The smart off-highway machine is no longer defined by its hydraulics alone, but by the intelligence, sensors and connectivity layered on top. Kim Skov, senior director of application engineering, Danfoss Power Solutions, explains how the company is helping OEMs digitalise their machines from a strong hydraulics core, why connectivity is the foundation for autonomy, and how it is preparing customers for the incoming Cyber Resilience Act.
How would you define a smart off-highway vehicle today?
We’re part of a fairly conservative industry, but within the hydraulics domain a smart machine is something that is hooked up with wires. It goes beyond the performance you can achieve purely by connecting hoses across pumps and valves — it has onboard intelligence, including controllers.
How is Danfoss contributing to smart off-highway vehicles?
Our strategy is to build from a strong core. We have a wide and deep portfolio across all aspects of hydraulics, including controls, on both industrial and mobile or off-highway machinery. Our contribution is to provide all the pieces of the puzzle that enable customers to make their machines smart and efficient.
Which of your connectivity and electronic control solutions are seeing the fastest uptake with OEMs?
The first step in creating a connected machine is to digitalise it, so we have products that let customers transition seamlessly from an analogue interface to a digital one. It also requires sensorisation — you need sensors and data collected from the machine to get feedback from the system. We build very much from the core of our product lines, but also through strong partnerships in domains that help us reach in that direction. For connectivity, we partner with suppliers in that space.
How do products like PLUS+1 and your telematics offerings work together to deliver a connected machine?
PLUS+1 is the ecosystem or platform that enables our software-enabled products to connect seamlessly at machine level. It also welcomes other parts of the machine integrated into the same platform. With our telematics partners, we have an interface between the control software system and those data-collecting and cloud solutions.
What are the biggest technical hurdles you’re facing in connectivity at the moment?
Regulation is really coming our way as an industry, in particular the Cyber Resilience Act in Europe, which involves a lot of effort across any digital product and digital machine. We’re investing heavily to help customers solve that part of the equation, so that is by far the biggest challenge. Another challenge is the adoption rate. We can show a lot of value to our OEM customers, but that value also needs to be recognised by the consumers of these machines. It’s important that the value is recognised from the end-user point of view to really see adoption happen.
How is Danfoss overcoming those challenges?
On top of the core products, one fundamental strategy is to build on application knowledge — understanding where we can provide the right level of value. If you think about connected machines, there might be a certain value on a utility machine and much more value on a production machine.
You mentioned cybersecurity and the upcoming regulations earlier. How is that shaping your connectivity roadmap?
It’s about both documenting and preparing our PLUS+1 platform to enable all of this. It’s also shaping product design, and the good news is that we have all the plans laid out and will be ready to support our customers when the legislation kicks in. On connectivity, this is also where we have strong partnerships on the hardware interface. It’s core to our platform to be resilient for future needs.
How is the data generated from connected machines changing the way OEMs approach design?
What Danfoss can support customers with is all the infrastructure to collect the data. The challenge for OEMs is to analyse and interpret it and use it to prevent downtime in the field.
Can you tell us about the relationship between connectivity and autonomy?
For autonomy, to remove the operator from the machine as much as possible, you need a communication system to the machine, and this is where connectivity plays a vital role. From a remote position you can do path planning and guidance of the application. It also lets you collect feedback on the job performed, so you can document very precisely the work that has been carried out, which demonstrates the value of the solution compared to an operated machine. There are applications where this reporting is requested and handled manually today by the person driving the vehicle, but all of this can be automated.
How do you see the operator’s role evolving as machines become more intelligent?
One of the drivers to optimise machines with operator-assist features, pivoting towards autonomy, isn’t so much the machine owner’s need — it’s mainly the lack of skilled labour to run high productivity on the machines. On specialised machines, we can compensate for the lack of qualified labour by enabling less-skilled operators to perform just as well.
Where do you expect the most meaningful advances in smart vehicle systems over the next three to five years?
I’d separate applications into utility machines, used an hour or two a day, versus production machines. The biggest value would be for production machines that need to run a high duty cycle. Within that, I’d point to those working in remote areas, or where downtime is severely disruptive — specialities such as forestry harvesters or mining operations could be some of the key areas.
What is the biggest misconception OEMs have about adopting connected technologies?
As I mentioned, we’re in a fairly conservative industry, so adoption always comes with a challenge and a risk. You really need to prove significant value, or solve a severe problem, before it becomes attractive to take that step.
Finally, is there anything you can reveal about what Danfoss is doing in connectivity in the future?
It’s a super interesting topic, and not a new one — it will continue to be shaped. We’re looking into leveraging AI and other methodologies to get better performance and analysis from the data. Connectivity has been around for more than a decade and we’ve been able to collect a lot of data, but the true value comes if we can reliably interpret it and translate that into meaningful actions.
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