Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) has received a high commendation accolade at the 2015 Engineers Australia Excellence Awards for the development of its automatic traffic cone-laying truck.
The awards, held in Newcastle last week, recognised the innovative truck, which is the country’s first fully customised traffic cone-laying truck.
The vehicle was designed in-house to improve road safety for workers by automating the process of lane marking with traffic cones.
An RMS spokesperson said that the truck can lay up to 308 traffic cones at 15 or 25 metre intervals while travelling at 10 kilometres-per-hour. This reduces manual handling for workers.
“The truck can in turn, retrieve the cones at a travel speed of 12km/h, removing risks to workers collecting cones on foot beside live traffic lanes,” the spokesperson said.
The truck has been used on the M1 Pacific Motorway where lanes regularly need to be closed for maintenance.
The spokesperson explained the cone handling system is driven by a combination of air, hydraulic and electric components, all controlled by a computerised control.
Sensors assist the truck to automatically place and pick up the cones, allowing drivers to concentrate on driving the vehicle. The cone truck prototype was designed and developed using CAD engineering software in-house.