HIGH PROFILE
An OEM agnostic AHS partnership
Just over three years ago , Roy Hill made the decision to collaborate with ASI Mining and Epiroc to convert its existing fleet of haul trucks into autonomous vehicles - here ASI Mining reviews the success story so far
Going back to early 2020 , Roy Hill was running a mixed fleet of 77 Caterpillar 793Fs and Hitachi EH5000 trucks at its iron ore mine in the Pilbara region of Western Australia . As one of the world ’ s largest single iron ore mines , a key driver for Roy Hill ’ s decision to introduce automation was the opportunity for the business to deliver safer operations , higher productivity and predictable execution , principles of its Smart Mine vision .
At the time , ASI Mining had already done several automation projects in the mining industry . As early as 2006 ASI Mining ran its first autonomous trucks at a North American mining company . However , it is fair to say that it was not a mature product yet that could be rolled out at the scale Roy Hill needed .
OEM-agnostic and interoperability lie at the heart of ASI Mining ’ s AHS solution . Current OEM suppliers are mainly offering the automation of their own brand of machines , and usually are restricted to certain models and in many cases convert relatively newer truck models only . ASI Mining has no such restrictions and offers complete flexibility to its customers , regardless of fleet age , composition , brand , etc . This was exactly what Roy Hill needed hence its decision .
Today , after overcoming numerous challenges during the initial Preparation stage and completing the subsequent 2-year Production Verification stage , the solution is currently being rolled out . Truck conversion kits are being produced and installed at a pace of 6 per month and the Roy Hill autonomous fleet is gradually growing from the 10 trucks it used during Production Verification to a total of 96 by mid-next year ; at the time of writing this article 30 trucks have been converted .
At the same time , ASI Mining is working on bringing other customers on board as it believes the product is mature and the company is ready for other deployments .
During the 18 month long Fleet Expansion stage , the mine ’ s autonomous operating zone ( AOZ ) will function alongside conventional operations . Luckily the ASI Mining system does allow for the co-mingling of staffed and autonomous trucks where required , and this creates flexibility during this process , and beyond where required .
ASI Mining ’ s automation solution consists of three layers : a traffic management system , called Mobius™ , and two on-board layers consisting of a vehicle automation kit ( VAK ) and a drive-by-wire
Roy Hill , ASI Mining & Epiroc have achieved a true OEM-agnostic AHS at a world-class mine scale
( DBW ) layer . Mobius™ is the supervisory system of the solution and can be interfaced with any fleet management system . The VAK is the onboard brains of the truck and provides processing power , communications and incorporates all sensors of the machine , amongst others . The VAK hardware is standard across all models , but the embedded software is unique . The DBW components are relatively standard as well but do require some customisation depending on the truck model . Overall , ASI Mining has tried to keep its solution simple and non-invasive and as standard across all models as possible . The fitment of the on-board stack is quite simple .
Fundamental to the design and operation of these three layers is ASI Mining ’ s commitment to safety . ASI Mining is leveraging the expertise and guidance of many international standards to ensure the product is safe and secure . This effort begins with following ISO 12100 , to establish and manage risk , and leads into ISO 17757 , the current baseline for safe autonomous haulage . This pursuit of safety requires multiple disciplines and approaches , considering Operational Safety , System Safety , Functional Safety and Cybersecurity . In the maturity journey , we leverage the expertise of our customers , as well as experienced mining and automation experts committed to making safety and productivity work hand in hand .
This also means a substantial amount of the AHS conversion kit can be re-used ; and this could be beneficial to older machines as kits don ’ t become obsolete in its entirety once a decision is made to stand a truck down . Also , this may be especially beneficial to mining contractors who are usually operating different types of machines under shorter contractual arrangements . Having the flexibility to ( un ) install and re-deploy , where the conditions allow , thereby re-using part of the kits on other machines and models may provide a substantial benefit to that segment of the mine operations market .
Looking back at the past 24 months , Diederik Lugtigheid , President of ASI Mining , acknowledges there have been many challenges The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was certainly a significant obstacle , hindering international travel and necessitating the establishment of a larger local engineering team .
To achieve their current milestone , strong commitment from all stakeholders in the three collaborating organisations played a vital role . While ASI Mining had prior experience in running smaller fleets of autonomous trucks , the real challenge lay in consistently operating a larger fleet 24 / 7 , handling all mining functions reliably , and , most importantly , achieving better
30 International Mining | OCTOBER 2023