On the morning of May 13, at Zhunneng Group‘s Heidaigou open-pit coal mine in the Ordos Basin region of Inner Mongolia, part of the Zhungeer mining complex of national coal mining group CHN Energy, the mining company along with partners Aerospace Heavy Industry (AHI) and VIPioneers aka WAYTOUS oversaw tests that involved an autonomous 290 t retrofitted Komatsu 930E truck operating as part of a mixed autonomous-non autonomous fleet with four manned 730E mining trucks, a 395 type electric shovel and one bulldozer. During typical operational scenarios including obstacle avoidance, following, clearing, loading, meeting & unloading, the partners say the whole process ran smoothly with no faults or manual takeover.

The Heidaigou Open Pit Coal Mine Unmanned Project was established in April 2020 and jointly developed by Zhunneng Group, Aerospace Heavy Industry and VIPioneers. By the end of 2021, the whole system will be transferred over to the mining customer.

Du Shanzhou, Chairman of Zhunneng Group, said: “All departments and units shall attach great importance to and strengthen confidence in fulfilling the work tasks according to the project schedule. During the trial operation of driverless trucks, safety should be put in the first place, and a ‘red line consciousness’ should be established for production safety. All efforts should be made to ensure that the scale of future trials will be expanded.” As of May 13, 2021, the mixed operation has completed a cumulative output of 828 vehicle movements for 67,542 cubic metres, of which the unmanned truck completed 169 vehicle movements for 19,435 cubic metres. The average error of the vehicle path tracking is less than 0.3 m, and the operating speed of the truck can reach 30 km h at present. It is the first unmanned ultraclass mining truck in China.