In 2025, it is not a castle in the air to realize unmanned transportation of open-pit coal mines
In recent years, the volume of the automatic driving track has been huge. When did this technology of hands free start to stop being a self starter in the industry and really come into the public's view, probably when Tesla's Model 3 was mass produced. In the emerging automatic driving industry, perhaps the most valuable thing is not how advanced its FSD technology is, but after a large number of middle-class people can buy Model 3 at a price of more than 200000 yuan, the automatic driving technology starts to give people a relatively intuitive concept.
This is related to the commercial application of the entire industry, so as to further promote the implementation of automatic driving scenario applications. This is also the fundamental reason why the capital market pays attention to the new track. If a technology can not form a balance between self cost and mass consumption, it will be meaningless.
In August of this year, the Ministry of Transport released the Guide to Transport Safety Services for autonomous vehicle (Trial) (Draft for Comments) (hereinafter referred to as the Guide) for public comments. The Guide aims to adapt to the development trend of automatic driving technology, encourage and standardize the application of autonomous vehicle in the field of transportation services, and further ensure the transportation safety of autonomous vehicle. Whether on the road or in commercial operation, "security" is an unavoidable topic.
Accidents often occur around automatic driving, and consumers become more cautious about the application of automatic driving technology in passenger vehicles. California even legislated to prohibit Tesla and other manufacturers from including words such as "automatic driving" in the advertising of intelligent driving. However, in fact, the key to the innocence of technology is to apply the appropriate technology to the appropriate scene in order to maximize its effectiveness at the moment.
01 Acceleration of the track in the unmanned mining area
In the automatic driving track, the relatively safe environment is undoubtedly the application scenario of closed sections such as mines, ports, specific parks and trunk logistics. Trucks and logistics vehicles with high-level automatic driving functions are being deployed more and more, and the landing of automatic driving technology in the field of trucks and other commercial vehicles is accelerating.
In 2020, the Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Intelligent Development of Coal Mines jointly issued by eight ministries and commissions set the development goal for automatic driving in the mine scene, that is, to achieve unmanned transportation in open pit coal mines by 2025, this goal is not a castle in the air. According to the 2022 Case Analysis Report of Benchmarking Enterprises in the "Ecosphere" of China's Automatic Driving Industry released by Yiou, many mining areas in China have started to use automatic driving mineral cards to complete the transportation chain. Traditional mine operation has many disadvantages, such as difficult recruitment, low efficiency, high cost, and potential safety hazards. The application of automatic driving in mining areas can reduce the possibility of accidents. So as to ensure the safety of personnel, improve production efficiency and save operating costs. At the same time, the mining area has the characteristics of closed unmanned, fixed line, low speed and point-to-point, which is one of the best scenarios for automatic driving landing.
In 2022, the track investment in the unmanned mining area will continue to grow and be very active. With the help of capital and the support of relevant policies, the driverless track in the mining area has achieved fruitful results. According to the statistics provided by the New Strategic Low Speed Unmanned Driving Industry Research Institute, so far this year, there are nearly 20 new unmanned driving landing projects in mining areas in China.
Not only China, but also the world. According to the data of GlobalData, as of May 2022, the number of driverless trucks operated worldwide will reach 1068, with an annual growth rate of 39%. The UK based data analysis company also predicts that by the end of 2025, the total number will exceed 1800 (70% more than the current level).
The increase is mainly from BHP Billiton, which plans to automate up to 500 transport trucks in its iron ore mines in Western Australia and coal mines in Queensland by 2023. Canadian Natural Resources and Suncor Energy also plan to add more than 100 driverless trucks to their oil sands mines by the end of 2025. Meanwhile, Anglo American's first driverless mining truck fleet has been deployed in its Quellaveco copper mine project. At present, there are 22 driverless trucks on site, and it is planned to have 27 driverless trucks by the second half of 2022. In the energy era, unmanned transformation of mines has already become a global issue.
02 Face the Market with Automation Mission
Looking back at China, the State owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the People's Republic of China (SASAC) issued relevant policies and vigorously promoted the transformation of low-carbon operations as a strategic direction being actively advocated by the country. On May 4, the People's Bank of China announced that it would increase the special refinancing line of 100 billion yuan to support the clean and efficient utilization of coal, which would be specifically used to support the development and use of coal and enhance the capacity of coal reserves, including the construction of smart mines, the application of green and efficient technologies, etc., to provide more capital reserves for the formation of smart mines.
However, at the market level, with the influence of epidemic situation and other factors, the economic situation in the second and third quarters of China continued to be sluggish. According to the financial statistics of the People's Bank of China, in July 2022, the increase in the scale of social financing in China was only 756.1 billion yuan, a decrease of 319.1 billion yuan over the same period last year, a new low in nearly six years. Although this trend rebounded in August and September, it is difficult to repair the severe damage to the market economy in a short time.
How to maintain the vitality of enterprises is an urgent research topic in recent years. In the automatic driving track of the mining area, scientific and technological innovation will undoubtedly become the first driving force. In September 2019, Datang International launched the "unmanned transportation project" in Baoli Coal Mine, becoming the first unmanned transportation project in mining areas in China. It started the first year of domestic smart mines. Up to now, the project has been put into normal production and operation for three years, with significant economic and social benefits.
In 2020, Huaneng Yimin Open pit Coal Mine officially launched the research and demonstration application project of key technologies for unmanned mining trucks, giving play to the production advantages of "coal electricity integration", and creating an all-weather unmanned driving project in complex climate regions. Through continuous technical implementation in the fields of electrification, automatic driving, intelligent dispatching, perceptual positioning, high-precision maps, etc., the project has realized the vehicle shovel alignment, autonomous navigation, autonomous unloading, active obstacle avoidance, unmanned driving at multi turnout intersections and complex road conditions, and accurate unloading in designated areas such as waste dump.
In the process of joint operation of the project, the transportation operation of Yimin Open pit Mine realizes the automatic process of "mining, transportation and drainage", which can realize the continuous operation of three shifts for 24 hours, and ensure that the automatic operation efficiency under all working conditions basically reaches the manual level. This is one of the first domestic cases of single car intelligent solutions facing mining scenarios, supported by ultra-high computing capacity and with machine learning capability. It is the first in China to realize hybrid operation of manned vehicles and unmanned vehicles without safety officers.
In September 2021, Dayan Company (Baori Hiler Energy) of the National Energy Group realized continuous 24-hour operation in the open-pit mining area, that is, the world's first extremely cold working condition 5G+220t driverless truck marshalling operation project, which successfully passed the industrial demonstration operation safety assessment and scientific and technological achievements appraisal of the China Coal Industry Association. The project has achieved two "first in the world" and three "first in China", filling many gaps in the unmanned technology field of mining equipment in extremely cold regions, and playing a leading role in relevant domestic fields.
With more and more pilot projects of unmanned mine cards on the road, the next step in the industry and the future are gradually clear. In the process of intelligent construction, China's coal mining technology level and coal machinery manufacturing capacity have also been improved.
03 Scale and commercialization
Buffett once said: "Only when the tide recedes, you will know that you are swimming naked." Eliminate short-term irrational market factors, and the tracks and enterprises that are really worth investing will emerge. Differentiation is one of the obstacles that enterprises cannot avoid. How to survive in the vast market, more comprehensive capabilities and "unique" enterprise characteristics are indispensable. Bora Technology, an automatic driving company dedicated to mining area scenes, has its differentiated competitiveness in the transformation of the wire control chassis of large mining cars and its electrification capability. Owning the chassis by wire transformation technology can not only avoid the problem of unclear rights and responsibilities when cooperating with suppliers, but also correspond the technology to the actual needs.
As a whole, China's coal resources are widely distributed and the coal seams are deeply buried. They are divided into open-pit mines and mine mines due to significant differences in mining methods. In terms of quantity, the mine accounts for as much as 80%, far more than the open pit mine. However, mining is relatively difficult, and the geological environment is more severe and complex. Therefore, at present, the automatic driving in the mining area is basically only used in the open pit mines that are easy to operate.
There is no shortage of pioneers in difficult environment. In 2020, Huituo began to deploy unmanned mine and completed the implementation and transformation of key technologies in more than a year. In September 2021, Huituo, the Xiaobaodang "5G+Smart Mining Area" jointly built by Xiaobaodang Coal Mine of Shaanxi Coal Mining Group and China Telecom passed the acceptance, becoming the only company in China that provides solutions for unmanned open-pit mining and unmanned mine transportation scenarios at the same time.
Experts from the acceptance team said that the project has made a number of key technical breakthroughs in the field of unmanned driving in mines and mines. Actively promote the intelligent transformation of the domestic underground auxiliary transportation system, help the transformation and upgrading of coal mine production, finally complete the smooth acceptance of the Xiaobaodang project, and open the further integration of the new generation of information technology and the coal industry, marking an active exploration of the coal industry in the field of industrial Internet, and the further implementation of the "mining industry Internet".
Reviewing the commercialization process of Huituo in the past year, the commercialization speed and scale capacity have been comprehensively accelerated, leading the industry. By the end of 2021, the total amount of commercial orders has reached 500 million yuan, and the repurchase rate has exceeded 70%, ranking first in the industry. Successful technology and product strength are indispensable for commercial delivery. In the process of independent research and development of the "parallel mine operating system", Huituo firmly combines the core technology breakthrough with the real scene needs to create the world's only full model, the only domestic multi mineral, and the whole scene adaptive intelligent mine operating platform - YUGONG, which has made a major breakthrough in the key core technology field of "choke".
It is precisely because of its mature technical solutions and a complete set of delivery processes that Huituo has delivered more than 300 driverless vehicles by the beginning of this year. Its comprehensive services include national energy group, Huaneng Group, State Power Investment Group, Datang Group, China Baowu, China Coal Group, Jinyu Group, China Resources Group and other top domestic energy groups and mining enterprises, with more than 30 mining areas.
Not only in the mining area environment, the automation of agriculture, logistics, aquaculture and other scenarios has become a model for future development. In the logistics industry, sorting, transportation and other links are in a semi closed scene, which has some common landing elements with mine automation, so it requires some theoretical opening and bridge building.
The commercialization of multiple scenarios has been tried in China. Guizhou Aerospace Tianma Company has cooperated in the logistics field of the park, using Tianma logistics vehicles as the scheduling platform to achieve action, real-time monitoring and comprehensive scheduling of logistics vehicles driven by task demands, and significantly improve operation safety and production efficiency. From the mine scene to the park logistics scene, the park logistics and intelligent network construction and other closed and semi closed scenes are extended for commercialization.
04 Technology goes to sea to feed ecology
The strength and prosperity of the country and the promotion of high-level opening up have laid a solid foundation for enterprises to "go global". As the combination of artificial intelligence, automatic driving and "unmanned mine", the field of unmanned driving in mining areas is deeply consistent with the national scientific and technological development and mining development strategy, and has been deeply concerned by the government, industry and capital market. Chinese mining enterprises have a wide distribution in overseas markets, especially in Australia, Africa, Latin America and other places, and most of them have started unmanned work, which provides a good opportunity for Chinese mining enterprises to go global.
Take the example of Ta Gezhi, who focuses on the unmanned transportation system in mining areas. Its current overseas mining area driverless projects, including a coal mine and an iron mine in Australia, a uranium mine and a copper mine in Africa, and a copper mine in South America, are all targeted at mature open-pit mining areas with high mining proportion and price. Similarly, Easy Control Smart Drive is also planning to start unmanned driving test and trial operation in Chinese funded mines in Australia in 2023; In 2025, it will start to cooperate with giants like Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton to conduct large-scale commercial operations. Later, he said he would explore the Canadian market.
With the acceleration of China's automatic driving process, the domestic unmanned driving technology level is no less than the international leading level, and even has achieved the industry's first in some fields. Targeting regions is important to maximize overseas effectiveness. In recent years, the country has continued to create a new pattern of high-level opening up, and promoted the opportunities and prosperity brought by the high-quality development of the "the Belt and Road". As an important region of global mineral resources, the Southeast Asian market with huge potential cannot be ignored. The local government has launched policies to actively support the development of mining industry, while looking forward to overseas cooperation. China has long-term friendship with other countries in the region, with solid cooperation foundation, low monopoly involvement and good prospects. Secondly, China is rich in mineral resources. In addition to the world's largest coal output, many mineral resources also rank first in the world. Finally, a strong mechanical equipment manufacturer and a complete supply chain system provide an important guarantee for the R&D of driverless vehicles.
In August this year, XCMG successfully delivered 60 70~90 ton mining excavators to Vietnam in the international market of mining machinery, and the machinery with "advanced technology and indestructible use" was widely praised overseas. With the promotion of 5G technology in Thailand and other countries along the "the Belt and Road", China's self-developed smart mine technology and services will also have broader application and expansion space overseas.
Recently, the signing ceremony of Thailand's first 5G+autonomous driving smart green mine project intention cooperation agreement was held in Bangkok, Thailand. Roongrot Rangsiyopash, CEO of Siam Cement Group (SCG), Somchai Lertsutiwong, CEO of Advanced Info Services Public Co., Ltd. (AIS), Liao Ye, President of Huawei, Thailand Professor Chen Long, CEO of Qingdao Huituo Intelligent Machine Co., Ltd., and Yu Zhiqiang, CEO of Zhengzhou Yutong Mining Equipment Co., Ltd. jointly signed a project intent cooperation agreement to jointly open a new chapter in the construction of green intelligent mines. The Thai enterprises participating in the project construction represent the advanced level of industry and communication in Southeast Asia. The successful cooperation of the project fully reflects the ecological ability of Chinese enterprises to cooperate in the sea, and is also an important achievement of China's advanced mine intelligent manufacturing technology ability "going global". This route will also help the intelligent development of China's large energy and mining central state-owned enterprises overseas, support the globalization of China's technology, and provide support for China's mining industry to win the global voice.
Back to the domestic autopilot ecology, autopilot, as the most critical part of travel in the new era, has brought great value and imagination to the society, and attracted a number of top talents to participate in it. Automatic driving has also become one of the hottest topics in the industry with the most discussion value. At present, autopilot is still limited by the difficulties and challenges of technology, supply chain, policy and so on. Relevant enterprises can promote the development of autopilot at a high speed by building an ecosystem.
The autonomous driving ecosystem is at the initial stage of construction, and enterprises are still growing in the process of integration and development. In the 2022 Case Analysis Report on Benchmark Enterprises in the "Ecosphere" of China's Automatic Driving Industry released by Yiou, it was emphasized that the integration and development of enterprises related to automatic driving had become inevitable. As more and more enterprises entered the ecosystem, the automatic driving ecosystem would usher in a development outbreak in the short term. It is the most important thing for the development of autonomous driving enterprises to find the right enterprise position, establish enterprise advantages and embrace the resources of the ecosystem, so as to jointly help China's autonomous driving industry and the sustainable innovation and development of the ecosystem construction.
