Electrical testing system for cab functionality verification

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Hitachi Construction Truck Manufacturing Ltd. in Guelph, Ontario, is expanding its Canadian operation by more than doubling the size of its work force in Guelph, and boosting its output capacity of giant dump trucks by almost 100 per cent. In May 2013, they opened a new 166,900-sq.-ft., $32-million expansion at its Guelph facility. The company specializes in building trucks for the mining and construction industry - trucks that are so big, many of them are shipped to clients in pieces. These large and complex machines are very time consuming and expensive to assemble. If an error is found post-assembly, it is normally very costly to tear down and debug the issue leading to delays in production resulting in financial loss to the company. If the individual components and/or sub-assembly of the truck can be verified before final installation, this cost could be greatly reduced. Hitachi has asked researchers at the Robotics Institute at the University of Guelph to develop a testing system for their next generation truck cab. With the Robotics Institutes knowledge of electrical systems, systems design, and human machine interfaces (HMIs), the group can deliver an effective testing system to ensure that the truck cabs being produced are operating correctly prior to installation.