REMOTE CONTROL EQUIPMENT FINALLY GOES TO MARKET
Editorial feature by Harold Hough   

            The promise of remote controlled heavy equipment has been made more often than many political promises.  The technology has been available for years, but the “commercially available” date keep getting pushed back.
            However, Caterpillar has finally put a stand alone, remote controlled piece of heavy equipment on the market.  The Integrated Remote Control Track Type Tractor is now available and offers remote control of a dozer type of equipment from a remote location that is in the line of sight of the equipment.  The controls are portable and are easily carried by an operator as they move around the site.  The system was shown to the mining community in October 2010 at Cat’s training facility in Tucson, AZ.
            Not only can Cat equipment be purchased with the remote control capability, it can be easily be retrofitted. 
            Remote controlled heavy equipment offers many safety advantages.  The equipment can be sent to unstable slopes, where slides are a constant risk to the operator.  The equipment can then be used to make the slope safer.  The equipment can also be used in environments that might easily tire an operator or pose other environmental risks.
            But the road to remote controlled equipment and autonomous equipment hasn’t been an easy one.  Miners aren’t comfortable with several tons of iron rolling down a track without a human in the loop.  Nor are they comfortable with an operator behind a control panel some distance away.
            However, there are some productivity advantages to autonomous equipment.  They always run in the right gear and never go too fast or slow, which allows for the best fuel mileage and lowest wear on the equipment.  And, when running several pieces of multi million dollar equipment, that can add up.   
            Cat has developed the remote control and autonomous systems through its MINEGEM system for semi-autonomous operation of load-haul-dump machines. The system enables the machine to autonomously steer during the hauling and return portions of the production cycle. The operator takes control during the loading and dumping portions of the cycle.
            Cat also was actively involved in military programs to develop smart, autonomous  vehicles that could maneuver safely around a course.  This, in turn, has given them the technology and experience to bring to their heavy equipment design.
            One area of concern has been object avoidance.  Needless to say, it was critical to prevent remote controlled or autonomous equipment from running over people or other vehicles.  At the same time, since this is one of the biggest safety risks for manned heavy equipment, developing a system would not only be a step forward to taking the operator out of some equipment, it would also help make manned equipment safer.
            This has led to Cat’s Integrated Object Detection System, which aids the operator’s awareness of his surroundings by providing information about objects around the truck.  It combines cameras, radar, and alarms to warn the operator when an object is close to the machine, and not in the operator's field of vision. There is a display screen in the cab show the objects detected by radar, four cameras are always on to help the operator keep an eye on blind spots.
            Radars detect objects during critical machine movements.  It activates during an initial forward travel of 20 meters or a speed threshold set by the mining operation.  It is always on during reverse travel.  The system also reactivates when machine has come to a stop for the configured time period or transmission neutral.
            All of this technology is leading up to more autonomous heavy equipment.  Cat currently offers autonomous drilling on its Aquila Drill system.  But the concept of autonomous haulage trucks going around a mine is closer than ever before.  Cat is testing the equipment now and sees commercial sales beginning in 2012 (just in time for the next MINEXPO).  Cat officials see a major market as mine operators realize the safety and productivity advantages of this new technology.