{"id":1121448,"date":"2019-06-17T16:50:21","date_gmt":"2019-06-17T16:50:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=993902"},"modified":"2019-06-17T16:50:21","modified_gmt":"2019-06-17T16:50:21","slug":"rio-tinto-rolls-out-worlds-biggest-robot-in-pilbara","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1121448","title":{"rendered":"Rio Tinto rolls out \u2018world\u2019s biggest robot\u2019 in Pilbara"},"content":{"rendered":"

After more than a decade, mining giant Rio Tinto (ASX, LON, NYSE: RIO) has officially rolled out<\/a> its A$1.37 billion ($940m) autonomous train fleet, said to be the world\u2019s largest robot, which the company says will introduce more flexibility and efficiency to its operations in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.<\/p>\n

The completion of its AutoHaul plan, part of the \u201cMine of
\nthe Future\u201d project Rio launched in 2008, will allow the miner to transport
\niron ore from 16 mines to ports in Dampier and Cape Lambert.<\/p>\n

The autonomous system also removes the need for almost 1.5
\nmillion kms of road travel per year previously required to transport drivers to
\nand from trains mid-journey, Rio said.<\/p>\n

The 2.4-kilometre-long fleet, which is monitored remotely from an operations centre in Perth, now travel across a network of 1700 km of railway tracks. Since first deployed last year<\/a>, those driverless trains have safely travelled more than 4.5 million km, Rio added.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

The AutoHaul plan, part of the \u201cMine of the Future\u201d project Rio launched in 2008, will allow the miner to transport iron ore from 16 mines to ports in Dampier and Cape Lambert.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n

Getting to this point was not easy. The actual commissioning
\nof the autonomous trains project was put off a few times<\/a>, partly due to software problems.
\nThe first autonomous rail trip<\/a> was finally completed in
\nOctober 2017, thanks to the collaboration of project partners from Japan, US
\nand Australia.<\/p>\n

Western Australia\u2019s Minister for Mines and Petroleum, Bill
\nJohnston, said the conclusion of the AutoHaul project was a world-first and an
\nexample of the strength of the state\u2019s resources industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has brought the rail freight industry in this country
\ninto the 21st century and is rightfully the subject of global interest,\u201d
\nJohnston said in the statement.<\/p>\n

The world\u2019s No.2 miner is also\u00a0expanding its fleet of autonomous haul trucks<\/a>, also controlled from Perth, with 30% of its fleet, or about 130 trucks, to be autonomous by the end of the year.<\/p>\n

The autonomous system allows trucks to be operated by a
\ncentral controller rather than a driver. It uses pre-defined GPS courses to
\nautomatically navigate roads and intersections and knows actual locations,
\nspeeds and directions of all vehicles at all times.<\/p>\n

The so-called AutoHaul plan is part of the \u201cMine of the Future\u201d project
\nthe company launched in 2008 and which also included the introduction of
\nautonomous haulage trucks, automated drilling and the roll out of an operations
\ncentre near Perth airport.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The A$1.37 billion ($940m) autonomous train fleet will transport iron ore from 16 mines to ports in Dampier and Cape Lambert.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[369,2857,2640],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1121448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miningcom","category-suppliers-equipment","category-top-companies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1121448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1121448"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1121448\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1121570,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1121448\/revisions\/1121570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1121448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1121448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1121448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}