I think the last time I recognized one was back in 2013 when Komatsu first launched its intelligent Machine Control (iMC) Platform on the D61-23—the first fully integrated machine control system.
Obviously that system has grown and spread into more Komatsu machines. Plus competing brands like Cat and Deere followed with their own fully-integrated systems from the factory—Cat Grade and SmartGrade, respectively. So, looking back at the launch of iMC in 2013—that was an industry-changing technology.
Now, I think it’s Doosan’s turn with their new transparent bucket technology—launching first on their completely redesigned next generation Dash-7 loaders.
Obviously, the bucket isn’t actually transparent. Doosan hasn’t developed some type of acrylic or glass bucket. And even if they had you’d still have the material in the bucket obstructing your view. And they haven’t been able to pull some type of high-tech cloaking technology from the depths of military development or Star Trek.
Rather they’re implementing a smart use of existing technology to solve a considerable safety and efficiency problem for loader operators—especially those in load and carry applications.
To explain what this system does, it’s helpful to first explain what problem Doosan is trying to solve.
Over the years loader manufactures have made great strides in the way of increasing visibility from the cab thanks to increases in the amount of glass in the overall cab structure. Doosan’s latest loaders are no exception. But one big obstruction to visibility can’t be solved with more glass—and that’s the bucket.
No matter if you’re carrying low or high, whatever is beyond that bucket is out of sight, requiring operators to have great memories in terms of what the jobsite around them looks like, and to move very cautiously as they crane their necks to see around the bucket. Even something as simple and tedious as approaching a truck, sometimes needs to be done with that quick check to see where the side of the bed is in relation to the bucket.
I doubt the bucket’s obstruction has occurred to many as a “problem” needing to be solved. But when you think about the time that could be saved and how much safer an operation could be if you could see “through” the bucket, the potential time savings starts to add up.
Doosan is solving this with a bit of AR or augmented reality technology. And like any AR solution, Doosan is using cameras and the in-cab display to help you see this augmented view of the jobsite—sans bucket.
To do that, Doosan says the system uses two cameras—one mounted high on the machine atop the cab, and another mounted low on the machine, essentially between the front wheels right under the linkage.
The reason there are two cameras is that the bucket moves in two directions—up and down. When the bucket is low, it’s obstructing the view of the low camera, but the high camera has a clear view of everything. When it’s high, the high camera can’t see, but the low camera now has a clear view.
But the system doesn't just switch between these two views as situations change. It's smarter than that.
The system stitches those two camera views together in real time. As the loader moves through the site, an on-board video controller will automatically use each of those camera views to compensate for what the other can’t see.
The result is a wide, unobstructed view of what’s in front of you and right beyond the bucket on that in-cab display.
The quick concept video that Doosan provided us with (seen in our full video above) shows the safety potential this system has in avoiding objects or obstacles that are low or on the ground and otherwise out of the operator’s field of view.
But the most practical use will be in approaching a pile or a when loading trucks. Being able to see those two situations without obstruction will likely be a big deal for many operators.
