WM pilots remote-controlled bulldozer at Arizona landfill

Autonomous compactor planned at Marana site in coming months

Inside a cool, dimly lighted trailer where the quiet is broken mostly by the crackle of radio traffic, Abrin Vasquez drives a 40-ton bulldozer hundreds of yards away. Vasquez, 25, is remotely piloting a Caterpillar dozer spreading trash across the Marana Regional Landfill near Tucson, Ariz. He used to be out in the heat running the machine from the cab, a potentially dangerous job in the landfill’s rough, trash-filled terrain. Now, he is safely away from that in the control trailer, doing the same job from a virtual cab.

“It was challenging at first, but it’s just a matter of getting used to it,” Vasquez said. “I don’t feel the bumps now.”

The arrangement is part of a pilot program by Houston-based WM and Caterpillar to test remote-controlled and autonomous machinery in a landfill setting. WM and Caterpillar declined to disclose the cost of the Marana pilot. The companies said the technology reduces operators’ exposure to hazards such as uneven terrain and heavy equipment, and could help alleviate a persistent shortage of skilled operators.

“The technology frees us from those repetitive tasks, so the employees can focus on higher-value work and the elimination of potential risk,” said Matt Wagner, WM’s senior director for organization and automation.

The government projects demand for about 42,500 new equipment operators each year through 2035, including to backfill those leaving the job and to meet projected 4% workforce growth. The potential shortfall provides momentum for Caterpillar’s automation push, as the company faces the challenge of selling equipment to companies that don’t have enough operators.

WM, formerly known as Waste Management, has already seen operational improvements from automating significant parts of its residential trash collection business. The company replaced the human work of emptying trash bins with safer, more efficient automated loaders and more fuel-efficient trucks on monitored routes. WM said annual driver turnover is now below 20%, down from 30% earlier in the decade. Operating costs as a percentage of WM’s revenue have fallen by 2.5 percentage points since 2021.

WM said it plans to deploy a fully autonomous Caterpillar compactor at the Marana site in the coming months. The driverless machine, fitted with spiked steel wheels, will run a programmed course to flatten newly spread trash, creating space to bury more garbage.

Caterpillar’s autonomous technology is already operational in mining and quarrying. The company said Tuesday that Virginia quarry operator Luck Stone will expand its use of autonomous haul trucks to two additional quarries following an 18-month autonomous hauling pilot at its Bull Run, Va., operation.

“If you move an operator to a remote station, they can easily switch from machine to machine,” said Jaime Mineart, Caterpillar’s chief technology officer. “You can run a dozer. You can run an excavator. You can run a compactor. You have one operator in a more attractive environment doing more productive work.”

Arun Kumar, a co-leader of the industrial products group at consulting firm AlixPartners, said automation is maturing rapidly for equipment at construction and mining sites.

“The transformation comes when it’s not just one or two machines, but the entire site operates just like one machine,” he said. “More automation makes the work simpler, but also more satisfying and less stressful for people to do.”

WM said landfills, where operations are typically predictable and monotonous, are ideal for automated equipment. The 590-acre Marana site opened in 2013 and has a projected operational life of more than 150 years.

On an average day, nearly 1,800 tons of trash get dumped at Marana. Dozens of tractor-trailer rigs loaded with trash rumble along the landfill’s winding dirt roads daily to its working face. The trailers are driven onto a machine known as a tipper and detached from their trucks. The hydraulic tipper lifts the front end of an open-roof trailer, spilling more than 20 tons of trash out of the tailgate at once. The dozer then moves in to spread that pile of trash on the ground.

For the remote operation control of the dozer, Caterpillar and WM built a Wi-Fi network at the landfill with portable towers that connect the dozer to the command trailer. The dozer’s cameras relay 360-degree video back to a large screen in front of the operator’s seat. The camera also transmits the sound of the engine and the tracks, providing clues to the operator when the dozer is straining to move a heavy load or slogging through rough terrain.

Leo Gonzales, Marana’s operations manager, said guiding the machine from screens instead of looking through the cab’s windshield was an adjustment at first, but he appreciates not getting jostled in the actual cab. “Your body’s saved from getting a beating, and you’re out of the elements,” Gonzales, 43, said.