Heavy construction company Tomahawk Construction is using Teleo autonomous technology as a solution to its labor shortage as it develops land to create a 700-acre residential community in Naples, Florida.
By retrofitting any make, model and year of heavy equipment, Teleo uses its technology to enable remote and autonomous operations of machines. Known as Supervised Autonomy, the technology enables Tomahawk’s machine operator Max Bogacz to remotely operate three Teleo-equipped articulated dump trucks (ADTs) on the Naples jobsite, simultaneously, from a command center 65km away in Fort Myers.
“I am the first operator in the world to run multiple articulated dump trucks at once,” said Bogacz.
Tomahawk also implemented Teleo‘s autonomous capabilities on its machines, which means that while machines are set to autonomous mode, they can perform routine and repetitive tasks – such as hauling materials from one point to another – on their own.
If there are any complex tasks that the autonomous technology cannot yet fully handle, the machine waits for the operator to take over. Bogacz can switch machines with the press of a button.
Commenting on the difficulty in attracting new operators to fill vacancies created when experienced operators retire, Tomahawk owner Scott Lyons said, “We really have just had a hard time getting people into haul trucks.”
He continued, “Ever since we installed Teleo units on the trucks, we haven’t had one sitting. It lets us expand who we would typically hire for a haul truck. So today we’ll see one operator per three trucks.”
Solving the labor shortage using Teleo Supervised Autonomy has been a game-changer for Tomahawk, according to Lyons. “I told all the OEM manufacturers that I wanted an autonomous option. Teleo has really given us the only option to date to make it happen.”