The Eikefet quarry in Norway is owned by DC Aggregates (De Cloedt Group based in Belgium). The quarry has roots as far back as 1872 when extraction first started.
Around 2-3 million tonnes of aggregates is produced per year, where the vast majority of material is being exported to central Europe by ship for use in construction and road building. A considerable amount is also exported for use in offshore activity in the North Sea - covering pipelines and other installations on the seabed.
Hauling of rock is performed by Romarheim AS - a fresh and forward leaning plant operator seeking to innovate and improve every day. Three Caterpillar 772G trucks are loaded by a large Volvo EC950 excavator. The rock is then hauled downhill and dumped into a large shaft in the mountain, acting as a big buffer for the first stage crusher located further below.
Steer Autonomous has been designed from the start to cater for the requirements in small and medium open pit quarries. Quarry operations usually have relatively few trucks of mixed brands and also offers smaller margins compared to the mining industry. Steer Autonomous addresses all of this in the sense that it is:
In addition - we took it a few steps further in order to maximize effectivity: we removed the need for having an operation room (with a dedicated supervisor) alltogether.
The excavator operators that loads the trucks are also supervising the fleet of autonomous trucks
One large 4k UHD monitor -
showing cutting-edge ultra-low latency video streams from the machine
Wireless network infrastructure
consisting of high power private 5G or WiFi
Various Steer components
installed in the machine to enable remote control. Machines that do not have electronically controlled valves will need to have the hydraulic system modified. It is preferred to use brand new construction equipment with electronically controlled valves when using Steer products.
Installation, testing, training of operators, documentation and support.
