Komatsu says a new partnership with US$15 billion Silicon Valley vehicle intelligence firm Applied Intuition can lay a foundation for “mining machines that think, learn and evolve”.
Announced by Takuya Imayoshi, the president and CEO of Tokyo-headquartered construction and mining equipment manufacturer Komatsu, the “strategic technology collaboration” with Applied Intuition marks a new stage in the 30-year battle for supremacy in mining vehicle autonomy between Komatsu and major US rival Caterpillar.
They are currently running neck and neck as No.1 and 2 in global mining equipment supply and have been hoovering up mining technology firms, culminating in Caterpillar’s latest $735 million bid for Australia’s RPMGlobal.
Applied, which raised $600 million of equity funding at a $15 billion valuation in June this year, was described by the managing director of lead investor BlackRock, Samir Menon, as “key innovation leader” in the fast-growing vehicle autonomy market.
Qasar Younis, co-founder and CEO of Applied said at the time: “Applied Intuition is entering its next era. We’re scaling up our investments in bringing intelligence into every moving machine. Everything from cars and trucks to drones and factories will be powered by AI, and our mission is to connect AI with the physical world it will transform.”
The new partnership with Komatsu adds to a list of development accords with the world’s largest car and truck manufacturers. Younis said Applied’s first mining customer engagement was aimed at speeding the industry’s advance towards new productivity, safety, environmental and material supply goals.
“In a world where autonomy is becoming the norm our goal is to ensure our customers don’t just keep up—they lead,” he said. “The mining industry is one of the most regulated in the world and as the bar keeps rising around emissions, human safety and geopolitics, Applied Intuition and Komatsu plan to build the next generation of mining products and redefine modern software product development.”
Applied sees mining as a $1.6 billion vehicle autonomy market – with only about 3% of mine trucks running autonomously – that could grow to $12.6 billion by 2031.
It will work with Komatsu to build “the world’s largest software-defined vehicle (SDV) platform for mining” and an autonomy platform that will “serve as the central brain of Komatsu’s next generation of mining equipment”.
Komatsu says the collaboration can complement its FrontRunner and other current mining autonomy tech. “By embedding more intelligence directly onto each vehicle and enabling over-the-air updates, the new SDV platform will enhance capabilities for both autonomous and staffed operations,” the company says. “Customers should experience faster innovation cycles, improved interoperability and more site-specific adaptability.”
Komatsu mining division president and CEO of recently formed Komatsu Mining Technologies, Peter Salditt said the combination of the company’s deep mining expertise and Applied’s cutting-edge AI and SDV solutions could enable a future “where our equipment continuously evolves to meet customers’ unique mine site needs”.
“This collaboration advances Komatsu’s vision of a fully autonomous future for mining while helping to solve today’s pressing challenges,” he said. “As mineral demand increases alongside a decline in skilled labour entering the field, autonomy becomes an essential enabler of safer, more efficient and scalable operations.”
Komatsu recently said it was working with another Silicon Valley firm, Pronto, to deploy that company’s autonomous haulage technologies to quarry operations in the North American market.
Applied Intuition says traditional mining autonomous haulage systems were designed “with the safety case living in the fleet management system”.
“What that means is every vehicle in the autonomous operating zone needs to be connected to the fleet management system at all times. If any vehicle is disconnected for just a few seconds all autonomous trucks come to a stop.
“On-road [autonomy relies] on the safety case living on the vehicle with onboard vehicle intelligence. For example, Applied Intuition’s work on Isuzu’s level 4 autonomous truck can’t rely on every vehicle on the road being connected to a central system. The truck needs the onboard intelligence to safely operate onroad.
“Applied Intuition can leverage the work from automotive, trucking, and defence to develop the next generation autonomous haulage system with Komatsu.
“Mining can gain significantly from autonomy developments pioneered in the automotive industry.
“Innovation and autonomy aren’t optional – they’re essential. Mines that want to stay competitive, meet sustainability goals and protect their people need smarter technology.”
