Brush up automated construction techniques with muck-up tunnels

In November 2018, as a base for developing automated technology for mountain tunnels, a mock-up tunnel was opened at the Construction Technology Research Institute of the Japan Construction Machinery Construction Association (Fuji City, Shizuoka Prefecture). In May 2021, we succeeded in mucking work with an automated wheel loader and shotcreting work with an automated shotcreting machine.

Implementing on automated construction using rock mountain
—the first attempt of its kind in the industry

As well as automating construction machinery, A⁴CSEL for Tunnels (like A⁴CSEL for Dams) reconstructs work that has relied on the experience and intuition of operators as engineering-based work methods and procedures. To demonstrate the blasting planning technology developed to accomplish “blasting excavation without overbreak,” which is the key to improving productivity in mountain tunneling, and many other automation technologies developed to date in an environment equivalent to that of an actual construction site, we are trying an industry first by actually excavating a test tunnel owned by Kamioka Mining Co.

Through demonstration tests in the field, we aim to automate the six steps in tunneling, namely, drilling, explosives loading/blasting, mucking, scaling, shotcreting, and rock-bolting, to achieve unmanned operation around the tunnel face. In this way, we will establish a construction system that achieves a high degree of both safety and productivity by enabling optimal automatic operation.

Entrance of Kamioka test tunnel