Experiments in Autonomous Earth Moving

Abstract This paper presents a technology demonstrator currently under development and describes experiments carried out to date in autonomous bulk material handling using mobile equipment. Our primary platform is a Bobcat S185 skid-steer loader instrumented with an onboard computer, a sensor suite, and a communication link that support various levels of automation, from remote control to supervised autonomy. We present the main system components and discuss the autonomous cleaning of spillage and carryback, common bulk handling task in mining, currently executed exclusively using manually and/or remotely operated loaders. The system architecture is based on Spring, a Robotics Software Framework developed by CSIRO to support rapid development of new robotic systems, distributed as an Open Source package.