Ask the average motorist for their opinion of self-driving cars and the response is often “it’ll never catch on”.
There’s no doubt that the idea of car-loads of people whizzing around the road network without bothering to drive the vehicle themselves is certainly alarming. And so far, the technology has failed to get a foothold – at least in the public imagination.
But take that self-driving technology off the road, and onto a private open space such as a quarry, and all of a sudden it makes a lot more sense.
Autonomous mining trucks are already a reality. Leading manufacturers such as Caterpillar and Komatsu have developed, tested and launched self-driving trucks. Cat’s 400-tonne 793F autonomous rigid dump trucks were trundling across an open-cast coal mine in New Mexico a full 10 years ago.
Self-driving vehicles make sense in a huge open-cast mine where the work is repetitive and the route always the same. But it has taken longer for the technology to migrate to the aggregates sector, where both jobsites and equipment tend to be smaller and the economics and practicalities are more challenging.
Nevertheless, the technology is now here. Earlier this year, equipment dealer Chepstow Plant International (CPI) and dump-truck manufacturer Bell Equipment demonstrated an autonomous drive-by-wire Bell B40E articulated dump truck (ADT) at a china-clay quarry near Ivybridge in Devon, owned by minerals producer Sibelco.
The project grew out of a joint exercise by Bell Equipment with technology company Xtonomy, based in the German city of Aachen. Following trials of the technology, the two companies brought in CPI which identified Sibelco’s Cornwood quarry as the ideal location to test the system in real life. Sibleco is a long-standing CPI customer.
The main aim of the pilot scheme was to demonstrate the potential of driverless technology for reducing vehicle accidents and improving efficiencies and productivity.
The Bell B40E was equipped with on-board Xtonomy hardware and software including radar sensors, high-precision GPS, multi-channel communication systems and on-board processing equipment.
The result, says CPI, is “true and safe autonomy with a resilient navigation system that dynamically plans ADT paths and predictively controls the vehicle around the entire quarry”.
CPI hopes that operational efficiencies will be improved as the autonomous ADTs are able to operate for longer periods than human operators, deliver highly accurate tipping results and allow the existing quarry shift patterns to be tailored to improve productivity.
Removing the human element also minimises wear and tear on the vehicle, leading to improved component life (though some skilled ADT drivers might bridle at the suggestion that they’re too heavy on the controls).
Inevitably CPI claims an environmental benefit for vehicle autonomy: “With enhanced driving accuracy and efficiency across the quarry, less fuel will be consumed, helping to ensure reductions in carbon emissions damage because of a quarry’s daily activities,” it says.
”The ability to transform our market-leading vehicle through added technology functionality into a safe, robust, effective, and autonomous quarrying asset is welcome and sets the standard for future developments across our vehicle range,” says Bell Equipment managing director Nic Grout.
Ben Uphill, operations director for quarry owner Sibelco, says: “We envisage many benefits from having access to this sector-first autonomous ADT solution. The minerals and aggregates sector must embrace technology as a way of continually delivering improvements across our daily operations and cost base.
“Automation is used in many parts of our operations and business, to maximise efficiency and to also manage areas of skills shortage. This has been a fantastic example of collaborative ethos from all partners and has resulted in a safe and productive autonomous driving setup for a key part of our operations.”
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