EACON hits autonomous haulage milestone in Australia
EACON hits autonomous haulage milestone in Australia
A retrofitted Komatsu HD1500 haul truck has successfully completed its first fully autonomous haulage test cycle at Norton Gold Fields' Mulgarrie mine in WA.The achievement is part of a tri-partite project between EACON Mining Technology, Thiess and Norton Gold Fields, confirming the successful retrofit of autonomy on Komatsu trucks.Prior to the retrofit, the truck had about 20,000 operating hours and was elected as part of the project to broaden asset life.Following a structured series of testing and validation activities, the retrofitted truck, named Jerry, has met the criteria to operate fully autonomously, demonstrating the maturity of EACON's complete autonomous driving system under Australian operating conditions.The first phase of the project demonstrated reliable integration of EACON's independently developed drive-by-wire retrofit kit, consistent vehicle behaviour under autonomous control and effective tuning of control algorithms to match the truck's native operating characteristics.Comprehensive system-level validation was completed across perception, planning, decision-making and vehicle control, confirming the system's readiness for continued on-site testing and subsequent project phases.EACON Mining Australia chief operating officer Elaine Jin says the milestone reflects disciplined execution and close collaboration across all project partners."Achieving this milestone safely and on schedule validates the maturity of our ORCASTRA system, its adaptability to the Australian mining environment and its proven performance on large scale rigid dump trucks,” she said.Thiess assets and autonomy group executive Ryan Kirkwood says the global mining services provider was proud to work in partnership with EACON and Norton Gold Fields to demonstrate how autonomy could be introduced safely across mixed, brownfield fleets."Thiess has implemented, operated and optimised autonomous solutions for haulage fleets, dozer and drill applications globally for close to 15 years,” he said.“We're pleased to bring our experience to this project to support change management and implementation processes, from commissioning through to successful maintenance with our workforce of the future."Supporting fleet expansion and further validation activities, a second Komatsu HD1500 truck, Tom, has also recently completed retrofit works and is making its way to the Mulgarrie site.Norton Gold Fields chief executive Wei Lin says the milestone demonstrates the potential for retrofit autonomous haulage to be safely introduced into active Australian gold mining operations.“The project has progressed in a structured and measured way, with safety and operational readiness at the forefront,” he said.By enabling autonomy across multiple vehicle brands and models, EACON's open, OEM-agnostic autonomy solution provides a practical pathway for upgrading existing mining fleets and facilitates the transition of autonomous haulage from greenfield deployments to scalable brownfield and retrofit operations.
