AUTONOMOUS SURFACE MINING
turbos to monitor temperatures . In many ways AHS is paving the way for the most advanced remote health monitoring yet achieved in mining .”
With no operator , which is normally the first line of defence , maintenance scheduling becomes very important , such as for the mentioned visual inspections for leaks and any other abnormalities . In addition , the KOMTRAX data also becomes critical in understanding any faults before they become serious . But using data analytics in the right way also means components in some cases can be run longer but still safely . “ Taking rear suspensions as an example , if the scheduled replace and repair point is 18,000 hours , but there are no leaks and they ’ re holding pressure , then you can go well beyond that . And the AHS customers are doing that – pushing those component lives out . Less scheduled maintenance also means lower labour costs .” Komatsu has a dedicated analytics team that is actively quantifying and collating all of this lifecycle data from its growing number of AHS sites and fleets , to produce a meaningful cloud-based database “ to help the customer quantify performance , productivity and truck health .”
When you look at engine life , this is based on volumes of fuel consumed . There are fuel savings as it is running more continuously so overall you are moving more tonnes per litre with a higher utilisation but from a fuel consumption point of view the AHS versus operator truck is about neutral .
It is also worth pointing out the economic benefit from extended parts and overall truck life with AHS is somewhat balanced by the fact that maintaining roads at the highest quality , also being wider ( in some cases to allow for multiple tracks to avoid rut development ) and with wider turns and wider load and dump areas to enable AHS comes with significant associated higher cost . Also , autonomy comes with its own additional expenses beyond just road maintenance – such as network upgrades and the fact every AHS truck has other vehicles supporting it – equipped with what Komatsu calls EMV kits – these include light vehicles for pit patrollers , graders , dozers and shovel operators .
On the wider autonomous market , Wickenheiser also confirmed that Komatsu is actively looking at bringing autonomy to its smaller truck classes as well as developing autonomy to manage its new power agnostic truck platform . “ Smaller gold and coal mines , plus quarries and industrial minerals operations are all looking to the advantages of autonomy but they have both smaller trucks and smaller fleets – we just have to find a way to make the AHS proposition economic for these operators , and of course competitive and profitable for us . But it ’ s a challenge , especially in emerging markets where many mines use smaller trucks but have a totally different cost structure .”
The advantage of route path planning
Auto-mate – another one of the leading “ new autonomy ” innovators says putting a brain on the mining truck gives you a Route Path Planning ( RPP ) advantage . “ While that certainly sounds impressive – here is what it means for you ; if you ’ re a CEO of a mining company , it means a faster return on your investment with minimised risk of downtime , if you ’ re an operations manager , it means meeting your targets more efficiently , as an operator , it means confidence and ease of use , and as an HR manager it means a simple transition for the team to autonomy .”
For Auto-mate , the recently held Diggers & Dealers Conference in Kalgoorlie in Western Australia included a range of conversations on autonomy – including the RPP advantage .
“ You ’ re a haul truck controller , yes that ’ s right , not the driver , and you ’ re very excited to be part of the new automation team – you ’ ve been allocated the position of planning and monitoring the routes for the autonomous trucks at a particular mining operation and you ’ re looking forward to watching as the automated vehicles do what they should . The mine site has just completed a transition to automation for three of its Cat 775 trucks , and as a supporter of this transition , you ’ re looking forward to reporting on the success of the move to automation to your operations manager and CEO .”
The company continues : “ You take your time