MINSK, 10 April (BelTA) – Two robot trucks made by the Belarusian automobile engineering company BelAZ are being tested in the Abakansky open pit in the Republic of Khakassia, Russia, BelTA has learned.
The 130-tonne BelAZ-7513R trucks were shipped to Khakassia in early 2019. There are plans to solemnly commission the vehicles in August.
BelAZ and VIST Group developed the first remotely operated haul truck in 2010. The operator's workstation fully resembled the truck's driver cab. The vehicle represented an important step on the way to creating a robot haul truck. In 2018 BelAZ and VIST Group finished a series of projects to make the fully autonomous truck BelAZ-7513R.
The robot haul truck BelAZ 7513R can be used in a command mode, a remote operation mode, and an autonomous mode as part of robotized mining systems.
The company intends to automate loading operations as much as possible by adding the robot loader BelAZ-78250 into the mix. The robot loader can make a 3D model of the rock to mine, determine the sequence of actions, and correlate its movements with the haul truck's position. The remote operator will only have to provide expert direction early on and intervene in special situations. The approach allows one operator to run three to five robot trucks.
Based in Zhodino, Minsk Oblast, the public joint-stock company (OAO) BelAZ is the world's leading manufacturer of haul trucks with a large carrying capacity and an extremely large carrying capacity. The company also makes other kinds of heavy transport vehicles for the mining industry and the civil engineering industry.
