Recently, the State Council issued the "Implementation Opinions on Deepening the Implementation of the 'Artificial Intelligence+' Action" and the "Implementation Opinions on Accelerating the Cultivation and Opening up to Promote the Large-scale Application of New Scenarios", requiring the extensive and deep integration of artificial intelligence with various industries and fields of the economy and society, the promotion of application scenarios in the field of mine safety, and the improvement of the level of full-process automation of safe production in mines. As the core equipment of artificial intelligence in the application of mining, autonomous mining trucks play an important role in the development of new quality productive forces in the mining industry. This paper briefly sorts out the development and application examples of autonomous mining trucks in enhancing the ability of mine development, ensuring transportation safety and improving cost benefits in recent years, for industry communication and reference.

01 Autonomous mining truck to enhance mining development capabilities

First, the advantage of autonomous mining truck transportation efficiency is gradually becoming apparent. Huawei's autonomous mining truck system, deployed at the Yulong Copper Mine in Tibet, operates reliably in extreme environments at an altitude of 5,000 meters, increasing mining operation efficiency by 35% compared to manual fleets. SUEK's open-pit coal mine in Russia has deployed autonomous mining trucks, improving transportation efficiency by 30%. Sandvik has launched a new autonomous mining truck, which increases production time by 4 to 8 hours per day compared to traditional vehicles and increases output by 30%. Komatsu's fleet equipped with the FrontRunner autonomous driving system can improve the effective utilization rate by up to 15%.

Second, self-driving mining trucks can effectively reduce the difficulty and risk of operation under harsh conditions, enabling the development of mines that are difficult to exploit using traditional methods to achieve economic and social value. The self-driving vehicle fleet of Inner Mongolia Yimeng Coal Mine operates continuously day and night at temperatures as low as -40 degrees Celsius. The self-driving vehicle fleet of Huolinhe Open-pit Coal Mine can still drive safely in extreme environments with visibility of less than five meters. After the transformation of the mine truck fleet of Xibei Open-pit Coal Mine with unmanned system, it has withstood the test of harsh mine environment such as water-rich open-pit mine, bumpy and muddy roads, and severe cold and low temperature, and has been operating normally day and night. At the 4,700-meter altitude of the Chilean Coahuasi Copper Mine, the 400-ton super-large electric mining truck has passed the high-altitude extreme condition experiment. Volvo has completed the testing of a new self-driving mining truck at a mine site in Sweden, and has verified the reliability of the equipment 1,300 meters underground.

02 Autonomous mining truck ensures the essential safety of mining

First, the unmanned and low-population operation has effectively reduced personnel casualties. After the full operation of 135 unmanned mining trucks in Zaha Nuoer Coal Mine in Inner Mongolia, 325 drivers can be reduced. Autonomous mining trucks replace manual entry into high gas, dust explosion risk areas or extreme cold/heat areas, effectively avoiding the risk of collapse, falling rocks and other accidents, completely liberating drivers from dangerous and harsh working environments, and fundamentally reducing the probability of personal injury accidents.

Second, the effective reduction of transportation accidents has been achieved by the application of autonomous driving technology equipment. Thanks to the advanced technology such as multi-sensor and intelligent algorithm of autonomous driving mining trucks, the accident rate is significantly lower than that of manual driving. Since the deployment of Hengdi Intelligent Driving autonomous mining trucks in Taimei's Jingde Mountain, there has been zero accident in the safe operation of one million kilometers. Inner Mongolia open-pit coal mine uses the infrared thermal imaging technology of XuanRMB Intelligent Driving, and the safety accident rate has decreased by nearly 80%. The Shengli No. 3 Open-pit Coal Mine operates the unmanned wide-body mining trucks of Zhongke Huitu, and the accident rate is 90% lower than that of manual transportation. In the布鲁库图 mining area of Brazil's淡水河谷, the autonomous driving trucks operate through computer systems, GPS, radar, and artificial intelligence control, and there has not been a single safety accident caused by autonomous driving since the operation.

03 Autonomous mining trucks bring cost benefits across the entire life cycle

The technology of autonomous mining trucks, especially electric mining trucks, is constantly updated and iterated, the total cost of ownership (TCO) continues to decrease, and its TCO competitiveness is continuously improved. For example, an electric mining truck with a capacity of 150 tons of lithium iron phosphate can save $3 million in TCO compared to a similar fuel-powered mining truck.

First, labor reduction and labor-lightening have reduced labor costs. After the commissioning of the autonomous mining trucks at the Shengli No.3 Open-pit Coal Mine, the annual labor cost savings exceed one million RMB. After the adoption of the Yutong autonomous mining trucks at a certain mine area in Thailand, the number of on-site operators was reduced by 50%, and the labor cost savings per truck per year approached one million baht.

Second, autonomous driving technology can reduce energy and maintenance costs. Data shows that autonomous driving can reduce vehicle maintenance costs by 10%, tire wear by 25%, and fuel costs by more than 10%. Autonomous mining trucks powered by new energy, such as pure electric or hybrid, can further reduce energy costs.

At present, the autonomous mining truck is moving from "single-point technology verification" to "full-mine collaborative intelligence", but it still faces challenges such as complex transportation environment, high technical equipment requirements, insufficient application in underground scenarios and high initial investment cost. In the future, as the industrial ecology is gradually improved and the policy environment continues to support, autonomous mining trucks will be more widely used, promoting the transformation and upgrading of the mining industry towards intelligence, unmanned and greening, and contributing to the sustainable development of the global mining industry.

If you have any inquiries or purchasing needs, please feel free to contact SunSirs with support@sunsirs.com.