Unmanned Systems Technology 003 | UAV Solutions Talon 120 | Cable harnesses | Austro Engine AE50R and AE300 | Autonomous mining | AUVSI 2015 show report | Transponders | Space systems

54 T he mining industry has, quietly, been at the forefront of developing highly specialised autonomous vehicles. Getting them to operate autonomously in hazardous and rugged environments has the potential for major gains in efficiency, but there has been a long path to finding the right approach for specialist vehicles such as haulage trucks, bulldozers and drilling machines in the context of a mine. Although there are challenges with operating in such hazardous environments, developing autonomous systems in a mine has advantages. For one thing, the situations faced by the vehicles are relatively fixed: although the roads they have to follow can change regularly as the mine develops, there is a limited number of people working in the surrounding area. Also, in many ways the wireless environment is easier to manage than in other scenarios, as there aren’t many other radio signals that could interfere with the control of the vehicles. All of this can make the challenge of developing unmanned systems easier than those for use on the streets of a city, for example, although the vehicles and other equipment such as drills also generate a lot of electrical noise from their motors, which can block many types of wireless signals. However, developments have not been straightforward, and the mining industry has had to go through a number of steps to get to the degree of autonomy now rolling out in large mines. The industry started out by using remote control and then moving to remote operation (or teleop) before committing to fully autonomous operation. All these approaches share a common technology platform that uses the networking technology in a vehicle such as a dozer or haul truck. Summer 2015 | Unmanned Systems Technology Ore Rio Tinto is rolling out Komatsu’s Autonomous Haulage System in Western Australia this year (Courtesy of Komatsu)