US construction and mining machinery giant Caterpillar says a successful demonstration of a fully autonomous 90-tonne-payload dump truck for leading American family-owned quarry operator Luck Stone is a “significant milestone” in its bid to deliver a commercial autonomous hauling solution for the country’s circa-US$35 billion quarry and aggregates sector.
“This successful deployment of machinery and technology highlights the progress being made between Caterpillar and Luck Stone, the largest family-owned and operated producer of crushed stone, sand and gravel in the United States,” Caterpillar said.
“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 [90t-class) Cat 777.
“This achievement lays the foundation for ongoing testing and validation of assumptions and technology before making autonomous technology commercially available in the aggregates industry.”
Luck Stone and Caterpillar signed a deal at the end of 2022 to accelerate development of truck fleet autonomy at the former’s Bull Run operation in Chantilly, Virginia.
Caterpillar says its autonomous mine trucks have moved more than 8.62 billion tonnes of material and travelled more than 325 million kilometres on three continents.
