Rio Tinto to support its aluminium production operations with unmanned vehicles

Rio Tinto Aluminium has selected the ECA Group to develop unmanned logistic vehicles for heavy load transportation inside the aluminium smelter. Unmanned logistic vehicles will be mainly used for the transportation of anodes.

The ECA Group is a renowned for its expertise in robotics, automated systems, simulation and industrial process worldwide. The company will develop the heavy load autonomous vehicle called MAX 2.0. In addition to this, the company will also develop the supervision software which will manage the fleet of autonomous vehicles inside each smelter.

Rio Tinto Aluminium (RTA) is expected to improve its aluminium production process by increasing productivity. This would also reduce support costs and carbon footprint of the manufacturing process.

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The first unmanned vehicle will be set up in the company’s Dunkerque aluminium smelter in northern France.  The aluminium smelter has an annual capacity of 270,000 tonnes. It is powered by nuclear energy supplied by EDF.

The vehicles will have its own route plan, which encompasses the loading zone, the delivery area and the path. MAX 2.0 will also navigate indoors and outdoors.