Autonomous Haul Trucks in the Canadian Oil Sands

not waving back [Music] I don't know if it's so good image it was not uh Glory hello and welcome back to the Vlog today we are still north of Fort McMurray with Suncor however there's one small difference between today and the Millennium mine we visited yesterday and that is because this is the extension part of the Mind the newer part of the mind that's a shovel 4100 we just saw those yesterday but the difference is the trucks that is because the trucks are all fully autonomous they've been running autonomous here since 2016 for years now they have over 30 autonomous trucks floating around here we just drove by a bunch on our way up here the reason why there's no trucks behind us now is this Dozer right here is knocking down this sand that was just brought in to provide this shovel with a stable area to work in once that Dozer is out of there the trucks are going to start coming in here there's no driver they're being run by computers now that's not to say there's a lot of people that are required to make this operation run like that dozer operator that shovel operator that blade operator the fuel trucks but the trucks themselves they're Komatsu 930s and 980s are entirely autonomous running 24 hours a day seven days a week only stopping for fuel and maintenance Wild [Applause] [Music] so to give everybody a little bit of History autonomous mining trucks are uh far further along in a lot of ways than autonomous cars or on-road trucks because they've been around for a long time so Komatsu the funny thing was they said Komatsu doesn't you don't really go to Komatsu and say we want to be in autonomous mine Komatsu comes to you so first place Komatsu started to automate was down in Chile and that's because there's little rain it's hard rock the ground conditions are pretty consistent then they took it to Australia Western Australia the iron ore range where again the conditions are for the most part consistent if you have consistent conditions the trucks do really well then the next natural part to automate the next natural location to choose was Fort McMurray the only challenge with Fort McMurray is the ground conditions right now you can have slick conditions with the ice in the summer you can have soft and wet condition but they haven't had any problems with these trucks they've got it so dialed in that that truck can if it's slipping for example to test it took a water truck and intentionally made a bunch of ice and that truck once it starts slipping it can identify faster than a human can identify that it is slipping and it'll stop slow down do what it needs to do to adjust [Music] uh a major difference out here compared to the mine we're at yesterday with manned Vehicles is the Hall Roads the hall roads are much wider and they are much more smooth to run the autonomous trucks efficiently you need to have more Hall Road maintenance so there's a lot of blades out here they're dropping a lot of gravel on all these roads they're beautiful they're very smooth now behind me is the shovel the shovel is run by an operator that shovel controls where the trucks go so the shovel will go over to one pocket and will basically on the computer say this is where I want the truck to be and then he'll go over swing onto the other side [Applause] he'll swing on the other side and say this is where I want this truck to be so as they're working on their face the truck the autonomous truck will come in back up exactly where that chub wants to be they'll load once that truck is loaded the truck will then go to the crusher fully autonomously and here we have a truck coming in right now [Music] [Music] [Music] okay we're at the second location where we're checking out another p h 4100 and behind me is of course a a Komatsu pc8000 a big big shovel we couldn't get out of the bus we just pulled up these are again autonomous trucks so that there is no driver in that truck behind me getting loaded right now we couldn't get out of the bus because this guy right here in this pickup truck had to essentially draw a line around where we're standing right now which tells the autonomous trucks hey that's now the boundary that autonomous truck cannot drive here and if for whatever reason it did not register that boundary which isn't really possible but if it didn't then you have an obstacle detection system that says hey there's an obstacle here you need to stop and if that wasn't going we have the red button to shut everything down override all the systems but because he drew this little line around us those trucks can't get where I'm standing right now [Music] hey chase you have my audio can we put the stats to that pc8000 on the screen right here okay yeah cool thanks man [Music] foreign we started the day up at the loading areas we saw the p h shovels that pc8000 loading the Komatsu 930s and 980s now this is a previously mined area that's being filled back up for the sake of reclamation So within I don't know maybe a decade or so this whole area will be filled it'll be replanted it'll essentially be back to a boreal forest but for now it's this Dump location so the trucks the dispatch at that Central facility will tell the trucks what shovels they're going to and then what dumps they're going to there's multiple dumps here this is one dump the trucks will come in here and then that Dozer is who controls this dump area so that Dozer sets the boundary says here's where the trucks are going to be dumping and then the trucks will automatically come in here it backs right up perfect every single time and then that Dozer can clean up the dump for the next trucks to come in here so that is I guess my best explanation as far as this is concerned one thing I did learn about there goes another truck one thing I did find interesting is these trucks are extraordinarily accurate so when they back in to either side of a shovel they can get it within a quarter of an inch and it's the same thing with the duplication if they the Dozer says I want you to dump here dumps exactly there every single time there's no real discrepancy [Music] so in here we have more trucks but here is a 797 they run both Komatsu and Cat Here primarily Komatsu but they also have to maintain these big boys [Music] that's amazing it's like a it's like a whole hallway all the way back where the engine's supposed to go look at that oh wow yeah we've seen a lot of trucks out and about but this is where all of those trucks come to get maintained or fixed nursed back to health so that the key they can keep hauling as much material Around the Clock as possible right behind me is the engine for a 980 Komatsu truck they also have the smaller 930 that's right behind chase this engine is about to go into this truck so this shop will do anything from preventative maintenance basic oil changes changing out filters hoses that kind of thing two major work like hey we need to replace the engine in this truck so this is what it takes all of this infrastructure is to maintain these trucks from the non-stop abuse they get out in the field from the slippery wet conditions to the brutal cold to the really hot part of the summer these trucks put up with a lot and all of these mechanics around here are the ones in charge of making them work as much as possible Big Shot Big Shot [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] this is what our guy cat needed the other day because he was using his hands I'm like nah you need one of these lights that are dark side Aaron uh I'm I'm more of a Luke Skywalker kind of guy oh that was a pleasant surprise highlight of my day [Music] we can talk about the robot truck this is another Komatsu 980 but this is one of the autonomous trucks you can tell it's not all that different looking from the manned 980s the biggest differences is the radar lidar system up front for object detection to figure out where that truck needs to go and then it has the antennas up there both sides for positioning to make sure the truck can drive accurately as it goes along but otherwise this is a pretty standard machine you can even get up in that cab and drive it man if you'd like to doesn't always have to be remote but that is what one of those autonomous trucks trucks looks like up close yeah how long does a PM typically take that's a great question let's let's ask Steve let's ask Steve when you ask Gary you're in Boston so logistically it's the fastest we could do it with electricians SMS Cummins all in one day if we could plan it all so they're all ready to go one shift one shift we can move it over how much oil is in one of these um five liters these are over 200 290 to it varies how often do you have to change out the oil uh we checked the oil every every time they basically fuel it up so this would be every other day or every day so these trucks are in the shop quite a few times in a one-year period because you're put I mean how many hours a year and you're putting on like five six thousand yeah they're about a every six months about a thousand hours yes yeah and operators on their walk around so generally they'll spot any leaks any big leaks they'll report that sweet a lot going on around here it's like the box of a 400 ton truck looks like it's big [Music] yeah this is pretty cool you can see on the screens what's being done yeah [Music] whoa whoa what do you think that's in reference to no more yogurt [Music] yogurt is banned we heard a story last night about there are these trucks the autonomous trucks kept stopping and they couldn't figure out what the heck it was they'd walk out onto the Hall Road they find a little yogurt lid that was being picked up by the sensors so the yogurt that the truck would see the yogurt lid and just stop and they wouldn't know what the heck was doing it that's all it took so no more yogurt no more yogurt oh this is a this is carrying Petco so where we were with Morgan the last time we were here with the petroleum Coke that's what this material is that's what this this thing calls and so you can see here as well yeah so since it it carries pet Coke which is a much lighter material it's very very light it's like pumice stone almost here is where the factory bed ends so if you're hauling dirt or Rock The 100 ton truck that's where it ends but you can see all of this is built upon the top rail of the factory bed so that they can haul way more material because you can shove this thing as full as you want with that Petco and you're still not going to overload the truck how does that guy have four arms that's what happens when you uh microwave your meals too many times over that's terrifying it's so scary and with that that's it for this job [Music] chase the tracks could belong to um the Canadian toad did those look like Canadian tow trucks no no um mule deer mule deer tracks uh Fox track timber wolves this is the wapasu lookout at the Sun Core bass mine you'll see in the footage it is absolutely beautiful land and what this was decades ago was actually the very first tanlings pond at this mine so what a tailings Pond is is the oil sand is mined it's Dropped In The Crusher it goes into processing it's mixed with hot water the hot water separates the oil from the sand rock clay silt whatever that is uh whatever waste material there is then that material so the oil goes into processing all of that is then pumped into this pond so they build a dike around the pond and they pump the material out and it builds up over time builds up builds up builds up they can only build it to a certain elevation and then they must go elsewhere this area was mined out they went across the river now they're on the other side where we were yesterday but once it's done they let the water drain off they cover the entire area with a huge amount of clay and then topsoil and then they're able to plant all of the trees and the oats and all the different Native grasses along here this is the very first reclaimed oil sand mining pond in the entire area so this is a really big deal it's been here for a while so you can see the trees are starting to grow up but in another 10 20 years this will be absolutely beautiful it'll be just like how it was when they found it this goes to show we've seen a lot of amazing things we've seen the shovels we've talked to the people we've seen the robot trucks but this goes to show that we can humans can extract the resources we need from the earth the oil whatever else it is that keeps everyday Society moving and then leave the environment the way we found it if not better than we found it this is amazing this goes to show how much um just effort and energy and thought miners in today's world 2023 put in to making sure that they're doing it in the right way I have heard about this wapasu Lookout from many people not just the sun corn people someone texted me today works out here he said you need to go to the wapasu lookout people don't see this but this is what we leave behind when we're done and it's gorgeous so the pride the beauty very cool [Music]

Channel: Aaron Witt

Views: 147,820

Keywords: Aaron Witt, Aaron Witt Vlog, Vlogger, Construction, BuildWitt, Construction Vlog, Cat, Cat Equipment, Dirt Vlog, Heavy Equipment, BuildWitt Vlog, Canada

Id: _Z9w-mUoUsY

Length: 19min 56sec (1196 seconds)

Published: Tue May 23 2023