Rajant wireless tech for Komatsu haul trucks

Rajant Corp's Kinetic Mesh networks have recently been certified to provide the reliable connection needed for both Komatsu's FrontRunner Autonomous Haulage Solution and Epiroc's semi-autonomous and autonomous drills being deployed at mines around the world.

Ordinarily, wireless networks require fixed infrastructure that covers a set range.

Many iterations of technologies have attempted to overcome the lacking "mobility" of wireless network connectivity for industrial applications such as mining. Rajant's Kinetic Mesh fills in the blanks with a network that goes beyond being mobile – it is all-encompassing.

"Unlike other wireless networks that are dependent on fixed infrastructure, Rajant mobile BreadCrumbs can communicate with each other allowing machines to interconnect which adds additional layers of connectivity and redundancy while Rajant networking software InstaMesh is self-optimizing to overcome the constant environmental changes, data loads, interference, and on-the-move requirements of modern mines," said Epiroc Vice President of Integration Brian Doffing, during a news release announcing the company's successful validation of Rajant's wireless tech for its line of autonomous and semi-autonomous drills.

Essentially, Rajant's wireless tech works by creating a spiderweb of relay points between each device and finds the optimal connection path between them.

For example, imagine every wireless-capable device in your home, if you could get a stronger signal in the office from the television instead of the router and each device could piggyback to one another to provide the strongest link – that is Rajant's Kinetic Mesh technology.

While a little more complicated than a home office, Komatsu's FrontRunner AHS uses a wealth of onboard technology and requires continuous, reliable wireless communication with central command.

"Reliable communications networks that offer continuous mobile connectivity are crucial to successful autonomous haulage operations," said David Haukeness, Komatsu's product manager for autonomous systems. "Rajant's low-latency Kinetic Mesh and support for LTE and WiFi make their network a key part of our efforts to help our customers achieve their autonomous goals."

As Rajant has already been co-deployed on various Komatsu mining equipment in more than 100 mines globally, it was a small leap to support the company's growing autonomous solutions.

For both Komatsu and Epiroc, a network that can reliably control each device without any loss of connectivity is mission critical – Rajant's Kinetic Mesh network is a certified solution.