CISDI’s intelligent hot metal transport system, the first of its kind in the world, is now running smoothly at Baowu Group’s Zhanjiang Plant.

The site’s all-weather, manpower-reduced wharf system, another CISDI innovation, has been integrated into the new transportation system. Both are operated via Zhanjiang’s Intelligent Logistics Centralised Control Platform.

It was back in July that the first autonomous hot metal locomotive ran on the system; now eight locomotives and 28 ladle cars are in use and an intelligent systematic operation has been achieved – from single points to an entire production line.

This leapfrog in intelligence development harvests numerous breakthroughs in expertise – self-adaptive anti-slip parking, automatic coupling, smart electric charging, high-precision aligning, unmanned driving and smart locomotive scheduling.

The creation of Zhanjiang’s intelligent hot metal transport project began in late 2016. In early 2019 CISAI Tech - CISDI and Sinovation Ventures, a quasi-unicorn company for AI, joined the team.

CISAI Tech is dedicated to the research and development of the autonomous locomotive and applies AI and intelligence to industrial scenarios in the pursuit of deeper fusion.

The locomotive system features CISDI’s real-time, self-learning, self-adaptive, high-precision control model, in addition to CISDI’s all-weather environmental perception and digital twin expertise.

Autonomous locomotive transportation features such as all-weather environmental perception, all-obstacle precise identification, automatic coupling between the locomotive and ladle car and precision positioning remove the need for manual workers in unsafe site conditions.

Hot metal transportation efficiency is improved and costs are greatly reduced.

A major innovation in driverless expertise for industry, the intelligent system sets a benchmark for China’s industrial development and for speeding up the formation of an intelligent steel ecosystem.

CISDI team and representatives from Zhanjiang Steel are pictured at the launch of two world firsts - the operational intelligent hot metal transport system and the opening of the Intelligent Logistics Centralised Control Platform