Recently, Volvo building equipment and Lego worked with a group of children to create a future automatic conceptual wheeled loader, ZEUX. This revolutionary automatic driving concept wheel loader is developed jointly by Volvo building equipment and Lego. Meanwhile, Lego will launch a brand new Lego Technic series toy based on ZEUX, which will be on sale in August this year. "The design of future building equipment" is the common goal of the two teams.
This cooperation makes the various conceptual testing of new building equipment possible, including functions, scale, design and interaction, and also makes the application of artificial intelligence more humanized in large engineering machinery. During the evolution of the building equipment, the birth of the Volvo concept wheel loader ZEUX was a practical progress, and the focus group made up of children helped a lot in the research and development of ZEUX. The team members responded positively to the early design drawings, and their comments eventually made some of the novelty of ZEUX. Among them, the two main highlights of ZEUX - "drafting unmanned aerial vehicle" and adjustable camera lift arm mounted on the top of the vehicle - also known as "heavenly eyes", are all from the group.
The eye of the sky
The "sky eye" embodies a new feature of innovation: it can accurately show where the device "attention" points to - which means it can make eye contact with people and confirm their existence. This is not an automatic driving vehicle because it usually requires a number of sensors to help the vehicle move between the stationary and moving objects, and the human eye does not see the sensors at the same time. The "sky eye" solves this problem, making interaction between human and equipment as safe and intuitive as possible.
The UAV will swirl over the ZEUX wheel loader to help ZEUX understand the surrounding environment clearly, and things outside its "line of sight", and plan how to do it according to the information.
ZEUX is equipped with four 25kW electric engines for traction (one for each wheel). Since automatic driving needs to maintain the balance of the equipment, the ZEUX wheels are equipped with sensors - like human feet, providing excellent traction and stability for the ZEUX and setting the direction of the wheel drive. The two axle of ZEUX is equipped with Ackerman steering system, which can further enhance stability at 360 degree turn and greatly improve equipment performance.
There is no operation hand in ZEUX's cab, which makes the chassis of the vehicle able to perform some actions that some ordinary equipment can't finish. With the design concept of scissors, the body of ZEUX can be lifted up and down according to requirements, so that the equipment is in the best position. The body balance will be maintained by the self motion of the counterweight (including battery pack), which means that ZEUX can change the center of gravity as needed. In the field operation, the dumping performance of ZEUX will be more powerful than traditional equipment. When loading the bucket, the fuselage of the whole equipment can reduce the height and regain balance by adjusting the weight to save power.
The ZEUX autopilot wheel loader is fully electric, and its 150 kWh battery is enough to allow the machine to work for three to five hours. Then, the device will return to the charging station to charge the battery by induction charging (no need to plug in), so as to achieve the continuous operation of ZEUX.
