AHS truck and hydraulic shovel in Arizona
Komatsu (Komatsu) has created the industry's first automated transportation. Currently, miners using the company's FrontRunner AHS (automated transportation system) have transported more than 3 billion tons of materials.
The Komatsu team worked closely with customers to develop a commercial automated transportation system to help mines move materials more efficiently. In 2008, the first system was deployed in CODELCO's Gabriela Mistral copper mine in northern Chile. AHS incorporated some of the world's most used ultra-large trucks into automatic operation through the DISPATCH fleet management system of the modular mining system. In the team.
Today, the FrontRunner system is used on three continents in the world to transport copper ore, iron ore, oil sands, coal, etc., operating day and night. As of the end of July 2020, there are already 251 AHS trucks, and another 100 are planned for fiscal year 2020 (mainly to install AHS kits).
"Our mining customers continue to invest in technology and equipment, and change mine transportation to automation, which reflects the value of the system." said Toshio Kurokawa, general manager of the marketing department of Komatsu's mining division. "We are very happy to help users save hundreds of millions of dollars. U.S. dollars, another billion tons of minerals were transported in a zero-harm, automated way. We are also honored that automated transportation can mitigate the risks associated with the global Covid-19 epidemic."
In the FrontRunner system, manned equipment (such as loaders, bulldozers, motor graders, small vehicles, etc.) can seamlessly interact with automated trucks. Komatsu's recently launched system can use both manned trucks and automated trucks in the fleet. In order to further support the development of customers' automated mining, Komatsu is leading the development of Komatsu and non-Komatsu automated truck interoperability standards within ISO (International Organization for Standardization).
