An Automation Journey (4:22min)

RCT’s autonomous technology solution for surface-based mobile mining equipment is taking shape thanks to the hard work and innovation of some of our brightest minds from across the company.

The new solution forms the next major step in our autonomous technology offering for global mining companies, who for decades now have benefitted from our Line-of-Sight, Teleremote and autonomous underground technologies.

The autonomous package has been fitted onto a Polaris ATV which is being used as a testbed for our collection of LIDAR, GPS and data technologies.

The work is being spearheaded by Kevin Winchester for Product Management, Tom Egling from PoCWorks and Jayden Rickert from Operational Technologies. Head of Product Management Brendon Cullen says the Polaris will showcase the solution to clients.

“Going forward, we can easily demonstrate the Polaris’ capabilities and show that our technology integrates with a battery electric vehicle, which is an area of interest for many mining companies.”

“We can put the Polaris through its paces locally and test scenarios and access data without having to access a mine so testing on a smaller, more compact vehicle it is a lot more beneficial for our workflow.”

Brendon said they are developing the solution to integrate with dozers and wheel loaders to suit niche applications, with the first dozer solution to be deployed within a year.

“By rolling out this technology on a mine our clients will start to see enhanced fleet activities and improved productivity whereas our LOS and Teleremote solutions were more focused on safety improvements.”