Service x Event (2022)
e-Construction Equipment Challenge Competition
On October 26th, the Transportation Digital Business Council (TDBC) and the Chiba Boso Technical Center held the “e-Construction Equipment Challenge Competition”. In this competition, participants remotely operate construction machinery and compete to see how quickly they can complete the work.
In such a tournament, young people with no experience operating construction machinery, such as Mr. Yamanaction, who belongs to the e-sports team CERULEAN.EXE and is active as a professional in “Super Smash Bros. SPECIAL”, and members of the Komazawa University e-sports circle, also participated. They usually compete to win or lose by controlling game characters, but they mingled with construction and lifesaving professionals and showed off their techniques in operating construction machinery. The construction industry is paying attention to the operation skills of such young gamers.
e-construction equipment is a system that remotely controls unmanned construction equipment to advance work on site. It was used in reconstruction work after the 1991 eruption of Mt. Unzen Fugen in Nagasaki Prefecture, and also in the Kumamoto Earthquake. It is useful for being able to work safely from a remote location at a disaster site where danger remains, and it is said that there are already about 200 cases in Japan. Now that information and communication technology has developed, it is possible to work as long as there is an Internet environment, and it can be operated even in places where it is difficult for humans to continue their activities for a long time. It is also expected to be used in space development and lunar surface development in the future. This is an area that is still being researched and developed for further progress.
The construction machines operated in this year’s competition consisted of two machines, an excavator and a carrier dump. In addition to the image from the air by the drone, it is expanded with multiple displays to display the camera image from the driver’s seat on a large screen. Operate the two levers set in front of the display to operate the construction machine. In this tournament, it was only lever operation, but it seems that it can also be operated with devices such as game pads.
Five teams participated in the e-construction machine challenge competition. First, the Maruiso Construction Team from the construction industry and the Chiba Fire Rescue Team, who are professionals in lifesaving, and other active construction equipment operators participated. In addition to the professional & student e-sports player team, the Komazawa University e-sports circle team, and the Chiba support team, which works to support the employment of young people in Chiba, are participating. Basically, one team consists of three people, each playing the role of a director, a carrier dump operator, and an excavator operator. Only the Maruiso construction team participated with only two operators.
The content of the competition is, so to speak, a format similar to “sand hauling speed run” by a tag team of an excavator and a carrier dump truck. The excavator will meet at the end of the straight line, and the carrier dump will meet at the point beyond the two curves, and the excavator will load the earth and sand into the dump. Then, the two construction machines compete for the round trip time from the meeting point to the starting point. The course width is slightly narrow for the two construction machines, and penalties are given for going off the course and contacting the pylons. Excavator is a competition that requires skillful hydraulic excavator operation, and carrier dump is a competition that requires precise cornering and control skills.
The “remote control venue” for this tournament is the Roppongi Grand Tower in Minato-ku, Tokyo. On the other hand, the “venue where construction machinery actually moves” is the Chiba Boso Technical Center Tsutsumori AI Center in Tsutsumori, Otaki Town, Chiba Prefecture. Construction equipment prepared in Chiba Prefecture was operated from the Roppongi Grand Tower in Tokyo, about 70 km away. In addition, at the tournament, live commentary and commentary were also conducted to excite the competition, and it was just like an e-sports tournament. According to the commentator, the GPS and communication environment in Tsutsumori, the construction equipment venue, is poor. It seems that e-construction equipment can be operated even in such an environment.
The contest was won by the Chiba Fire Rescue Team, which has experience operating construction machinery at disaster sites. Although he was so nervous that his hands were shaking, he achieved a time of 4:29.97 and was given the right to enter the “Remote Construction Demonstration” to be held on November 21st.
The professional and student esports player team came in second with a record of 5 minutes 3.50 seconds, even though they had no experience operating construction machinery. Mr. Yamanakushon’s smooth cornering and carrier dump operation was praised by the commentators and commentators. The fact that these guys, who had no field experience, were able to finish in 2nd place with only a limited amount of practice time suggests the possibility that e-sports players have aptitude for e-construction equipment.
The Maruiso Construction team followed with a time of 5 minutes 5.47 seconds and placed 3rd, while the Komazawa University esports circle finished 4th with a time of 5 minutes 49.03 seconds. The Chiba Support Team did well on the outward trip, but struggled with the operation of the carrier dump on the return trip after it was loaded with sand, finishing in 5th place with a time of 10:00.21. Nonetheless, the 10-minute mark for an inexperienced player is a good enough result.
It seems that the construction industry had a good impression of their achievements, even though they had no experience in the construction industry. The construction industry is currently suffering from a serious labor shortage as the population ages. Therefore, through events like this tournament, there is an intention to connect to the employment of young people who are lacking, and there is a background that they expect gamers who are used to operating controllers in particular. After the tournament, sponsor Itochu Corporation, major general contractor Obayashi Corporation, and other companies all expressed their recognition that they were able to confirm that the technology of e-sports players could be used for remote control of construction machinery. (Sankei Shimbun).
In addition, remote control demonstrations at this competition appealed that construction equipment could be operated from the office or home, without going to the site, as long as the work environment was prepared. It was also shown that people who are familiar with games may be suitable for remote control of construction machinery. If the mechanism of e-construction equipment, which can be operated without getting into the construction equipment, progresses further, a wider range of human resources may be interested in the construction industry.
Game techniques that have been honed over many years can be used not only in construction, but also in disaster recovery and even space development through operation of construction machinery. Such a future may be so close.
