Competence Hub for Autonomy and Innovation in Mobile Work Machines (development)

The mobile work machine industry in Northern Savonia is internationally significant, but the rapid development of artificial intelligence and automation is challenging local companies. Individual companies lack the resources to develop and test new technologies on their own. The region lacks a shared environment where AI and autonomy solutions could be tested and developed together with educational institutions.

The project aims to build a permanent development environment for intelligent mobile work machines in Northern Savonia, where educational institutions and companies develop and test new solutions together. The environment will be connected to the national mobile work machine industry network so that the expertise and resources of Northern Savonia are also available to other Finnish actors.

The project brings together the work machine expertise of three educational institutions – Savonia University of Applied Sciences, Ylä-Savo Vocational College and the University of Eastern Finland – into a single entity for company use. A key element is the further development of an existing computer-controlled electric excavator towards autonomous operation: the machine will be equipped with environmental perception through cameras and laser scanning and trained to carry out individual work phases without continuous human control. Another key element is a data collection system that gathers a comprehensive and open dataset from work machines for training artificial intelligence. The system is designed to be installable on different types of work machines, producing consistent data for use in both research and product development. The project also investigates how the transition from operating a single machine to remotely supervising multiple machines affects operator wellbeing, alertness and safety.

The results include a permanent development environment for use by regional companies, a demonstration of a work machine independently performing an individual work phase, an openly available work machine dataset for researchers and companies, and research-based recommendations for safe remote operation. The project strengthens the position of Northern Savonia in the machine and energy technology sector and ensures the availability of skilled professionals for regional industry.