In addition to the Locata partnership news (yesterday), Leica Geosystems Mining is also teaming up with Autonomous Solutions Inc (ASI) to provide the global mining industry with completely OEM independent remote and fully autonomous mine machine control. The company stated: “The fact that the technology is not connected to a machine manufacturer and introduces an entirely new approach to mining automation has sparked a huge amount of industry interest.” The ASI technology is pivotal to the Leica Jigsaw product suite which offers three levels of machine control: fleet management (Leica Jfleet systems), high precision guidance (Leica J2guidance systems) and now, with ASI, automated control (Leica J3autonomous systems).
Haydn Roberts, CEO of Leica Geosystems Mining stated: “We chose to work with ASI because they are the only OEM independent company that has developed and field tested fully autonomous mining equipment. They have a strong history in R&D and have hundreds of unmanned vehicles in industries like agriculture, mining, material handling, and the military.” For six years ASI has worked specifically in the development and deployment of automation packages for mining trucks, bulldozers, drills, and shovels. ASI has been in the robotics industry for eleven years and has fully operational, autonomous systems running around the world in factories, mines, and military bases. In partnership with Leica Geosystems, they plan to transition their fully autonomous trucks, dozers and other robotic technology into the global mining market.
Mel Torrie, the CEO and founder of ASI, stated: “We are excited by the immediate and near term product offerings this joint venture between our two companies is making possible. We chose to work with Leica Geosystems because they are market leaders in machine guidance and mining dispatch software which are both essential components needed for successful fielding of automation solutions in mining. We have worked with them in the past in integrating their dispatch software with our unmanned haul trucks and we found their team to be exceptional.”
The companies claim that fundamental differentiator and the key to the successful integration of this automation technology into mining is the so-called “incremental fielding” approach proven in the agricultural industry. This is explained as working within the specific needs, constraints and safety requirements of their clients, rather than dictating parameters to them. “We are taking the fully autonomous truck, dozer and other vehicle technologies and working with Leica Geosystems to quickly field the capabilities like AutoSpot that will provide immediate financial returns while largely keeping people in the vehicles just like it has been employed in the agriculture industry successfully.” stated Mr Torrie. “This progressive approach in agriculture has led to farmers reaping incredible financial benefits far sooner and at every step along the way to full automation without the risks associated with the all or nothing solutions currently being proposed in the mining industry.
