A glimpse into the future of forestry is obtained by looking at new developments with autonomous machines in mining.
The new autonomous haulage vehicle will feature a cab-less structure. Unlike Komatsu’s 930E and 830E autonomous models, Komatsu has developed this vehicle exclusively as an unmanned vehicle designed to seize the advantages of unmanned operations. The market introduction will be in the near future. Komatsu is able to distribute equal loads to the four wheels both when the vehicle is loaded and unloaded, and by using four-wheel drive, a retarder and steering, Komatsu indicates that the end result will be high-performance shuttling of this vehicle in both forward and reverse travel directions, thereby totally eliminating the need for turning the vehicle at loading and unloading sites. Komatsu expects that this new vehicle will result in large productivity improvements at mines where existing unmanned haulage vehicles face challenging conditions, such as slippery ground due to frequent rain and snow fall as well as confined spaces for loading.
The new vehicle weighs 416 metric tonnes, has a payload of 230 metric tons and a gross power output of 2,014 kW (2,700 hp). It has a top speed of 64 km/hr (40 mi/hr). Komatsu commercialised their Autonomous Haulage System (AHS) in 2008. Since then AHS dump trucks have hauled over 1 billion tons (cumulative) of overburden and minerals at large-scale mines mainly in Chile and Australia. Komatsu is aggressively promoting remote control and unmanned machine operations to improve productivity and safety. Source: http://www.komatsu.com/CompanyInfo/press/2016092705594127458.html