Aramine and sensmore are introducing an automated, battery-powered Aramac L140B Loader into underground production at a Cemex site in Germany, turning a proven underground machine into an autonomous production system for real operating conditions.
As Europe seeks to secure access to critical raw materials, underground extraction must become safer, more efficient and less dependent on scarce skilled labor. Autonomous machines offer a practical path to achieving these goals while reducing operator exposure to demanding underground environments.
“The next step is to take raw materials under our feet, under our ground, in Europe, and not on the other side of the world. For that, we are not going to send people underground, but we are going to send machines that are capable to do it by themselves,” said Marc Melkonian, co-president at Aramine, in charge of the equipment division.
The L140B Loader, a battery-powered machine launched in 2016, features a 1.3-tonne payload and is engineered specifically for narrow-vein mining. German robotics and AI startup sensmore turns the L140B into an autonomous production machine. At Cemex, it connected the machine to the full underground production process: machine control, conveyor belt, functional safety systems, network infrastructure, operational interfaces, and production flow.
“Autonomy in heavy industry only creates real value when it is vertically integrated into the production environment,” explained Maximilian Rolf, CEO and Co-founder of sensmore. “At Cemex, we are integrating the L140B into the entire underground process. That is how autonomous machines become part of industrial reality today.”
The operational impact is already evident. The automated L140B can operate autonomously for up to eight hours, compared with about five hours in manned mode. This results in greater machine availability, fewer repetitive tasks for operators, and a safer underground work environment. The battery-electric machine also produces zero local CO2emissions during operation.
Source: Aramine