ON THE GROUND
INTEROPERABLE
APPROACH TO AUTONOMY
– WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
By Tarren Bolton | Images by Hitachi
Hitachi Construction Machinery (HCM) is pleased to announce
its vision for autonomous mining – an open, interoperable
ecosystem of partners that integrate their systems
alongside existing mine infrastructure.
G
rounded in
support for
International
Organisation
for Standardisation (ISO)
and a drive to encourage
new entrants into the
mining industry, Hitachi is
pioneering this open and
interoperable approach
to autonomy among
global mining technology
leaders. HCM declares
its support for standards-
based autonomy and is
offering its interoperable
technology to assist mining
customers to integrate
new vendors into their existing
infrastructure. HCM’s support for open,
interoperable autonomy is based on
its philosophy for its partner-focused
Solution Linkage platform.
What is Solution Linkage?
Phrases like ‘interoperable ecosystems’
and ‘autonomous mining’ are enough
to make anyone’s head spin. Talk of 4IR,
the Internet of Things (IoT), Industrial
Internet of Things (IIoT) and what it
means for the future of operations,
while fascinating and pertinent, is often
hard to comprehend. But there’s no
getting away from the fact that it is the
future of mining operations – in fact, it’s
already happening.
The HCM Group is developing this
open autonomy approach under the
www.plantonline.co.za
Solution Linkage initiative, a platform
already available to Hitachi's customers
in the construction industry. It is now
available to mining customers with
support from HCM subsidiary, Wenco
International Mining Systems (Wenco).
Solution Linkage is a standards-based
platform grounded on three principles:
open innovation, interoperability and
partner ecosystem.
Open innovation
Hitachi has developed its technology
using open standards, as well as a focus
on interoperability. This allows Hitachi
and its subsidiary Wenco, to more
easily integrate with other third-party
technology vendors to create a more
complete solution for customers.
For example, with autonomous
mining, Hitachi is providing executive
resources to help develop an ISO
standard-based interface between
autonomy vendors and customers’
existing Fleet Management Systems.
This isn’t to just allow Hitachi AHS
vehicles to integrate with customer
operations, but other vendors as
well, particularly vendors that have
autonomous technology but are may be
new to mining.
To explain this further, and even
before this ISO standard becomes
available, Hitachi is leveraging the open
and interoperable technology from
Wenco to help third party autonomous
haulage trucks integrate into a major
global mining company’s existing
JULY 2019
15