This week, the ‘Beeyonders EU’ project, in which CATEC participates as a partner, has carried out in the Basque town of Abadiño the first real-world tests of technologies designed for the construction sector, specifically for the monitoring of construction sites and the management of road maintenance. It is a technological solution that combines a drone (developed by CATEC), which performs an initial inspection of the site, a digital twin (developed by TECNALIA), which receives this information, and an autonomous vehicle (also TECNALIA), which reinforces the inspection work.

This technology is currently under development and evaluation, and the final prototype will be tested in Italy at the end of this quarter. This first test is aimed at detecting possible improvements to be made to the prototypes, improving the final result in the Road Maintenance use case. This technological combination has been deployed along a stretch of a secondary road, located in the town of Abadiño in Bilbao, to promote the contribution of aerial drones, digital twins and ground robots in road maintenance decisions by means of sensors and advanced perception techniques.

CATEC’s drone next to TECNALIA’s autonomous vehicle.

Marco Montes, technical manager of CATEC’s developments, explained the benefit of using drones for maintenance applications. “Thanks to these new autonomous technologies, it is possible to improve work efficiency as well as workers’ safety, since greater distances of roads can be inspected in a short time. In addition, through the application of artificial intelligence tools, it will be possible to detect possible problems on the road more quickly and safely, which will help to increase safety for people.”

The European Beeyonders project involves 22 companies and technology centers from different sectors in 9 countries. In the case of Spain, in addition to TECNALIA and CATEC, the project includes Acciona Construcción as coordinators, the Instituto Tecnológico de Aragón, developing an autonomous loader for civil construction, and PNO Innovation, as an agent for the exploitation and dissemination of results.

The initiative seeks to develop cutting-edge technologies for the construction industry to enhance its efficiency through sophisticated tools, improve the quality of processes, increase the productivity of companies and promote a sustainable and environmentally friendly activity, and at the same time promote an innovative and digitized industry, adapted to the new talent in the sector. Specifically, they are expected to reduce CO2 emissions in the construction sector by 11% and improve production efficiency by around 14%. In addition, the inclusion of these tools will increase the safety and ergonomics of work in the sector.