Caterpillar exceeds 3B tons autonomously

Caterpillar Inc. recently surpassed an initial three billion tons of material hauled using its MineStar Command autonomous haulage system fleets.

As a milestone for CAT and autonomous industrial technologies in general, this incredible achievement is a true testament to the potential and growth autonomy has for industrial sectors.

"Since surpassing the 2 billion ton milestone, we've equipped more mines with Command trucks and have established the world's first gold mining application with Command for hauling," said Cat MineStar Solutions Director Jim Hawkins. "Since surpassing 1 billion tons, we've expanded our Command fleet by nearly 250%."

Caterpillar Command autonomous haulage fleets now operate across three continents – North America, South America, and Australia – at 17 mine locations and are utilized by nine different clients.

Materials mined using CAT Command include iron, oil sands, copper, coal, and gold.

The recent achievement is due mainly to the expansion of the types of material commodities hauled in the first place, matched by the significant growth of the number of CAT mining truck class sizes and other brands of mining equipment.

Command hauling trucks now span class sizes from 190–360 tons, including the 789D, 793D, 793F, 797F, and the 297 t 794 AC with electric drive.

Customers using Command for hauling have reported significant gains in productivity, up to 30%, and truck utilization rates with lower costs per metric ton.

"We continue to decrease the time between our major milestone targets because, from initial contract to full deployment, we constantly improve Command implementation efficiency," said Caterpillar Resource Industries Vice President Marc Cameron. "Consistent with previous milestone trends, we anticipate crossing the 4 billion ton threshold at even a faster pace than achieving 3 billion tons."