(Kitco News) – Iron ore giant Fortescue Metals reported successful operational deployment of autonomous light vehicles (ALV’s) at the company’s mining operations in the Chichester Hub.

The company said that with the assistance of Ford Australia, four Ford Rangers have been retrofitted with an on-board vehicle automation system to support the driverless equipment transfer service, which will improve efficiency and safety by enabling team members to spend more time on maintaining assets.

The system features an integrated Lidar/Radar perception system that facilitates obstacle detection and dynamic obstacle avoidance, a comprehensive independent safety management and fail-safe braking system and extensive built-in system monitoring and fault response capability.

Fortescue added that the successful deployment of ALV’s at Christmas Creek will provide the opportunity to implement a similar system at other operational sites to improve safety, productivity and efficiency.

CEO Elizabeth Gaines said, “The autonomous light vehicle project is a significant advancement of our in-house automation capability, building on our leading autonomous haulage system (AHS) program which has already delivered significant productivity and efficiency improvements for the business.”

“With the flexibility to introduce similar systems into other mobile assets, this project is fundamental to our future mobile equipment automation projects,” added Gaines.

Por Vladimir Basov

Fonte: Kitco News