Oleg Zabluda's blog
Sunday, December 10, 2017
 
The pundits were wrong about Assad and the Islamic State. As usual, they're not willing to admit it
The pundits were wrong about Assad and the Islamic State. As usual, they're not willing to admit it
https://www.yahoo.com/newsroom/vibes/islamic-state/v-164b7e5e-418f-11e5-a14c-fa163e6f4a7e_c-14440f7c-a210-39f5-851f-094f5cc8ad59_a-14440f7c-a210-39f5-851f-094f5cc8ad59
https://www.yahoo.com/newsroom/vibes/islamic-state/v-164b7e5e-418f-11e5-a14c-fa163e6f4a7e_c-14440f7c-a210-39f5-851f-094f5cc8ad59_a-14440f7c-a210-39f5-851f-094f5cc8ad59

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- posted by Oleg Zabluda @ 7:14 PM | permalink | | | technorati | bloglines | feedster
 
Rio Tinto puts its faith in driverless trucks, trains and drilling rigs
Rio Tinto puts its faith in driverless trucks, trains and drilling rigs
"""
As for the mine’s managers, they are struck by the silence; there is no longer a steady stream of banter across drivers’ two-way radios. They also welcome the productivity gains. Over a 12-hour period, they say, manned trucks are competitive, but over 24 hours and longer, the absence of coffee breaks, fatigue and driver changeovers begins to tell. The autonomous trucks stop only once a day for refuelling. “Then you pat them on the bum and out they go again,” one says. He adds that the workforce at the mine is already about one-third lower as a result of automation. The 76 autonomous vehicles in Rio’s 400-strong truck fleet in the Pilbara are an estimated 15% cheaper to run than the rest.

Two hours’ flight away, at Rio’s operations centre in Perth, engineers remotely control the equipment with screens and computers. “You have to blow dust in their faces to make them feel like they’re in the Pilbara, otherwise it’s too comfortable,” quips an executive, as he oversees desk-bound employees operating two of Rio’s six autonomous rigs digging into the Pilbara rock. Rio’s boss of iron ore, Chris Salisbury, says that autonomy enables drilling to run for almost a third longer on average than with manned rigs, and to churn through 10% more metres per hour. The extra data collected helps the firm to evaluate the quality of the ore for further digging.

Next year Rio hopes to win regulatory approval to run the world’s first driverless trains along 1,700km of track between its 16 iron-ore mines and four ports in the Pilbara. It completed a 100km test run in September. According to Mr Salisbury, autonomy can provide a 6% improvement in average speed, and the elimination of three driver-changes in each 40-hour period. This may sound small, but it adds up. Trains will also run closer together, adding more to the system at any one time.
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https://www.economist.com/news/business/21732156-will-it-stop-mining-firm-splurging-over-priced-acquisitions-rio-tinto-puts-its

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- posted by Oleg Zabluda @ 1:28 PM | permalink | | | technorati | bloglines | feedster

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