The Belarusian Automobile Plant (BelAZ), one of the
world’s largest manufacturers of quarry equipment, and ZYFRA, specialising in
industry digitalisation will jointly develop robotisation technologies for the
mining industry and set up a research centre at BelAZ for innovation in the
fields of artificial intelligence and autonomous transport.
VIST Group, a subsidiary of ZYFRA which develops solutions for the mining industry, and BelAZ have launched production of robotised dump trucks. The vehicles are being successfully used in open pits operated by SUEK.
Experience shows that due to accurate tracking of the geotechnology parameters, fully autonomous and remotely controlled equipment improves transport efficiency by 20% while removing drivers from hazardous work zones, the companies said in a joint media release.
Fully autonomous and remotely controlled equipment improves transport efficiency by 20% while removing drivers from hazardous work zones
The company said it expects the solution will be in high demand in the markets of Sub-Saharian Africa, Chile, Peru and India.
“The main goal
of our partnership is to understand better the current and future digital needs
of the mining industry and to offer vehicles that fully meet these needs so
that customers do not have to waste resources and time upgrading them on their
own. Identifying these needs will be the object of our joint research
activities with ZYFRA and all our future projects will be based on these
studies,” said BelAZ CEO Petr Parkhomchik.
The collaboration between BelAZ and ZYFRA will have a
particular focus on AI-based technologies. The companies plan to conduct joint
studies of customer needs and an analysis of the global market for digital
AI-based products in the mining industry, as a foundation for creating and
improving their own developments in this field.
They also plan to develop an environment scanning system for autonomous dump trucks already equipped with artificial intelligence. The system will be able to perceive and react to objects located around the dump truck and build a 3D model of the rock mass to be loaded, determine its sequence of actions and correlate its movements with the truck’s position.