With the comprehensive promotion of intelligent and safe transformation of domestic mines, the traditional manual mining mode has many pain points such as high-risk operations, high labor costs, and limited nighttime construction. Building unmanned and clustered intelligent mining equipment has become the core direction of industry transformation. Recently, the intelligent project of a large open-pit coal mine in Northwest China has been successfully completed, and the unmanned excavator cluster tailored by XCMG mining machinery has been officially delivered and put into operation, marking the large-scale commercial landing of domestic independently controllable excavator unmanned operation technology and creating a replicable benchmark model for the digital construction of mines nationwide.
Multiple large tonnage intelligent mining equipment were invested in this mining area, all equipped with XCMG's self-developed 5G unmanned operation control system, breaking the software monopoly of foreign intelligent mining equipment. The entire system integrates multiple sensing devices such as laser radar, high-definition visual cameras, millimeter wave anti-collision radar, and high-precision positioning base stations. It can recognize mining piles, slopes, transportation vehicles, and on-site obstacles in real time, independently plan excavation routes, and automatically complete the full set of actions including shoveling, lifting, turning, and unloading. The positioning error of the operation does not exceed 5 centimeters, fully meeting the requirements of standardized loading vehicles in mines.
Compared to traditional manually driven excavators, the biggest advantage of unmanned equipment is to achieve uninterrupted production around the clock. The temperature difference between morning and evening in the mining area is large, and dust is severe. Traditional teams need to rotate in different time periods, and the efficiency of night mining is greatly reduced due to visual limitations; XCMG unmanned excavators are not restricted by light and dust environments, and can operate continuously 24 hours a day. The dispatch center staff only need remote monitoring and emergency intervention. Each mining area can reduce the number of frontline high-risk positions by tens of people every year, avoiding safety accidents such as slope collapse, rockfall, and heavy machinery collision from the source, greatly improving the level of mine safety production.
Multi machine collaborative scheduling is the core highlight of this intelligent solution. In the past, the mixed operation of multiple excavators and mining trucks in the mining area was prone to route conflicts, waiting for loading, and other losses. XCMG Intelligent Energy Cloud Platform can real-time link all excavation and transportation equipment in the field, automatically allocate loading points, plan traffic paths, dynamically adjust the operation rhythm of each equipment, and avoid ineffective losses such as empty load and congestion. Actual test data shows that the overall efficiency of earthwork transportation in the mining area has increased by 20%, the waiting time for vehicles has been reduced by 35%, and the daily discharge volume of a single excavator has significantly increased.
In view of the complex network environment of the mine, XCMG's technical team has customized and built a dedicated 5G special network for the mine area, which is equipped with edge computing terminals to complete the perception data calculation locally, so as to avoid the operation delay caused by network delay. Even in the slope area with weak signal, the equipment can also be operated offline for a short time to ensure uninterrupted mining. The whole machine retains three operation modes: manual, remote, and fully automatic, which can be flexibly switched according to construction needs, balancing intelligence and emergency flexibility.
Equipment operation and maintenance also achieve digital upgrading. Each unmanned excavator is equipped with hundreds of sensing components, which collect real-time data on power, hydraulic, battery, and structural component operation. The cloud system automatically analyzes the wear and tear status, pushes maintenance reminders and fault warnings in advance, and transforms post maintenance into predictive maintenance. The average fault free operation cycle of the equipment is extended. XCMG dispatched a dedicated technical team to the site for one year, completing intelligent system training for operators, regular equipment calibration, and system iteration updates to ensure the stable operation of unmanned clusters.
The project leader of the mining area said that many imported intelligent mining equipment had been investigated before, and not only the whole system was expensive to purchase, but also the software background and core sensors were dependent on overseas supply, and there were many restrictions on later upgrading and maintenance. After selecting the complete set of unmanned excavation equipment from XCMG, all software and hardware have been localized and customized to adapt to local mining conditions. The after-sales response is fast, and the cost of intelligent transformation has been directly reduced by nearly 40%.
Currently, XCMG has developed a full range of intelligent mining products ranging from 20 tons to 700 tons, and unmanned operation solutions have been implemented in dozens of mines such as coal, sand and gravel, and metal mines. Next, XCMG excavator will continue to iterate its autonomous driving algorithm, integrate Beidou high-precision positioning and AI intelligent recognition technology, launch lightweight and small unmanned excavation models, cover more high-risk scenarios such as urban infrastructure and tunnel construction, and use intelligent equipment to assist the safe, efficient, and digital transformation of the national industrial and mining industry.
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