Israeli aerospace giant partners with Australian firm to build autonomous mining fleet
In the near future, fleets of autonomous trucks and bulldozers will work at mining sites in Australia, communicating with one another and with control stations as they move raw materials and conduct heavy earth work.
The vehicles will use technology provided by Israel
Aerospace Industries (IAI), which announced at the end of September a new joint
venture with Australian logistics and materials company, Bis Industries.
Together, the two companies founded a joint venture called
Auto-Mate, which will provide autonomous systems for the mining industry.
"The idea is to convert existing vehicles into
autonomous platforms," Elad Abbo, vice president of strategy and product
at Auto-mate, and a former deputy manager of robotics at IAI-Elta, said.
"We are talking about networks of vehicles linked by a
data system to control centers that plans their missions, tracks them and
conducts debriefings, if necessary," said Abbo.
According to an official statement, Auto-Mate combines the
"demonstrated operational experience of Bis in the mining sector with
IAI's industry-leading in autonomous technologies."
IAI, Israel's largest defense company, has been developing
and deploying autonomous and robotic vehicles for the air, sea and land for
more than 40 years. Bis has been delivering logistics and equipment solutions
to mining customers for more than a century.
"The organizing principle of this initiative is to
connect the two groups – each with their relative advantage in their fields –
to develop and market autonomous capabilities in the mining world," said
Abbo.
IAI's subsidiary, Elta, has been developing autonomous
off-road vehicles for more than 15 years. Although the mining world has seen
driverless vehicles supplied by civilian car-makers, IAI's advantage lies in
its ability to turn existing vehicles into fully autonomous ones, explained
Abbo.
The technology can be installed on any range of light
vehicles, trucks and bulldozers, he said, while new capabilities, such as
cameras, LiDARs and radars, can be plugged in as the industry evolves. "We
understand this field of autonomous mining vehicles is up and running already –
our goal is to optimize it," he said. "An additional application will
be with bulldozers, and here we have lots of experience at Elta with dozing
vehicles that not only conduct themselves autonomously but also know how to do
earth work. Once we introduce autonomous bulldozers, we will be global pioneers
in this area."
Abbo explained that autonomous vehicles are easier to run in
controlled environments like a mining area, compared to confined, dense areas
like roads. He added that the new technology would design optimal routes for
the vehicles to travel on, creating fuel savings and boosting safety.
'We will try to replicate this success elsewhere'
The latest joint venture is only one of many examples of
IAI's long-standing commercial relationship with Australia.
Rafi Stoffman, IAI's vice president of corporate marketing
for Asia and the Pacific, said that IAI has been active down under since the
mid-1980s with the majority of the company's activities focused on the military
domain.
This activity was facilitated by the fact that the Royal
Australian Air Force operated fleets of jets that were also in service in the
Israeli Air Force, such as Mirage jets, and had the same refueling aircraft.
"During those years, the scope of deals reached an
accumulative sum of a billion dollars. Most of our activities were in defense,
but we also tried to do quite a bit of civilian activity," said Stoffman.
More recently, IAI decided to take military technology in
robotics and offer it to the civilian Australian market, resulting in the
partnership on mining vehicles.
"We want to leverage the civilian sphere in Australia,
and, of course, we will try to replicate this success elsewhere," said
Stoffman.
In the past, IAI also received contracts for high-level
avionics works on aging planes, extending the range of Australia's fighter
jets, and turning aging Boeing 707 planes into refueling aircraft for the Royal
Australian Air Force (these planes are no longer in service following an
Australian decision to modernize its refueling aircraft).
Australia also leased Heron drones from IAI, which it
deployed to Afghanistan to assist its armed forces during the years that they
were active there.
The Israeli and Australian defense establishments enjoy a
good relationship – a fact that was reflected in 2019 when the Israeli Defense
Ministry's Head of Policy Bureau, Zohar Palti, led a delegation to Australia,
for the second iteration of the Australia-Israel Strategic Policy Dialogue. The
Israeli delegation met with senior officials from the Australian defense
establishment.
In 2017, former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull
visited Israel.
Stoffman pointed out that since 2019, Australia has
stationed a permanent defense attaché in Israel, which further upgraded
bilateral defense ties and trust, and made it easier for IAI to receive export
licenses to share its technology with Australia.
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