Mobile work machines on the research roadmap: towards zero emissions, intelligent control systems and generating new business from data

Finland has strong competence and research in the field of mobile work machines, but there is also room for improvement. The joint roadmap of industry and research is a real step towards systemic approach and continuity in the innovation development.

Sustainable Industry X (SIX) is a Finnish industry-driven initiative that shapes and implements the digital and green twin transition in practice. The SIX Mobile Work Machines cluster is part of the SIX initiative. The cluster's operations are guided by a joint, annually updated roadmap of industry and research.

For the roadmap, the companies defined what the work machine of the future will be like. It is not a traditional technology listing, as the companies pictured features, functionalities and services related to the future work machine.

Based on this, the researchers determined what research is needed in order to realize the target image of the industry. The research element of the roadmap shows what results are already available, what is coming in the next few years, and what the future vision of the researchers would be.

– Research has to be a step or two ahead of the industry, so that it is able to bring to the common table future solutions that strengthen our competitiveness and even create unique competitive advantages, says Harri Nieminen from VTT, who facilitates the roadmap work.

The six themes of the roadmap

The roadmap themes are a response to the opportunities and challenges. In the first theme, the industry envisions sustainable power solutions for the work machine of 2035: the machine is carbon neutral, fully electric and uses environmentally friendly power sources. This opens up prospects for manufacturing completely new types of machines.

– Electrification brings new value by enabling new functionalities, features and services. Zero emissions is one of its consequences, says Nieminen.

The second theme is the autonomy of work machines: remote operation of the machines is possible. They are intelligent to the extent that they are able to adapt to their operating environment and form a situational picture of it. This is closely related to the third theme: the real-time data transfer of work machines, which works both between machines and with their background systems.

The fourth theme is intelligence in control systems, based on measured data. The fifth theme is data-based maintenance that is proactive and timely. The work machine becomes a platform that can be updated to meet new situations and needs. Parallel to that, the machine is also a sensor that produces data to be used as a basis of new business and value.

– The data produced by a mobile work machine is remarkably interesting both for machine manufacturers, their customers and a really wide group of related players, Nieminen points out.

Companies have taken a rather protective approach to the data they collect, because they don't always know what might turn out to be valuable.

– Expanding the concept of value through research is indeed a significant issue.  It could encourage the emergence of new services and products, built on basis of multilaterally produced data, says Miika Kaski, Commercialization and Networks Lead at Sandvik.

The sixth theme deals with the changing role of humans in relation to machines. In the vision of the industry, a person using a machine performs meaningful tasks in a safe environment. The machine takes care of the basic operations – especially the dangerous, dirty and boring tasks.

– One observation from the roadmap process is that the whole issue is very systemic, and all themes are interrelated in one way or another. Sustainability is built into all the themes, Nieminen says.

Finnish research on the roadmap

The roadmap process made clear that there has been a lot of research related to mobile work machines in many Finnish universities. Sandvik's Miika Kaski remarks, from an industrial perspective, that the Finnish expertise and research is strong, but it still appears to be quite fragmented.

– Finland is also such a small country that it is not possible to be the world's best in every single thing. We should recognise our own world-class spearhead strengths, says Kaski.

The roadmap makes research visible and gives companies practical opportunities to see from one document what is happening in research. It has also been possible to identify gaps in research: areas where new research should be sparked, or network internationally and seek research power from abroad.

– The cooperation in research requires systematization and continuity, on both national and international scale, Nieminen sums up.

Professor Matti Vilkko from the Tampere University says that research gaps can be found at the boundaries of traditional disciplines and thus more investment is needed there. For example, deep expertise in electricity is held by different researchers than deep expertise in machines.

– We need to create a generation that has deep knowledge of both. It is created by research, and we are currently doing it, but it is slow. This problem should be solved somehow, Vilkko says.

Vilkko also reminds us of academic freedom. Professors choose their own research topics, questions and methods – and bear the responsibility of working with meaningful issues with their groups. The electrification of machines and the possibilities of digitalization, which appear prominently on the roadmap, produce a lot of interesting research questions. Therefore universities have been steering research towards these themes.

Cooperation between companies and researchers improves the chances of obtaining research funding. When applying for funding from Business Finland or various EU projects, corporate partners must be included in the application.

– Researchers understand this, and they are happy to bring the latest information of their research to the joint roadmap, says Vilkko.

Doctoral program proves the power of networking

When the cooperation between industry and research gets rolling, it has many benefits for both of them. One example is the Intelligent Work Machines (IWM) Doctoral Program, especially its application phase that went well.

The Finnish government announced  in early 2024 that the Ministry of Education and Culture will offer additional funding to the universities for 1,000 doctoral researchers, because Finland needs more top talent.

In the SIX PoE project, an Academic Fellows network had been recently formed between five universities, with leading researchers from universities  Aalto, LUT, Oulu, Turku and Tampere. Professor Matti Vilkko from Tampere was chosen to put together the joint application.

– If all the professors had started hurrying their applications in their own directions, the result would have been five applications, none of which would have been approved, Vilkko says.

Instead of five, one carefully prepared joint application was filed to the ministry. It convinced the evaluators that the applicants are capable of doing what they promise. Thanks to the SIX network, Vilkko was able to attach to the application both the publications of about 40 professors and the commitment of the industry's largest companies.

The result is the IWM – Intelligent Work Machines doctoral program with 31 doctoral students. Their topics appear on the roadmap, and results are expected within four years. When graduated, they are expected to be employed mainly in companies, which also promotes the transfer of research knowledge to industry.

– Doctorates are not an end in itself, but competence and quality are. We need top researchers for the universities and top people for the industry, says Kaski.

According to Kaski, the roadmap process also supports the continuity that is important in terms of talent attraction and retention.