Heidelberg Materials Hauls 2 Million Tonnes Autonomously Using Pronto

Dubai (PlantAndEquipment.com) - Pronto.ai has reported that Heidelberg Materials has autonomously moved over two million tonnes of limestone at its Lake Bridgeport quarry in Texas, marking a significant step forward in the digitization of quarry operations.

Following a test run, Heidelberg Materials implemented Pronto's autonomous haulage system across a mixed fleet of haul trucks on site. The automated operation transported the equivalent of almost 20,000 fully loaded freight train cars in under eight months, setting a new standard for commercial-scale quarry automation.

The Lake Bridgeport operation is remarkable for operating a mixed-brand autonomous fleet on a single platform, using Caterpillar 775G rigid-frame trucks and Komatsu HD605-8 and HD605-10 models. The project shows the potential to run many equipment brands concurrently inside a single autonomous haulage system.

The facility employs Pronto's vision-based autonomous technology, which utilizes cameras and artificial intelligence rather than lidar, radar, or fixed pre-mapping to enable vehicles to negotiate dynamic quarry conditions. Dynamic zone management allows vehicles to adapt to changing loading and dumping sites, while safety systems coordinate autonomous and human equipment.