industryfocus
"Mining giant Rio Tinto is already using a complex network of lasers, radars, computers, GPS, anti-collision software and robots."
DRIVERLESS TRUCKS AND TRAINS In the 1990 sci-fi thriller Total Recall, Arnold Schwarzenegger is driven around a Martian city by a robot taxi driver. While driverless cars are still years or even decades away from hitting the showrooms, mining giant Rio Tinto is already using a complex network of lasers, radars, computers, GPS, anti- collision software and robots to drive its haul trucks. Following five years of exhaustive field tests,
the company announced in June it had begun to move commercial quantities of high-grade iron ore at its Yandicoogina mine in the Pilbara region of Western Australia using a fleet of 10 Komatsu driverless trucks. Each 180-tonne truck, which is capable of moving 2.5 million tonnes of material a year, cost a staggering $6 million apiece. But given the high labour costs associated with staffing regular haul trucks – about $1 million a year – driverless trucks make sound financial sense. If all goes to plan, these 10 driverless trucks
will represent the first step in a plan to introduce another 140 units – half of Rio's fleet in the Pilbara. "These new trucks will work with our
pioneering operations centre in Perth that integrates and manages the logistics of 14 mines, three ports and two railways," says Rio Tinto Iron Ore CEO Sam Walsh. "They will be a critical part of our drive towards outstanding safety and production efficiency." Rio Tinto's autonomous haulage system – which is a world first – is part of a company-wide
