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The World's Heaviest Robot
Roland Piquepaille writes "This distinction goes to a future autonomous version of the 700-tons Caterpillar mining truck. In this article, Discovery News reports that Caterpillar engineers and computer scientists from Carnegie Mellon University have teamed up to develop this autonomous truck. Japan-based Komatsu has already delivered autonomous mining trucks to its customers, but these are smaller than the Caterpillar ones. Both companies are transforming their trucks into 'robots' for three reasons. Improvements in safety, efficiency and productivity will reduce costs and increase availability."
You'll be hearing from Shampoo's lawyers.
Not that I think there's a huge chance that things will go wrong with, but think of how awesomely cool it would go wrong if it did.
10 new terminators:
.
is the entrenched mining unions that have prevented automation for more than 10 years now.
Good people go to bed earlier.
I would say the distinction would go to Australia's driverless ore trains when commissioned in 2013.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Port_Hedland,_Western_Australia.jpg
(Yeah I know the pic is of a drivered BHP rather than Rio train... but it does give you an idea of the scale).
The argument for driverless is that because they take the best part of a day to perform an emergency stop, the family car stalled on the crossing is going to be pulverised regardless of the skill of a human operator. The largest fragment left over from these collisions is usually a few inches in size. Fortunately they don't happen that often.
3laws: No freebies, no backsies, GTFO.
Just get me a robot and 701 tons of concrete weight which will be used for ballast purposes.
Granted, the robot ain't going to move around much once it is properly ballasted but hey...
We ARE going for the heaviest not fastest robot around, right?
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Are those stairs on the radiator? That thing is SO COOL :O!
/10yearsoldagain
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, watch it -- I'm huge!
It's not autonomous... it's adding driving aids for a remote controller. Autonomous would imply that it's capable of functioning entirely on its own for (at least) extended periods without requiring operator intervention. The article implies that an operator will still be performing some navigational and control tasks at regular intervals... Like a predator drone. I can't find the article on the recent DARPA robot challenge or I'd link it here, but there's obvious parallels.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
Great. Killdozer is now real.
Which Autobot was a dumptruck?
How many gallons/liters per mile/km does this thing need? I imagine the acceleration and deceleration are on par with a cruise ship :-)
I want to see BattleBots with these babies.
Negative moral value of force outweighs the positive value of good intentions.
Is it one of the Transformers? And if Yes , will it be a big good guy?
"All of the information would then be run through a computer program that would tell the robotic driver to avoid the obstacle or not..." Interesting, it might go ahead and hit small obstacles... assuming that half the planet isn't considered small in comparison!! There are fracking stairs on the front!!
... hope that this robot becomes self-aware and hunts down every idiot that invokes this stupid fucking meme.
I hate printers.
The payload of a 797B is rated at 380 tons and they can carry an overload of 450 tons without too much of a sweat.
An unmanned spacecraft when launched is "fully autonomous" and there are a number that are bigger than 700 metric tons.
Titan IVB - 943 tons
Delta IV - up to 733 tons
Saturn V (there were 3 unmanned launches) - 3000 tons
he's my brobot.
Sorry.
there are 2 options. #1 electric drive trains with a sort of grid connection (a rail or something) or #2 diesel engines with high compression ratios that create higher fuel performance. diesel can be made from fat, so perhaps you should sign up to donate your fat to be made into biofuels. perhaps if you're an set up as an organ donation, they will do it automatically when you die.
perhaps if you are sent to hell for all eternity, they will just make your body into petroleum and sell you on the open market. the devil is going to make you into petrol if you're sent to hell and eternal damnation.
disclaimer: i am paranoid schizophrenic these are the things i think about.
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
Us: We've already delivered autonomous mining trucks!
Japan: Oh yeah! We've already delivered autonomous mining trucks.. ALREADY!
Us: They're always one step ahead!
It's not a big truck ... oh wait yes it is!
welcome our autonomous, load-bearing overlords
It even looks a bit like the Command And Conquer one. I wonder how much tank damage that baby can take?
Michael Reed, freelance tech writer.
I live in Western Australia, where Rio Tinto are developing their autonomous mining equipment. My old man is employed by Rio as a radio techie and as such he has a small part to play in the development of their autonomous trucks. I'm posting anonymously as I don't want any of these remarks getting him in trouble.
The basic model relies on a single central system coordinating all the trucks as they move about. There have been a lot of kinks to do with radio lines of sight. Mine sites where the principal ore body is ferrous tend not to be very friendly to radio transmission. The actual driving of the trucks is not hugely complicated as the routes are identical for every run and GPS systems make it easy to align a truck with the road. It's not like navigating a desert track or urban landscape.
Rio are also working on automating their trains. Alongside BHP, Rio has one of the largest fully private rail networks in the world. The two mining giants run the largest freight trains anywhere -- several kilometres long with tens of thousands of tons of iron ore. That may change as the two mining giants are being forced to open their networks to junior mining companies -- it looks easy on paper but railway systems are extremely complicated and finely balanced systems.
The scale of the mining efforts in the Pilbara boggle the mind. They are utterly vast. Whole mountains made of rust are being excavated, crushed and then shipped to Japan and China. The pace is frenetic. Rio and BHP can't find enough workers and that has caused costs to explode, which is part of why they are turning to automation. But really it's about throughput: an autonomous truck doesn't need lunch breaks, delays for shift change or the like. Every minute counts.
Rio have been more forward-looking than BHP in this department, so it may not last as BHP are trying to carry out a hostile takeover at the moment.
It's Megaweapon!
http://mst3k.wikia.com/wiki/Megaweapon
Simon ;)
No, its a BIG TRUCK. And very large. (when big just doesn't say enough)
Does anyone else have a mental image of some guy walking up to a car manufacture bot and starting his tirade of abuse with "Yo mamma's so fat..."
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
i am paranoid schizophrenic these are the things i think about.
Both of you, or just the current you?
It's a series of tubes!
You guys are slacking.
MEGA-WEAPON! Now where is that guy from Paper Chase?
In the not too distant future, next Sunday A.D.
the ob-org is a group of separate drones that act as one to elect their messiah. they all say the same thing and they're all as dumb as a bag of bricks. they're also all going to deny their support once his administration tanks.
...can it out-tow the Tundra?
Unlike most of you, I actually went to Carnegie Mellon as an undergrad. Bow before me.
http://www.drewry.ca/797-Ron.jpg
Engineering is the art of compromise.
There are robots that weigh more than 700 tons.
Integrated factory automation systems get *big*.
Great, now when the great robot revolution happens they'll be coming at us from under the ground too.
I ignore Anonymous Coward posts. If you want to discuss something, that's awesome. Log in.
This isn't all that new...I submitted a story to Slashdot about a fully autonomous/tele-operated underground mine back in 2001! (Disclaimer, I was one of the engineers on the project.)
http://slashdot.org/articles/01/01/30/1552243.shtml
The most vulnerable part of the whole truck is the tires. the tires are easily $50,000 each, and these trucks have six of them. The roads must be maintained to avoid cutting the tires. So the comment about detecting objects and running over them is about safety, but its also about tires. The next thing to worry about is truck frames and bodies. Also a problem on poorly maintained roads. these machines last upwards of 100,000 hours. That's 10-15 years running 24/7 with downtime for maintenance, repairs, rebuilds, fueling etc.
welcome our new Anonymous Coward overlords. I'd like to remind them that as a trusted Slashdot personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground trolling systems.
If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolo_(tank)
A great series of books to read:
A Bolo is a fictional type of artificially intelligent super-heavy tank. They were first imagined by Keith Laumer, and have since been featured in science fiction novels and short stories by him and others.
"Consider how lucky you are that life has been good to you so far. Alternatively, if life hasn't been good to you so far
The Cat 797 mining truck actually hauls 400 tons, not 240 as stated in the article. The 240 ton truck is the 793.
Although the vehicle mentioned in the article is not a DARPA challenge setup, there was one competitor in the DARPA challenge that would be almost as intimidating if it went rogue:
- TerraMax
Although the vehicle has had it's share of buggy moments, it's has done surprising well, especially considering it's sheer size.
8==8 Bones 8==8
Since no one has said it yet, "Imagine a Beowulf cluster of these"...
By the taping of my glasses, something geeky this way passes
"Why, that sucker's huge!"
They can compact hundreds of Canadian runaways per hour ...
http://digg.com/people/Teen_Compacted_In_Wis_Garbage_Truck_Survives
serendipitous captcha word: mortally.
By the time you finish reading this sentence will end.
connecting the robots to Skynet, oops, I mean the "Internet", should be just around the corner...
My favorite quote doesn't fit into 120 characters. Now no one will like me.
what could possibly go wrong? http://filmdrunk.uproxx.com/?p=3314
world domination
brain and brawn, unmatched
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
...by checking this video.
Or this video of a smaller 793, but I sure hope that is not an autonomous kill-bot.
Slashdot: stuff for news, nerds that matter, matter for news, stuff that nerd
The biggest problem with the driverless Komatsu's on the mine sites are the ruts they cause on the dirt mine 'roads'. When you have 18 tippers weighing 500+ ton rolling on the exact same pair of tyre treads once a minute 24x7, the ruts get gouged pretty deep, pretty quick. A human driver will do his or her best to avoid ruts as he or she drives around every small (and large!) rock pile on the road as it makes for a smoother ride, especially when all you want to do is get it from the bottom of the pit to the top as many times as directed for your 8 hour shift.
Dan. -- So what if it's spelt wrong, nobody's perfect
This reminds me that Simpsons episode...
Announcer: Tonight on Guinness Book of World Records. A man who owns the current record for least amount of faces, with none. You'll also see the world's smelliest tumor.
Lisa: Eew, these records used to be real accomplishments, now they're just gross.
Announcer: Plus, you'll meet a dog that can't predict anything! And.. three other things!
Put the wage of manager at the same level (or bring the renumeration of the miners up to the manager level, whichever).
Now see how many managers decide to do the work "anyone can do".
None.
If you paid the janitor whatever you pay a manager, you won't find many people putting up with unblocking shit-filled toilets just because the work is "easier".
And how many managers have the physical stamina for the work? With mining, how many managers die in a cave-in or similar accident?
Many people COULD do the work, but more could manage them than could DO the work, and the work done is a lot easier and safer.
Until one day the "little" beggars no longer want to go from shed to mine and back, they want to see the world! 700 ton automated truck rampaging across the globe, accidently flattening all in it's path!
"The largest truck in the world is about to become..." No, I'm pretty sure the Apollo/Shuttle crawlers have them beat.
http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/facilities/crawler.html.
Might still be the biggest robots though.
"Improvements in safety, efficiency and productivity will reduce costs and increase availability."
Right until they rebel and try to take over the world by parking on everybody!
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
Megaweapon?
We are in serious trouble. Where's the Paper Chase guy when you need 'im?
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
Words I hoped I'd never see in the same article:
"automate the 700-ton trucks" ...
"Autonomous vehicle technology is pretty much in its infancy"
I, for one, welcome our clumsy, myopic, bone-crushing, toddler-trantrum overlords.
Ah, what do I care, they probably wouldn't fit along British roads anyway. Except, oh noes, what does an American ton mean in real measurements?
Andrew Oakley - www.aoakley.com
Instead of paying one driver per truck (and probably way too much to drive a truck), you're paying one tech to control a number of them? Wait, isn't Obama going to fix stuff like this?
Chewbacon
The Bible is like Wikipedia: written by a bunch of people and verifiable by questionable sources.
Is the one that stepped or rolled over your foot.
First rule of holes; When in one, stop digging.
Will it run Linux?
This is not really a good word to define such a lumbering giant whose destructive possibilities are huge, if something should go wrong. Unless Skynet is somewhere on the horizon, I don't know of anything that is fully autonomous. Heck, I don't even know very many people who are self governing, self motivated entities, as someone else is usually monkeying around at their controls, pushing (emotional) buttons and all.
disabling this Terminator.
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
it is around 3700 HP, but acceleration on level is probably in the 0-30mph in under 1 minute empty. 0-5 mph loaded is probably under 1 minute as well. Personally I have witnessed, it will out-stop a pickup truck on the level, in dirt. It burns in the 3-5 Gallons per minute of diesel. It is something else having nearly 4000 hp, turbos at full boost, going a steady 5 mph up a 10% grade. Seams like you should be able to do 1/4 mile in 8 seconds with that power.
"Both of you, or just the current you?"
i realize there is a digital and an analog me. the analog me is getting better, but the 'feed the paranoia' game and other english word games are driving me crazy. so crazy i started tearing up english language manuals for stuff i own.
i might write a JE, but slashdot has gotten me into so much trouble lately that i don't want to write much here. you can thank my family for working so very hard to try and fix me.
today's song: garth brooks unanswered prayers.
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html