California-based Wind River is working with Chinese smart mining solutions provider Beijing Tage Idriver Technology Company on a software platform for autonomous mining vehicles for open-pit mining.
The mining industry has been an early adopter of autonomous vehicles and machinery to improve safety, increase productivity, and save costs. Wind River is developing edge software for control of Tage Idriver’s new open-pit haulage system. The joint solution will protect workers and improve efficiencies, the pair have said.
Tage Idriver’s haulage system relies on an edge to cloud architecture, including an intelligent cloud platform, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) telematics, and intelligent autonomous mining vehicle.
The software platform utilises Wind River’s VxWorks real-time operating system (RTOS) and Tage Idriver’s central control unit (CCU) core algorithm module. The CCU in the domain controller is responsible for the implementation of core functions of autonomous mining vehicles, such as motion planning, vehicle control, and fault diagnosis.
These have stringent requirements around the security, safety, and reliability of a system’s operation, as well as for real-time performance and deterministic task execution and switching. Wind River claims “the highest levels of security, safety, reliability, and performance” for the system.
Wind River and Tage Idriver said they will work on development environments and functional safety certifications to launch practical products and solutions. The pair will also develop infrastructure software for next-generation mine vehicles, including high-performance computing, V2X between vehicles and infrastructure, and secure over-the-air (OTA) update technologies.
Huang Liming, chief technology officer at Tage Idriver, said: “The open-pit mining industry has massive potential around the globe, and this collaboration brings together best-in-class technology and expertise that is paving the way for next-generation mining vehicles.”
Gareth Noyes, senior vice president of products at Wind River. said: “As the autonomous world becomes more and more of a reality, the design, development, and deployment of mission-critical systems will only increase in importance, especially when we have the opportunity to drastically increase the safety of mining workers.”
