Insider Brief
- SoftBank Group invested $225 million in Autonomous Solutions Inc. and formed a joint venture with the industrial automation company to develop and commercialize autonomous construction equipment for large infrastructure projects.
- ASI said the venture will target civil construction and material handling using its Mobius fleet-management platform, with plans to support mixed fleets of autonomous haul trucks, dozers, loaders, compactors and other equipment from different manufacturers.
- ASI has already deployed its autonomy technology in agriculture, including a U.S. Sugar project in South Florida where five John Deere tractors were equipped with ASI’s Vehicle Automation Kit and managed through its Mobius platform.
SoftBank Group invested $225 million in Autonomous Solutions Inc. and formed a joint venture with the industrial automation company to develop and commercialize autonomous construction equipment.
According to ASI, the joint venture will focus on large infrastructure projects and construction use cases, including civil construction and material handling. SoftBank also capitalized the venture to support deployment of the technology at commercial scale.
Utah-based ASI develops Mobius, a fleet-management platform designed to coordinate autonomous industrial vehicles from different manufacturers. The $225 million investment will also support ASI’s wider commercial operations in the construction market, the company noted.
ASI CEO Mel Torrie said the investment and ASI’s more than 25 years of technology development will help the company expand autonomous construction systems while working with infrastructure builders in areas such as roads, airports, railways and waste management.
“This joint venture with SoftBank positions ASI at the forefront of autonomous construction innovation—built for scale, engineered for longevity, and open to every major equipment brand on the jobsite,” added Torrie. “Together, we offer automated OEM-agnostic heavy equipment solutions that let customers deploy mixed fleets of haul trucks, dozers, loaders, compactors, and more — all operating autonomously together across complex tasks from earthmoving to vertical construction.”
ASI has already deployed its autonomy technology in agriculture, including a project with U.S. Sugar in South Florida. The company equipped four John Deere 8R tractors and one 9R tractor with its Vehicle Automation Kit, allowing them to operate autonomously under supervision from a central command station using ASI’s Mobius fleet-management platform. ASI developed, tested and customized the system during an 18-month research and development period, integrating its technology with the tractors’ existing drive-by-wire systems.
Image credit: ASI
