Heaviest robot

The heaviest robot is AutoHaul, a fully autonomous uncrewed train operated by Rio Tinto (Australia) between its mines in the Pilbara region of Western Australia and its loading docks on the coast (a distance of around 280 km or 174 miles). The AutoHaul locomotive is a modified General Electric ES44DCi (number 8129) weighing in at 197 tonnes (217 US tons) and measuring 21.9 m (72 ft) long. AutoHaul made its first trip, carrying 28,000 tonnes of iron ore, on 10 July 2018.

Rio Tinto makes extensive use of drones and robotic systems in its Australian mining operations. The outback of Western Australia, where temperatures routinely rise above 40 ºC (104 ºF), is a punishing environment for human workers. The company has automated dump trucks to haul material, and uses drones to map the shifting topology of its strip mines.

The robots are better able to handle the extreme conditions, although even they struggle with the hostile wildlife. In 2017, it was reported that the company was losing many of its survey drones to attacks by Australian wedge-tailed eagles – birds of prey with a 2.8 m (9 ft 2 in) wingspan and a strong dislike of anything that flies into their territory.