Sandvik is seeking to revolutionise autonomous ramp haulage with the introduction of Sandvik AutoMine® for Trucks that will improve safety and efficiency in underground to surface tipping. The system reportedly reduces operating costs by up to 50% and increases production by up to 30%.
Sandvik says that the AutoMine® for Trucks is a first for autonomous ramp haulage applications in the underground mining industry. The system provides autonomous truck haulage not only in underground environments but now also on the surface.
It turns Sandvik’s intelligent mining trucks into unmanned robots, robots that keep running.
For years, mining operations across the world have benefitted from Sandvik’s intelligent AutoMine® systems for autonomous and unmanned truck haulage. They help to reduce equipment damage, repair work and add the highest levels of efficiency and fleet utilization, giving a lower cost per ton. They are scalable for different mining applications and can be supervised from remote locations.
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In December 2019 a sneak peek of the product was introduced at the Digitalization in Mining event in Brisbane, Australia.
“At Sandvik, we’ve pioneered and delivered autonomous trucks for many years. Continuously setting the industry standard we have now developed the industry-first, fully autonomous underground trucks that can operate in mining levels and mine declines including both underground and surface sections. These trucks are set to revolutionize the mining industry, bringing significant improvements in mine’s productivity and safety,” said Riku Pulli, Vice President, BU Automation, Sandvik Mining and Rock Technology.
A key requirement for an autonomous ramp haulage application is to enable the capability for trucks to operate autonomously not only underground but also on the surface. With this product release, Sandvik has unlocked this capability for its customers. A core innovation behind the new capability is the smart handover technology that allows trucks to switch from underground to surface navigation mode in real-time. This allows trucks to continue through the ramp portal seamlessly to the surface to complete the dumping cycle.
AutoMine® also connects directly to Sandvik OptiMine®, enabling efficient production planning and automatic dispatching of tasks to AutoMine® for production execution. The progress of production tasks are reported back to OptiMine® giving mines real-time visibility of their automated and manual operations and enabling them to make informed decisions on their operation. Other benefits of OptiMine® include equipment and people location tracking, 3D Mine Visualization, and predictive analytics to transform data into actionable insights. Integration with My Sandvik Productivity allows mines to keep track of their trucks’ condition and know the real-time status of the fleet.
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