PEORIA – Using a world-class soccer player to illustrate the abilities of an autonomously driven 575-ton Caterpillar mining truck shows how graceful and precise the machines can be. 

"Globally, our customers love soccer and really have a passion for that sport," said Archie Lyons, the creative director for Caterpillar's YouTube series Cat Trials. "The players have a lot of skill and grace when they maneuver down a field. 

"We were thinking, could we make a soccer player and one of our machines meet up, make the ultimate assist and score a goal? The machine would be going full speed and nothing was going to stop it, but could a player go at full speed and meet up with the machine?"

And thus, "Cat Trial 12: No Hands" was born. Lyons and others wanted to showcase the company's commitment to autonomous machines.

The video, which debuted Tuesday morning, features DaMarcus Beasley, who played in the Major League Soccer top division and in four World Cups between 2002 and 2014, as well as an autonomous 794 AC Large Mining Truck.

Both maneuver and weave through tables and other obstacles. Then, at the end, Beasley kicks a long shot into the truck's bed, which then dumps the ball into the goal. 

"He was kicking against 60 mph winds," Lyons said. "(Beasley) had to set up the shot and he knew – and that is the great part that he loved – the truck was in the right spot every time.

"He didn't have to worry about the variability of the truck. He knew it would be going by at the same time and space. Our trucks travel within millimeters every time."

And that's what the video was designed to show. Mines are often in remote places and feature monotonous and boring work. Having a truck that can drive itself safely will alleviate the need for workers to do those repetitive jobs, also improving safety, said Fred Rio, product manager for Caterpillar's Construction Digital & Technology division.

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Rio said the video showcases the developments the company has made since the first machine debuted in the late 1990s. 

"Caterpillar has technology that San Francisco has not been able to deliver," he said, referring to the advanced nature of Cat's autonomous machines compared with the race to create consumer ones. "This is really rocket science. Some of the components that go into the trucks to make them autonomous come from the aerospace industry."

The trucks have a "brain," or a perception system as it's known at Caterpillar, that lets them see the world by shooting out a bunch of lasers that will map out what is in front of them or around them. Think of a range finder for golf, but far more advanced. 

"That creates a 3D map of the world around it. The machine can recognize objects. It knows there is a car or a person in front of it, and that's where the safety comes in. The truck will maneuver in a very scheduled and predictable way. It's very precise," Rio said.

Multiple trucks can be linked together by a centralized "brain" so that they can all work together and avoid collisions.

"If one of the trucks learns something about the environment like 'it's soft there' and 'I might skid,' then it'll tell the fleet management system that 'hey, I was skidding here. I was having a little trouble with the traction' and the fleet management system will tell the other trucks to watch out there," he said. 

"A good analogy is that they are like an orchestra. If they aren't playing in synchronicity, then it's cacophony, not a symphony," Rio said.

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The video was filmed at the company's Tucson, Ariz., facility because the soil here in central Illinois is too soft for the massive truck. 

"It would sink into the soil," Lyons said.

Lyons said the videos are a blast to create and serve not only to showcase Caterpillar technology, but also to attract new talent to the company.

"While the videos are designed for our customers, but it's also for our friends and family of our customers – we want them to talk about the videos," he said. "It attracts talent, because a lot of the stuff on the big trucks is tested at Mossville, so it starts here before it ever goes out to the Tucson site or to a customer's job site."

Which is great for Lyons, a Peoria native. 

"We (Peoria) have some extremely talented individuals who are animators who came out of California who wanted to come back to Peoria – video producers, some of the best of the best that we have here at Caterpillar."