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POWER ELECTRONICS The company’s record is indeed


impressive. Currently there are over 225 autonomous trucks in operation and they have achieved over 1.5 billion tonnes hauled over 50 million kms with zero lost time stemming from injuries. Elaborating on the technology, Gary Cook, commercial manager, Surface Autonomy, MineStar Solutions, explains, “The trucks have a similar technology stack to what you see on autonomous cars, but built for durability in a tougher environment, and with additional safety systems. “Our key advantage is our use of spinning lidar to detect objects. Using lidar is like driving a car with high-beam headlights – where you get improved visibility allowing for travelling at higher speeds safely and with confidence. This strong perception technology allows us to run the truck at maximum speed when conditions allow.” Cat uses multiple positioning systems


(GNSS and an inertial measurement unit) for accuracy. If a satellite signal is lost, autonomous trucks can continue to run for a short period of time. The firm’s philosophy is to have what Cook calls “advanced processing power and decision-making capability, which enables more decisions to be made onboard.” Cloud computing handles non-critical analysis that is not time sensitive, and deeper analytical analysis can be done onboard while events are tracked in the system.


The company has been operating


underground for 15 years. Cook thinks productivity improvements are more common with autonomous underground operation. “Machines are more productive, with improved accuracy of tunnel navigation and reduced downtime due to damage from contact with drive walls. And mines that incorporate automation are more productive with fewer people underground. There’s no need for workers to evacuate for blasting or travel long distances to and from the surface.”


The plan is to take the learnings from


autonomy into manned machines. The work on collision avoidance is one example. “Collision avoidance is an emerging technology,” says Cook. “Preventing machine movement when conditions dictate are key features coming.”


TALKING COMMS Cook notes, “Over the past 20 plus years, we’ve continued to leverage improvements in communication technology. We view 5G as a technology well suited for congested, urban environments. It will have widespread use in consumer and large city settings, where large volumes of data are required for transfer, but that doesn’t necessarily make it suitable for open pit, surface mining at this time given its short transmission distances. As


Volvo’s fully electric wheel loader


the technology evolves, we’ll continue to monitor how it can be leveraged for improvements in our solutions.” Behind the scenes Cat has used


VR/AR technologies in the design and manufacture of its machines and associated technologies for more than 10 years. Hardware-in-the-loop and software-in-the-loop testing achieves a more effecient product development process. Cook explains, “We use knowledge gained from this testing to apply to new models. Moving on from simulation, we have facilities where we install the system on small equipment and automobiles for early field testing. Next, we install the system on actual equipment at our proving grounds where we test in a mining environment running double shifts. All of this happens before we ever install at a customer site.” As well as the purely autonomous


creations, the company is also interested in leveraging this new tech for semi-autonomous and normal driven vehicles. Cook continues, “We have multiple options for dozers ranging from remote control to semi-autonomous operation where a single operator controls four to five machines. Again, allowing the operator to remotely operate the machine in a safe environment is key. Semi- autonomous systems require additional communication bandwidth due to video but can serve as an ideal solution for maximising dozer push operations. “It’s dependent on what issue the


Unstable ground conditions are well suited to autonomy 18 www.engineerlive.com


customer is trying to solve. Machine recovery, unstable footing, aggressive ripping, stockpiles, bench slides and steep slopes are ideal operations for remote control dozer operation. If the customer is trying to remove process variability, autonomy may be the answer.” ●


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