Sumitomo Osaka Cement Co., Ltd., has developed and operated the Autonomous Mining Truck System (AMTS) for open-pit limestone mining in Shuhou Mine, Yamaguchi Pref., Japan. (the annual amount of products are 8 million metric tons, the total amount of products are 260 million metric tons)
Epoch-making features of the AMTS are those it has the ability to control two mining trucks simultaneously, and it has the capability of operation on overlap areas with manned mining trucks. In addition, it has striking improvement when compared to the conventional system. This is the pioneering a trace control system in this country for mining trucks using Global Positioning System, and even if the case of changing hauling routes, it requires no replacement of the accessorial equipment on mining benches.
From 1999, the AMTS joint development project with Shin Caterpillar Mitsubishi Ltd. (present; Caterpillar Japan Co., Ltd.) , has started by field tests with a CAT 775, 60 metric tons haul capacity in Shuho mine. Afterward the AMTS has been transferred to CAT789s, 180 metric tons haul capacity, and from 2007, it has been started to operate in the mining site.
We worked on a construction of the AMTS under three severe concepts as follows. (1) The safety first, (2) Area overlap operation with manned mining trucks, (3) Investigating its convenience apply. In particular, for safely operation, we placed a priority on building the obstacle detection equipment that is required to be fit for variable situation in mining site, and it has been tuned well after much trial and error.
Productivity of the AMTS performs about 70% as compared to manned operation, and some of haul labor saving have already been confirmed. Improvement works should make progress on utilization and productivity of the AMTS from now on.
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