Recently, unmanned construction machinery clusters have been used for the first time in some sections of the Jingxiong Expressway. An unmanned intelligent machinery cluster consisting of three pavers and six rollers has completed the pavement and compaction of the stabilized soil for the expressway.

The intelligent brain of the unmanned driving and path planning system was developed by the Underground Space Development & Utilization and Intelligence Construction Team of Tsinghua University. The team equips this unmanned road construction machinery with the Beidou Navigation Satellite System, collects the information of the surrounding environment through sensors installed on the car and plans the optimal operation path based on the environmental parameters, which can realize safety protection such as automatic warning, emergency parking and automatic obstacle avoidance. The accuracy of the machinery construction trajectory can be controlled within 2 to 3 cm. Under the premise of ensuring the construction quality, the construction efficiency has been increased by 50% compared with manual operation.

The Jingxiong Expressway, as a longitudinal expressway in the planning of Xiong'an New Area, runs through the concept of smart innovation by dedicating the two inner lanes for unmanned driving. It is the first time worldwide that the unmanned driving lanes are constructed by unmanned machinery clusters. The Jingxiong Expressway is expected to be completed by the end of 2020 and will be open to traffic in June 2021. After that, travel from Beijing to Xiong'an New Area will be accessible within one hour.