BMW and John Deere push backhoe boundaries

In what appears to be an unlikely collaboration, BMW's Designworks subsidiary and John Deere have partnered to create a robust yellow backhoe they've dubbed, the 'Fixstern'.

The name references the 'fixed star' design process, which involves creating a concept or idea that a company can drive towards as guidance.

The visionary concept could very well prove to be BMW's 'ultimate digging machine' and will be presented at leading international construction fair, CONEXPO-CON/AGG in Las Vegas, Nevada, from March 7 to 11.

The Fixstern concept incorporates a number of unique and innovative features and is designed with ease of use firmly in mind.

"We wanted to stretch and challenge ourselves to innovate in new ways," says John Deere Construction & Forestry global director of product engineering, Doug Meyer.

"We worked closely with our backhoe customers to apply their input, and we leveraged jobsite visits and qualitative research to ensure the Fixstern solutions address future customer and industry needs in performance, efficiency, and environmental compliance."

The backhoe is designed to be friendly to the environment with a hybrid powertrain that reduces machine weight by a minimum of 20 per cent without compromising productivity. It also affords a lower centre of gravity and improves forward visibility. The sustainability factor doesn't stop there.

For the Fixstern, Designworks applied its database of emerging materials, fabrication techniques and technologies developed to help enhance product quality, save costs and increase efficiency while meeting stricter environmental regulations.

The backhoe itself would be manufactured with emerging lightweight materials which help to reduce component weight, which in turn means increased payloads. Designworks says the lightweight metal exoskeleton as well as a suspended hybrid propulsion unit will help achieve the light weighting goals set out in the initial project phase.

The tyres are small airless units, making them immune to potential punctures or leaks, and they are steered by an electric four-wheel system for improved manoeuvrability. Operator comfort is improved with a wider station featuring larger openings and less obstructions for better ingress, egress, visibility and storage space. The seat and controls are separate from the Rollover Protection System (ROPS) that also serves as a structural component, providing a high degree of comfort.

The Fixstern shines with its high level of machine intelligence, with augmented interfaces integrated into the machine that not only provides advance notice of servicing and maintenance needs, but also enhance operation of the machine as well as improve communication between operator and project supervisor.

As wonderful as the concept sounds, there are no production plans for the Fixstern at this stage. But it's certainly interesting to see what these two automotive giants can come up with when they put their respective engineering might together.