Caterpillar has successfully demonstrated the fully autonomous operation of its Cat 777 off-highway truck. The debut of this latest model of Cat MineStar Command for hauling at Luck Stone’s Bull Run plant in Chantilly, VA., marks a significant milestone in Caterpillar’s progress in the goal to deliver an autonomous hauling solution for the quarry and aggregates sector.
Luck Stone, the largest family-owned and operated producer of crushed stone, sand, and gravel in the U.S., announced an agreement with Caterpillar in 2022 to accelerate the development of Caterpillar’s autonomous solutions for quarry and aggregate applications.
Expanding Caterpillars’s autonomous truck fleet
This marks Caterpillar’s first deployment of autonomous technology in the aggregates industry and will expand the company’s autonomous truck fleet to include the 100-ton-class (90-tonne-class) Cat 777.
“Congratulations to both the Luck Stone and Caterpillar teams for this outstanding achievement. It’s meaningful not just for Bull Run operations, but for our customers of all sizes as we develop new technologies to serve the quarry and aggregates as well as construction industries,” says Denise Johnson, group president of Caterpillar’s Resource Industries. “This hands-on collaboration has accelerated our ability to scale our proven mining solution for this sector.”
Moving ahead autonomous equipment in quarries and mining worldwide
Caterpillar’s autonomous trucks have traveled more than 325 million kilometres on three continents, autonomously moving more than 8.62 billion tonnes. The current fleet of Caterpillar’s autonomous trucks with Command for hauling moves more tons per year worldwide than the total annual U.S. crushed stone production.
Some of the world’s largest mines are using Cat Command technology to achieve performance improvements. For two years, Caterpillar has been working with Luck Stone to build expertise in quarry operations, aiming to develop a system that is scalable and economically viable for customers across the quarry industry while also helping them to achieve a step change in safety and productivity.
The success of autonomous hauling at Bull Run plant marks the initial milestone in the collaboration between Caterpillar and Luck Stone. This achievement lays the foundation for ongoing testing and validation of assumptions and technology before making autonomous technology commercially available in the aggregates industry.
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