Auto-mate's autonomous technology increases productivity by enabling driverless mining equipment, fitted with sensors, to operate 24/7 with maximum uptime and planned maintenance stops. Automation reduces vehicle wear while improving safety as it takes the optimal operational path, reducing costs and decreasing accidents. Auto-mate’s technology can be retro-fitted.
Mining operations face a number of challenges. In the current market, recruitment and staff retention are proving to be an industry wide issue.
The introduction of autonomous technologies reduces the reliance on a large workforce. This provides the opportunity to reskill and relocate operators to a safer and more comfortable environment, away from dust and heat, and at the same time, increase the attractiveness of employment within the resources sector.
Autonomous vehicles have also been proven to reduce operational costs and increase productivity by enabling 24/7 driverless operation with maximum uptime with planned maintenance stops.
Auto-mate’s autonomous solution ensures safe passage of the vehicle as it takes the optimal operational path. Where an obstacle is detected, the solution allows the vehicle to continue to operate along the defined path if safe to do so, without the need for an emergency stop.
Auto-mate's technology increases safety by removing operators from the area of risk. Instead, they can safely monitor the vehicle’s progress as it uses mission-based autonomy to perform tasks, supported by multiple onboard sensors and cameras, which can identify obstructions or dangerous areas to avoid.
Smart technology provides situational awareness and deep machine learning, leading to safe, immediate and localised decision making.
The technology can be retrofitted, significantly reducing capital costs, because there is no need to buy new, autonomy-ready assets.
The open architecture of Auto-mate's solutions allows it to integrate with existing systems and mixed fleets, lowering implementation costs and giving visibility across the fleet.
The customer can use the data generated for forecasting and operational improvements.
One key difference between Auto-mate’s technology and other available autonomous systems is that the former is mission driven. This means that, if communications are temporarily lost, the machine will continue to operate, within safety parameters, to complete the mission as planned. This ensures minimal downtime with the associated cost and productivity benefits.
Unlike existing solutions that rely on a “virtual rail” system, the non-linear nature of Auto-mate's autonomous solution allows the vehicle to self-adjust its planned route on the detection of an unplanned or unidentified object.
The scalable nature of Auto-mate's technology supports the progression from Level 3 (conditional automation) to Level 5 (full automation), where operations are either growing or have a more conservative approach to the implementation of their automation solution.
It's a smart autonomy solution specifically designed for heavy mobile mining equipment.
