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The International Union of Operating Engineers has plenty of big toys at its training center in Crosby, Texas, but one that began rolling across the 265-acre campus last week is an oddity. The modified Caterpillar 336 excavator can use onboard computers and sensors to perform by itself some of the work the center trains human operators to do, such as digging trenches for gas pipelines or wind turbine foundations.
The IUOE's new robotic excavator is the result of an unusual partnership with Built Robotics, a San Francisco startup that sells a box that can enable a backhoe or bulldozer to pilot itself for some tasks. It contains a high-powered computer, motion and angle sensors, and a laser scanner called a lidar commonly used in self-driving cars.
Although Built's product is designed to remove workers from the cab of construction equipment, IUOE's director of construction training, Chris Treml, says the union wants to train its members to work with the technology. "Operating engineers are always on the cutting edge of technology," he says.
After construction workers describe an excavation using GPS coordinates, the vehicle can drive itself across a site to its starting point and go to work.
Courtesy of Built RoboticsThe IUOE was founded in 1896 and its logo features a steam gauge with the needle at 420 pounds per square inch, the operating pressure of some steam engines. Its training center teaches members to use remotely operated robotic equipment such as drones and mini-cranes, as well as fine-grade GPS equipment to guide construction vehicles to grade dirt at precise angles.
Treml says members now need to get familiar with autonomous construction equipment, because it too is set to become a standard part of the industry. "The last thing I want to see is people losing their jobs," he says. "But this is something that's out there and it's going to be part of our industry, and so we want to be a part of it." Built plans to help IUOE expand its fleet of autonomous vehicles over the coming year.
While a vehicle is in autonomous mode, a single worker needs to stay on hand in case of problems.
Courtesy of Built RoboticsAnother reason for construction workers to be collegial toward robots is that there's plenty of work to go around amid an industry-wide shortage of workers. The nonprofit National Center for Construction Education and Research says heavy equipment operators are among the most sought after. Many current operators are close to retirement age, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that such jobs will grow 10 percent between 2018 and 2028, twice the rate for all occupations.
Other unions have not welcomed automation. In 2017 the Teamsters helped convince the Senate to exclude autonomous trucks from draft legislation on self-driving vehicles. That was a setback for companies working on the technology, such as Alphabet, because a regulatory vacuum would delay commercial deployment. The legislation ultimately foundered; a new draft, yet to be introduced, also excludes large trucks.
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Vehicles with Built's equipment don't need regulatory approval if they work off public roads. They're already at work in the US, primarily on energy projects, digging foundations for wind turbines or oil and gas pipeline trenches.
After workers specify the GPS coordinates of the ends of a pipeline trench, they can leave the rest to the excavator, which will drive itself to the starting point and dig thousands of feet in a day. One worker—not necessarily an excavation specialist—needs to stay on hand in case of problems.
Built's CEO and founder Noah Ready-Campbell said unions were wary when his company's tech first appeared at construction sites. "We got a lot of questions early on about whether these robots are here to steal jobs," he says. "The answer is no. The computers are not smart enough, but they can free up operators to do the more challenging and valuable work," such as more complex excavations. Suspicions typically evaporate fast once workers see how the technology can help make sites more efficient, he says.
Treml of IUOE says although the technology is improving, it can help only with certain tasks, not the most valuable and complex work and planning. "You still need to have that human touch," he says.
More Great WIRED Stories
This is a repost for historical purposes as the original site is gone.
Cheryl D Peace was at the time an employee at the NSA.
It is no secret that in recent days, Anonymous Operatives have released a cache of HBGary Federal internal emails to the public. Crowdleaks has discovered that within these communications, Aaron Barr received a copy of Stuxnet (a computer worm that targets the types of industrial control systems (ICS) that are commonly used in infrastructure supporting facilities) from McAfee on July 28, 2010.
In an effort to confirm this was in fact Stuxnet, Crowdleaks has decompiled some of the source code, which can be found here.
Throughout the following emails it is revealed that HBGary Federal may have been planning to use Stuxnet for their own purposes.
Throughout the following emails it is revealed that HBGary Federal may have been planning to useStuxnet for their own purposes.
In a message sent to all email account holders at HBGary.com, Charles Copeland (Lead Support Engineer at HBGary, Inc.) writes:
from: Charles Copeland
to: all@hbgary.com
date: Sat, Sep 25, 2010 at 9:54 PM
subject: Stuxnet Worm Mailing List
Filter messages from this mailing list. mailed-byhbgary.com
hide details 9/25/10
Computerworld – Officials in Iran have confirmed that the Stuxnet worm infected at least
30,000 Windows PCs in the country, multiple Iranian news services reported on Saturday.I've already got a email asking about stuxnet, this came out late Friday. Does anyone have a dropper I have been unable to find it.
In another email sent directly to Aaron Barr, David D. Merritt writes:
from: David D. Merritt
to: Aaron Barr
date: Sun, Oct 3, 2010 at 9:35 PM
subject: Re: Hunter Killer Insanity 285mailed-bygmail.com
hide details 10/3/10
contacts over at TSA say that everybody has a copy…combine that with US CERTs vulnerability status and their own systems not meeting the spec….
i'm seeing TSA becoming a malware testbed…
Aaron Barr responds:
On Oct 3, 2010, at 10:13 PM, Aaron Barr wrote:
> Dave,
>
> We haven't but I would be interested to talk to you some about the tie. I do have a decent amount of information on Stuxnet and would be interested to hear about the tie. Some of what I know about Stuxnet might be of interest. I think it would be best to discuss in a more closed space though.
>
> In doing a little research:
> http://diocyde.wordpress.com/2010/03/12/ringy-ringy-beacon-callbacks-why-dont-you-just-tell-them-their-pwned/
>
> While this guy can be a bit of a crackpot at times his post has more validity than fiction. Greg and I have brainstormed a bit in the past on how to conduct such an attack that would be very difficult to detect. Autonomous, single purpose malware with no C&C. As we have said the battle is on the edges either source of destination, everything else is or will become somewhat irrelevant or diminished in value.
>
> Aaron Barr
> CEO
> HBGary Federal, LLC
> 719.510.8478
In another message sent to all email account holders at HBGary.com by
Greg Hoglund, it's made clear that HBGary wanted to hide their work onStuxnet.
from: Greg Hoglund
to: all@hbgary.com
date: Sun, Sep 26, 2010 at 10:26 PM
subject: stuxnet mailing list
Filter messages from this mailing listmailed-byhbgary.com
hide details 9/26/10
All,
HBGary has no official position on Stuxnet. Please do not comment to the press on Stuxnet. We know nothing about Stuxnet.
-Greg Hoglund
CEO, HBGary, Inc.
In the most chilling strand of emails, we find that whatever HBGary was working on, it was in conjunction with the NSA.
Aaron Barr writes:
Hi Cheryl,
719.510.8478
Aaron
Sent from my iPad
Aaron Barr writes:
> From: Aaron Barr
> To: Peace, Cheryl D
> Sent: Mon Aug 09 13:54:23 2010
> Subject: Re: Number
>
> Hi Cheryl,
>
> It does. I haven't met him personally. Our sister company does work
> in a few different pockets on the bldg. And i am on the extended NANA
> team. I recently joined to stand up HBGary federal, a related but
> separate company. We manage all the work that requires clearances.
> We exchange some technologies, but we have some separate developments
> as well. Mostly around threat intelligence and CNO/social media.
>
> I think there are some enabling tech to your mission but really need
> that qualified.
>
> Interested to run some of the stuxnet stuff by u as well.
>
> Aaron
>
>
> Sent from my iPhone
Cheryl Peace writes:
On Aug 9, 2010, at 9:27 AM, "Peace, Cheryl D" wrote:
>
>> Aaron
>> Did a little checking and we already do busy with you guys. Does the name
>> Tony Seager ring a bell?
Aaron Barr writes:
>> —–Original Message—–
>> From: Aaron Barr [mailto:aaron@hbgary.com]
>> Sent: Friday, August 06, 2010 10:56 AM
>> To: Peace, Cheryl D
>> Subject: Re: Number
>>
>> OK. If interested do you have some time to get together when you get back?
>> either next Friday or early the following week?
>> Aaron
Cheryl Peace writes:
>> On Aug 6, 2010, at 10:44 AM, Peace, Cheryl D wrote:
>>
>>> I am in Europe till mid next week
Aaron Barr writes:
>>> —–Original Message—–
>>> From: Aaron Barr [mailto:aaron@hbgary.com]
>>> Sent: Thursday, August 05, 2010 10:57 PM
>>> To: Peace, Cheryl D
>>> Subject: Re: Number
>>>
>>> Hi Cheryl,
>>>
>>> Can I schedule an appointment with you to come by and chat for a few
>>> minutes?
>>>
>>> Aaron
Cheryl Peace writes:
>>> On Jul 30, 2010, at 10:41 PM, Peace, Cheryl D wrote:
>>>
>>>> I am at Rao at the bar if you want to come by for a few. Meeting friends
>>> for a cocktail in a few
>>>> ————————–
>>>> Sent using BlackBerry
Arron Barr writes:
>>>> —– Original Message —–
>>>> From: Aaron Barr
>>>> To: Peace, Cheryl D
>>>> Sent: Fri Jul 30 20:02:44 2010
>>>> Subject: Number
>>>>
>>>> Cheryl,
>>>>
>>>> Sorry to bother you but do you have a minute to talk. I don't have
>>>> your number handy. It will only take moment, but I have some
>>>> information for you.
>>>>
>>>> Aaron Barr
>>>> CEO
>>>> HBGary Federal
>>>> 7195108478
In a related internal email sent to Rich Cummings (CTO of HBGary, Inc.)Greg Hoglund writes:
from: Greg Hoglund
to: Rich Cummings
date: Mon, Nov 16, 2009 at 9:30 PM
subject: Govt dropper in this word DOC, zipped up for youmailed-byhbgary.com
hide details 11/16/09Phil, Rich,
I got this word doc linked off a dangler site for Al Qaeda peeps. I think it has a US govvy payload buried inside. Would be neat to REcon it and see what it's about. DONT open it unless in a VM obviously. password is meatflower. Remove the .txt extension too. DONT let it FONE HOME unless you want black suits landing on your front acre. 🙂-Greg
Crowdleaks.org had a software engineer (whose name has been withheld) look at the Stuxnet binaries inside of a debugger and offer some insight on the worm. She informed us that most of the worms' sources were using code similar to what is already publically available. She noted that the only remarkable thing about it was the 4 windows 0 days and the stolen certificates.
She says:
"A hacker did not write this, it appears to be something that would be produced by a team using a process, all of the components were created using code similar to what is already publically available. That is to say it's 'unremarkable'. This was created by a software development team and while the coders were professional level I am really not impressed with the end product, it looks like a picture a child painted with finger paints."
When asked what type of organization likely wrote it, she stated:
"Probably a corporation by request of a government, it was clearly tested and put together by pro's. It really looks like outsourced work." – See more at: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:ld1YZvZkTFUJ:thehackernews.com/2011/02/exposed-hbgary-wanted-to-suppress.html+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us#sthash.39BcBvxo.dpuf
between the WG acronym and the WG name. 
