Machinery
The mining industry has grown quite a bit in the last few years . The increasingly unstable markets have caused companies to start thinking outside the box for new ways of increasing productivity while also decreasing costs .
One of the latest advances has been the launch of driverless trucks . The ingenious idea , which almost seems straight out of a George Luca film , has been largely put into action by mega mining companies Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton . The move has the potential to cut operational costs tremendously while simultaneously increasing productivity and mine-site safety .
The technology The real story behind driverless vehicles is the technology . It utilizes a combination of sensors such as radar and GPS to navigate the vehicle around a pre-defined course from loading units to dump locations , including waste dumps , stockpiles and crushers .
Rio Tinto is currently leading the pack in driverless technology . The company has been working with Japan mining equipment manufacturer Komatsu Limited ., already operating
Komatsu dump truck working at the
53 driverless vehicles at various locations across Australia .
The technology for Rio ’ s driverless trucks is called Autonomous Haulage System ( AHS ), a comprehensive fleet management system . The trucks are operated and controlled via supervisory computer that collects and directs information on target course . The speed of the trucks is sent wirelessly from the supervisory computer to the trucks , while the
18 June 2014