By Roberta Prandi

March 13, 2020 - Rolls-Royce and Autonomous Solutions Incorporated (ASI), ASI Mining, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to ensure compatibility of MTU engines and ASI’s Mobius command and control software for autonomous vehicles.

With this agreement, Rolls-Royce will be able to offer autonomous-compatible, Mobius-ready MTU engine solutions for equipment in a wide range of mining applications.

Scott Woodruff, global director for Mining and Oil & Gas at Rolls-Royce Power Systems, said: “We are excited to shape the mining industry’s future together with ASI and further leverage our advanced MTU technologies. Together we will offer our customers integrated future-oriented autonomous solutions. This agreement may help mining operators save big on operational costs and at the same time, reduce their environmental footprint by cutting emissions.”

MTU diesel engines have been employed in mining applications around the globe for decades. They power vehicles for underground and surface mining, including loading vehicles such as excavators and wheel loaders, transport vehicles such as haul trucks or blast hole drilling rigs, and other mining machines – diesel-mechanic, diesel-electric or diesel-hydraulic.

ASI Mining is a specialist in the development and sales of high-tech autonomous solutions for mining equipment and other machinery in a wide range of applications.

Drew Larsen, director of Business Development for ASI Mining, said: “We are excited to start these discussions with Rolls-Royce Power Systems. This is another testament to the interoperability of Mobius and real value it adds to our mining customers.”

The two companies said, one potential benefit to their customers may be the ability to retrofit the power system on existing haul trucks and convert them to autonomous operation. The companies are interested in exploring the value customers would receive by modernizing their trucks with more efficient MTU engines along with implementation of ASI’s industry-leading autonomous mining solutions. The customers would thus save on operating costs and further benefit from the increased performance of the autonomously optimized MTU engines.