Field Report: Caterpillar celebrates its history while highlighting technology & safety solutions in Malaga

The sunny hills near Malaga in southern Spain are home to Caterpillar's picturesque European Demonstration and Learning Center where I had the opportunity to preview the latest in Caterpillar safety technology, electrification, and more ahead of bauma 2025. Caterpillar also celebrated its 100-year history by featuring an early track type tractor alongside Centennial edition machines in its demonstrations and at the facility.

Caterpillar celebrates 100 years

Caterpillar displayed several of its Centennial grey machines in Malaga, including a dozer and wheel loaders.

A focus on job site safety 

Caterpillar focused on its latest safety innovations throughout demos and equipment walk arounds. Project managers in the field tell Cat's experts that keeping productivity up, costs down, and people safe is a challenge. A contractor's biggest asset is their people, but those people are also vulnerable to job site hazards and all people are fallible. These safety technology solutions are designed to mitigate mistakes and protect workers from high-energy hazards by either reducing the velocity of vehicles operating around people or removing people from areas where vehicles are operating. Safety solutions demonstrated in Malaga included:

Driver Safety System

Infrared cameras in the cab are trained on the driver's eyes to track eye movements and look for incidences of micro sleep and attention lapses. When the driver loses focus, the system intervenes providing audible and active feedback to bring them to attention. Reports can be generated for training purposes and review. These systems have been used in mining for years and are now available to construction contractors. They can be installed in light vehicles, such as pickup trucks, all the way up to large haulers, and can see through sunglasses.

Cat Detect

Caterpillar's people and object detection technology was developed by utilizing machine learning trained on hundreds of thousands of images of people in construction applications. In the cab, a bounding box is drawn around the person in the field and an audible alarm increases in urgency as the collision risk increases. Alarm modes are customizable, and this situational awareness system is OEM-agnostic. Replacing a spotter on the ground with smart cameras keeps the worker out of harm's way, and these technologies can recognize hazards that field workers may miss. This technology provides the power to see, mitigate, and manage those previously undetected hazards, supplementing the situational awareness of the operator and other workers on the ground.

Rear Object Detection for Wheel Loaders

Most incidents involving wheel loaders happen while the machine is in reverse. This detection system will give operators enhanced awareness of what is happening behind their machine. It combines radar and cameras to give operators different levels of warning depending on speed and closeness of the object.

Safety data centralized within VisionLink

Preventing individual incidents is crucial, but learning from near misses and poor habits is also vital for improving safety culture on the job site. Caterpillar has incorporated a safety dashboard into VisionLink, giving supervisors the tools they need to address poor habits, job site hazards, and unsafe behaviours in constructive ways with their work crews. Imported data includes operators' seatbelt compliance and Cat Detect performance. 

Caterpillar puts on a show in Malaga

Caterpillar's opening night demo was a love letter to its past while celebrating present construction technologies, including Cat Command remote control, autonomous equipment, machines in its electric lineup, and more.