Jevons Robotics specialises in building large, battery-electric, autonomous, wheeled vehicle solutions for the mining industry. Their high-tech and robust vehicles integrate the latest sensor, automation and control technologies to enable autonomous, high-precision positioning activities on contoured, steep and unstable ground, common to mine sites.
A versatile vehicle drive and steering system
Jevons robots can work across ground inaccessible to conventional vehicles, eliminating manual handling in hazardous remote environments and significantly reducing the exposure of personnel to dangerous site hazards, while significantly improving productivity.
Jevons engineers developed a versatile vehicle drive and steering system with both conventional Ackerman steering and four-wheel crab-walking capability.
The vehicle's ability to move laterally, combined with a self-levelling suspension system, allows operators to efficiently and accurately position payloads for tasks at very specific locations such as mining pit blast holes.
Operators in the safety of a control room
When using the Jevons Robotics solution, the operator is removed from the vehicle to the safety of a control room.
Using a state-of-the-art fine positioning system with precision location capability and low-latency communication, it can autonomously locate blast holes and accurately position payloads for its programmed activity.
Camera systems display live video feeds to operators for task monitoring or provide visibility for manual intervention, if needed.
Customisable autonomy for customer requirements
Jevons engineered their robotic systems to be configurable for operation at multiple levels of vehicle autonomy.
When describing these configuration options, they refer to the six levels of autonomous vehicles as outlined in the Society of Automotive Engineers publication, "Taxonomy and Definitions for Terms Related to Driving Automation Systems":
Level 0: No driving automation
Level 1: Driver assistance
Level 2: Partial driving automation
Level 3: Conditional driving automation
Level 4: High driving automation
Level 5: Full driving automation
At Level 1, the 6-tonne model can take over minor control tasks to merely assist an operator in completing a job. When configured at Level 4, the robot can fully self-drive under defined conditions.
Within these levels of autonomy, an operator can stand in the field controlling the vehicle within line-of-sight using chest-mounted remote TeleOp controls or sit in an air-conditioned control room, sheltered from the outside environment.
Fields trials at the AARP
After several years in research and development, Jevons Robotics is currently deploying their 6-tonne model to customer sites in Western Australia.
They are also developing both larger and smaller-capacity models to service a range of additional inspection and service use cases.
Jevons Robotics is currently running ongoing field tests at the Australian Automation and Robotics Precinct (AARP) located in the northern suburbs of Perth.
They welcome inquiries from mining operators interested in learning more about their autonomous solutions.
