Mining corporation Rio Tinto's AutoHaul, an autonomous rail system that has been in the development for several years has now become, entirely operational.
This accomplishment in the remote Pilbara region of Australia, Rio Tinto says makes the system the "world's largest robot." Rio Tinto has about 200 locomotives running on more than 1700 kilometres of track, which transport ore from its 16 mines to four Pilbara port terminals.
Every locomotive and line has been automated apart from the shorter Robe River line in the western Pilbara. The trains are controlled by the company's remote operations center in Perth.
"It's been a challenging journey to automate a rail network of this size and scale in a remote location like the Pilbara. But early results indicate significant potential to improve productivity, providing increased system flexibility and reducing bottlenecks." Rio Tinto's managing director Ivan Vella told the Sydney Morning Herald.
The ore-hauling train is just one part of an ambitious automation project involving robotics and driverless vehicles that Rio Tinto wants to use to automate its mining operations. The company conducted its first test of the train without a human on board last year, and it now claims that the system has completed more than a million kilometers (620,000 miles) of autonomous travel.
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