Brazilian construction and industrial giant Andrade Gutierrez (AG) is betting on trucks with hybrid controls for the Brazilian infrastructure market, initially targeting the mining segment.

Vehicle prototype 4.ZERO, was developed in partnership with Swedish automaker Volvo and industrial systems  radio control company ACR. 

It is possible to remotely control the truck via joystick from a cabin at a distance of up to 2km. But the prototype can also be manually operated. AG intends to use it at mining tailings dams, in what would be the first such application in the world.

“It's not an autonomous truck, because it does not self-operate. And it's not just remote. It is hybrid, in the sense that it can be both manned and remotely controlled,” André Medina, head of innovation at Andrade Gutierrez, told BNamericas.

"This is important for these tailings dam decommissioning operations. Because in some extremely high-risk dam areas, the presence of humans is prohibited for safety reasons."

Outside these areas, however, the truck can be driven by a human, facilitating maneuvers, speeding up the flow of material, and reducing overall logistics costs, Medina said. 

Furthermore, legal restrictions bar unmanned vehicles from traveling on access roads, beltways and related systems. That means it would be necessary to use conventional trucks for tasks outside the tailings dam area.

“But here I have the same truck that I can use manned and unmanned basically just by flipping a switch,” said Medina.

In unmanned mode, the truck is operated at a distance from with the help of seven vehicular cameras, which transmit images to two screens in the remote cockpit, where a professional controls the machine by joystick via radio signal.

The truck developed with Volvo and ACR has one antenna for image transmission and one for communication with the truck’s own driving systems.

The radio transmission technology is based on point-to-point architecture, which means the antenna(s) transmit a signal directly to the antenna(s) meant to receive it. It does not rely on cellular or Wi-Fi networks for reasons of latency, interference, network congestion and network availability.

“Before, there was a mesh network [a triangular Wi-Fi system made up of two or more devices]. But the mesh network led to delays. I pressed the brake remotely and it would take 400ms to 1,000ms for it to respond. So we standardized on a point-to-point network and managed to get the latency down to 20ms,” Medina said.

AG assessed other models of trucks on the market, including from Mercedes-Benz and Scania.

However, according to Medina, Volvo’s is the only one that allows immediate switching between manned and the unmanned modes, keeping all functionalities, without the need for mechanical adjustments.

Furthermore, he said, the Volvo model is the only one supplied from the factory prepared to receive radio control signals.

Andrade Gutierrez has acquired 10 trucks as part of the project, Medina said, and is in talks with all mining companies in the country that have tailings dams that, by law, need to be decommissioned.

This is the case of Brazilian company Vale, whose Brumadinho dam collapsed in January 2019, causing 270 deaths and enormous environmental damage. The tailings decommissioning law was passed a month after the tragedy.

The disaster occurred just over three years after a dam collapse in Mariana. In November 2015, 19 people died and dozens of municipalities in the Rio Doce basin were impacted by a wave of tailings from the dam owned by Samarco, a JV between Vale and BHP Billiton.

For Andrade Gutierrez, the truck project opens a new business and revenue opportunity.

“Obviously, we don't sell trucks. That's not our business. But it comes as part of that. It's an advantage. Its most immediate and obvious application is in mining. But we plan to go beyond that in our infrastructure works with companies.” 

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