Development and Performance Validation for Ground Protection Mats of Construction Machinery on Soft Ground

As a moonshot research and development project, the authors are engaged in the research and development of construction machinery for working on soft ground. In particular, immediate action is needed to prevent secondary disasters at river channel blockage sites. During natural disaster recovery, construction machinery often operates on soft ground, which carries the risk of sinking and becoming stuck. To prevent construction machinery from sinking into soft ground, conventional methods of installing iron floorboards and ground improvement have been used, but there were labor-saving issues. In this research and development project, we have developed ground protection mats that can easily secure a moving road even on soft ground. This paper reports on the invented mats and the results of performance tests.