Volvo Construction Equipment has partnered with futurists to further the company’s understanding of future industries.
Volvo Construction Equipment (CE) has started work with two futurists, David Zach and Glen Hiemstra, who have worked with several Fortune 500 companies.
To prepare for the industries of tomorrow, Volvo CE’s partnership will also show how current innovations will shape the future.
Volvo CE’s senior vice president for the Americas Stephen Roy said a snapshot of the future will help the company prepare for what may be on the horizon.
“In order to build tomorrow, that means having a good sense of what tomorrow may look like,” Roy said. “While no one can be 100 per cent certain about what the future has in store, these professional futurists can give us an educated guess based on the research, science and economic trends we see today.
“We asked students from the Columbia College of Hollywood to animate some of these forecasts so that we have a vision of the possible future from those young persons who will soon inhabit it.”
From the predictions it has gathered, Volvo CE has forecasted that construction buildings will have an increase in modularity and be constructed from more prefabricated elements that will be built off-site. Flying drones are also expected to monitor construction activity on job sites.
Road infrastructure is predicted to incorporate nanotechnology to enable roadways to be built from glass-like materials, along with the installation of photogenic cells along roadways to gather solar energy for power grids.
The adoption of self-healing epoxies will also increase, allowing bridges and metal structures to “heal” from damage.
Mining will also see a continued influx in autonomous and remote technology.