EACON Mining Technology has completed its first fully autonomous haulage test cycle without a safety driver at Norton Gold Fields’ Mulgarrie open-pit mine in Western Australia.
The retrofitted Komatsu HD1500 haul truck, named Jerry, has had 20,000 operating hours prior to the retrofit.
Phase one of the project validated performance, stability, and safety of EACON’s autonomous driving system on a retrofit haul truck platform.
The phase showed reliable integration of EACON’s independently developed drive-by-wire retrofit kit, consistent and responsive vehicle behaviour under autonomous control, and effective tuning of control algorithms to match the truck’s native operating characteristics.
COO Elaine Jin says achieving this milestone safely and on schedule confirms the maturity of the ORCASTRA system.
EACON’s partner Thiess’ group executive of assets and autonomy Ryan Kirkwood says the company has implemented, operated and optimised autonomous solutions for haulage fleets, dozers, and drill applications worldwide for close to 15 years.
“We’re pleased to bring our experience to this project to support change management and implementation processes, from commissioning through to successful maintenance with our workforce of the future,” Kirkwood says.
By enabling autonomy across multiple vehicle brands, EACON’s open, original equipment manufacturer-agnostic autonomy solution provides a practical pathway for upgrading existing mining fleets and facilitates the transition of autonomous haulage from greenfield deployments to scalable brownfields and retrofit operations.
EACON Mining is focused on delivering turnkey autonomous haulage solutions designed to optimise surface mining operations.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: EACON
