Heavy Haul Freight Transportation System: AutoHaulAutonomous Heavy Haul Freight Train Achieved in Australia

Introduction

Rio Tinto Limited, a leading global mining group, operates an autonomous fleet of 221 heavy haul locomotives along its 1,700 km line 24 hours a day extracting iron ore from mines in the South and transporting it across the remote Pilbara region to ports 300 km away overlooking the Indian Ocean. A typical train formation includes a triple-headed diesel electric locomotive and 240 wagons loaded with 106 t each car. Typical train length is 2.5 km and total weight is 28,000 t.

Maximizing transportation efficiency is the first priority of train operations and trains can depart after loading has completed without a pre-scheduled train operation diagram. Complete train operation is monitored remotely by a team of train controllers and maintainers from Rio Tinto’s Operations Center in Perth more than 1,500 km away (see Figure 1 and Figure 2). The operation of this autonomous train is achieved by the heavy haul freight transportation system, AutoHaul^*1, developed through co-creation between Rio Tinto and Hitachi Rail STS S.p.A. (formerly Ansaldo STS S.p.A.). This article presents the development history and features of AutoHaul.

*1

AutoHaul is a registered trademark of Rio Tinto Limited.

Development of AutoHaul

The demand for iron ore has increased year by year and to keep up with the demand Rio Tinto achieved driverless autonomous heavy vehicle (AHV) operation and planned to realize driverless (grades of automation 4: GoA4) operation of iron ore trains. This project, named AutoHaul, is aimed at unlocking significant safety and productivity gains for Rio Tinto, as well as optimizing the company’s iron ore mining system by providing more flexibility and reducing bottlenecks. AutoHaul, the heavy haul freight transportation system, developed in collaborative creation (co-creation) between Rio Tinto and Hitachi Rail STS S.p.A., was granted accreditation by Australia’s Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator on 16 May 2018. Following this, an autonomous train, consisting of three locomotives and carrying around 28,000 t of iron ore, travelled over 280 km from Rio Tinto’s mining operations in Tom Price to the port of Cape Lambert on 10 July 2018. Since this initial run, driverless (GoA4) operation was ramped up in stages and AutoHaul full deployment was achieved in December 2018. Rio Tinto currently runs 98 percent of their AutoHaul equipped locomotive fleet in autonomous mode covering in excess of 11 million km on their network.

Structure of AutoHaul

AutoHaul is based on automatic train operation (ATO) and European Train Control System (ETCS) level 2. The system can be broken down into four main segments: communications infrastructure segment, operations center segment, train-borne segment, and signalling and asset protection segment (see Figure 3).

Fig. 3—System Structure of AutoHaul This figure shows the system architecture of AutoHaul and segments categorized into operation centre, train-borne, communications, signalling, and asset protection.

Level Crossing Protection

Although the train runs through the remote Australian bushland there are some active level crossings along the railway line that intersect with major highways or public roads. There are 42 active crossings on the Rio Tinto network which are protected by the level crossing auxiliary system, This can be broken down into three components.

1. Obstruction detection system
   Laser based system detects objects within level crossing boundaries.
2. Closed-circuit television (CCTV)
   Provides surveillance coverage of level crossing and record footage via digital video recorder. Manual and automated retrieval/viewing by authorized Operations Center personnel.
3. Streetlighting
   Provides consistent lighting for level crossing. Turns on each time the crossing operates, is obstructed, or when staff view the live feed from CCTV.

Remote Locomotive Monitoring

A dedicated team of asset health evaluators and train controllers monitor the health and status of wayside and train-borne equipment from the Operations Center in Perth.

Rio Tinto has about 221 locomotives equipped with the AutoHaul technology, for every locomotive that is on the network locomotive health status, alarms, and videos (collision detection events, level crossing obstruction events) are monitored. Activities that were previously performed by the driver while on board the train are now managed by the Rolling Stock Asset Health Evaluator Team, which remotely monitors the onboard status of assigned trains throughout their journey and process all onboard alarms and notifications raising maintenance request where required.

The AutoHaul system is designed to automatically stop the train for:
(1) Asset alarms from wayside equipment like dragging equipment detector or hot bearing detectors; (2) critical wayside and onboard equipment failure; (3) obstruction events from level crossing; and (4) collision events detected on the train.

Further Opportunities

This section introduces the future vision of Hitachi’s railway business division including establishing autonomous operation system.

Conclusions

This paper has presented an overview of the development of Rio Tinto’s heavy haul freight transportation system, AutoHaul, and the future prospects of Hitachi’s railway business division.

The advancements in freight technology through implementing the strategies and developing applications discussed will add value to heavy haul clientele, but these can also benefit other platforms like regional and intercity operations, as some of the challenges experienced are similar. These initiatives will lead to positive impacts not only for the client, but also on United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which have been committed to by Hitachi.