Caterpillar Dozers to be Converted to Autonomous Units

Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) announced on 8 October it has won a contract for conversion of Caterpillar Dozers into autonomous dozers that will be commissioned for complex engineering tasks in high threat areas. This is a significant military robotics contract, reflecting the challenges posed by the future battlefield.

IAI won the contract following a prolonged development process, demonstrating the system’s capabilities, including comprehensive tests of the technology’s maturity and its efficient and safe integration in battlefield scenarios.

The new autonomous system mounted on the Caterpillar Dozer belongs to a family of robotic solutions developed by IAI. It incorporates the company’s robotics technology, which can be integrated in a range of platforms, based on the customer’s operational needs. The new autonomous dozer provides variable degrees of autonomy, including movement and earthworks for a range of applications: construction, trail blazing in hard off-road conditions and the removal of large or suspicious obstacles, efficiently and without risking human lives. The system is fitted with object detection and avoidance capabilities and is designed to work in all weather and visibility conditions.

“The Autonomous Dozer takes us [an] additional step further in providing the necessary readiness level for the future battlefield. It allows effective and efficient execution of complex engineering assignments over prolonged periods of time with no human intervention, thus significantly reducing the risk for humans. The unique technology was developed by IAI over the past decade, offering a major breakthrough in autonomous capabilities, in particular for challenging off-road conditions,” explained the General Manager of IAI’s Robotic Systems Division, Meir Shabtai.