SANY Developing Autonomous Mining Equipment

SANY is currently testing autonomous operation of SKT90E mining trucks in coordination with a 5G controlled excavator.

July 13, 2020

SANY Heavy Equipment is focusing on the development of unmanned surface mining equipment, well mining equipment, deployment system, and cloud platform.

On June 11, two units of electric unmanned SKT90E wide-body mining trucks successfully realized the connection and coordination with a 5G controlled excavator and cloud deployment in place of operators in a dangerous condition, which creates a safer and more efficient unmanned operation model.

These two SKT90E wide-body mining trucks demonstrated high-level environmental identification and positioning capacity. They can conduct timely decision making and accurate route planning in the field. The deviation of the horizontal control of the unmanned operation can be kept under 30 cm. The truck can independently complete route-tracking, load and unload of materials, and parking.

The adoption of an electric power system of this mining truck solves the potential fuel shortage in the environment at high altitudes and the unmanned driving technology makes the operation safer in the landslide-stricken area.

What makes the unmanned driving technology stand out

With the support of an integration of multiple sensing technologies including millimeter-wave radar, laser radar, and visual sensor, the truck can conduct the scanning and tracking of obstacles within 150 m and it can also implement distance ranging and identification within 100 m in response to different weathers in different seasons.

Use of accurate positioning technologies include:

GNSSRTK centimeter-level inertial navigation system
Real-time three-dimensional scanning to locate and map
Precise positioning of specifically targeted space

Intelligent decision-making is achieved via:

Automatic creation of the three-dimensional map of routes in the mine with laser radar
Route planning
Independent obstacle avoidance and track-followed driving
Optimization of driving routes with dynamic simulation

In face of the deep engagement of intelligent technologies with the mining industry, SANY will keep making efforts to improve its solutions with the focus on intelligent and unmanned technologies to help customers ensure a safer work environment and keep the efficiency up but cost down.