A 5G pilot zone has been deployed for the first time at a open-pit mine in Khakassia, Russia to test the potential of 5G as part of an autonomous haulage system developed by Zyfra, Finnish-Russian industrial digitalization leader.
The pilot project is trialed on 130 tons autonomous mining dump trucks. Robotic dump trucks are part of the Zyfra Intelligent Mine system, which is aimed at providing efficient, safe and completely unmanned mining technologies based on robotics, industrial artificial intelligence (AI) and internet of things (IoT).
Part of the wireless 5G network, with a length of 1.5 km covering the robots’ route, has been deployed on Huawei equipment with a view to performing the tests at the open-pit mine. The cover is provided by two 5G distributed two-section base transceiver stations (gNodeB), operating in non-standalone mode. The width of the operating channel is 100 MHz.
The main task of the pilot project is to test 5G networks for unmanned and remote-control transport, as well as to reveal and document the technological advantages of the latest-generation of mobile network over an industrial WiFi/MESH network.
The whole functionality of the robotic center was utilized as part of the 5G technology tests. All video streams from high resolution cameras, which are mounted along the dump trucks perimeter, are received by the information processing center for real-time equipment control.
Pavel Rastopshin, Managing Director, Zyfra
Robotic dump trucks allow for a significant increase in freight transport production rates (up to 30 %) thanks to a reduction in non-technological downtimes related to human factors (shift changes, lunchtime, etc.), an increase in the average speed of robotic dump trucks during travel and thus an increase in the number of movements per shift (by approximately 20 %).
Aiden U, CEO of Huawei Eurosia
The presentation of remote mining machines, operating through 5G, allows us to automate the most dangerous tasks in this industry. This will significantly increase efficiency and safety in the industry.
