ASTEC Digital launches Advanced Technologies Group to focus on the integration of emerging technologies into the company's product suite

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn., Oct. 31, 2024 /PRNewswire/ - ASTEC Digital is excited to announce the formation of its Advanced Technologies Group, a new division focusing on advanced simulation, extended reality, artificial intelligence, and research through academic partnerships.

Advanced Technologies was born from ASTEC's Innovation Services Group, which has led the company's advanced engineering simulations and work on digital twins for many years. This future-focused group will collaborate with product management teams across ASTEC to identify emerging technologies to support innovation that is aligned with ASTEC's vision while insulated from day-to-day operations.  The group will be tasked with enhancing ASTEC Digital's existing capabilities and leadership in simulation technologies, identifying and exploring new technological trends, and managing the company's academic research partnerships.

The Advanced Technologies Group within ASTEC Digital will focus on integrating artificial intelligence, advanced data analytics, and machine learning into its rock-to-road product suite. As part of this effort, the group is responsible for ASTEC Digital's extended reality offering and forthcoming computer vision solutions for some exciting new products in development.

"To properly structure ASTEC Digital to maintain a focus on innovation, we recognized the importance of having a dedicated group focused on emerging and developing technologies," said Eric Baker, vice president of ASTEC Digital. "We are confident that the Advanced Technologies Group will play a crucial role in driving digital innovation at ASTEC, helping us stay ahead in an ever-evolving industry and supporting our clients with industry-leading automation and control systems."

The Advanced Technologies Group is a team of simulation and machine learning engineers and research managers who have, cumulatively, decades of product knowledge across ASTEC's asphalt, crushing, washing, concrete, mobile, and forestry product groups, as well as numerous PhDs, MSc's and Professional Engineer designations among them.  The group will be led by Andrew Hobbs, newly promoted to Director of Advanced Technologies, who has been with ASTEC since 2001.

"Our team has a cross-section of product knowledge coupled with deep technical expertise, which is immensely helpful in finding ways to apply innovative technologies across ASTEC's product lines," said Hobbs.

Hobbs noted that among the group's current projects, the group is leveraging the powerful data from ASTEC Digital's new Signal Connectivity Suite to make equipment more efficient, profitable, and sustainable.

"Working closely with our software teams, we can connect our knowledge of design and operation with simulation, machine learning, and real-time data to build intelligence into our platform and plant control systems.  This gives our customers insight into their operations and the ability to optimize for improved efficiency automatically," he said.

About ASTEC Digital

Launched in 2024 as a subsidiary of ASTEC Industries, ASTEC Digital leads in automation and control for the rock-to-road value chain. Guided by our purpose—Built to Connect—we empower customers to maximize site data for safe, efficient, high-performance operations. Learn more at www.astecdigital.com and follow us on social media.

SOURCE ASTEC Industries, INC.