Cat Presents First Commercially Available Autonomous Water Truck, the 789D

Caterpillar has revealed the 789D – the industry’s first commercially available autonomous water truck.

The truck is built on the 789D mining truck chassis and integrates the truck, tank and Cat Water Delivery System (WDS), connected with Cat MineStar technology. It is designed to prevent haul road overwatering and underwatering by digitally tracking water consumption. Depending on the tank configuration, it can hold up to 43,588 gallons of water.

The 789D uses Command for hauling to interact with other autonomous equipment on mine sites managed by MineStar. The truck can sense when the water tank is running low and will automatically turn off watering once the tank is empty to prevent damage to the water pump. It can be programmed to return to the water refill station to fully automate the water refill process. An auto shutoff feature prevents tank overfilling.

"This model allows the truck to monitor traffic, weather and road conditions, prioritize what areas need to be watered, when the areas need to be watered, and how many passes it should take to apply the correct amount of water saturation, for the given conditions. The integration of Caterpillar’s many years of autonomous truck operations and water delivery development have been combined to make a high performing autonomous watering solution,” said Corey Wurtzbacher, general manager and vice president, technology and global sales support of Caterpillar.

Fully Integrated System

The water delivery system varies water flow based on truck speed and automatically determines the correct amount of water needed to control dust while helping customers conserve water. When truck speed drops below the minimum watering speed setting, determined by site operations, the system stops water delivery to help prevent overwatering, poor traction and damage to haul road intersections and other stopping areas. When truck speed exceeds the minimum watering speed setting, the system begins depositing the specified amount of water commanded by MineStar.

Water is dispersed in a flat, controlled spray pattern to deliver the optimal gallons-per-square-foot of coverage across the haul road, according to Cat. Large heavy droplets help reduce spray loss to wind and evaporation.

The 789D AWT can be switched from autonomous mode to staffed mode for tasks like front water-cannon operation. The cannon can distribute up to 759 gallons per minute with a spray distance reaching 200 feet. Even with an operator, the Aute Mode feature will continue to automate the watering process to provide the correct amount of water for dust control.  

Mine sites that are not ready for full autonomy can still use MineStar cloud-based solutions to utilize, track and measure the productivity of the 789D putting it into autonomous operation. Basic or premium packages are available.

The basic package allows sites to track their asset and see, when, where and how it is performing:

• Location of truck
• Water level
• Fuel level
• Watering mode
• Truck speed
• Truck refills
• Water dispersed
• Truck utilization per shift

Premium will allow sites to track how their water trucks are meeting the site’s watering needs:

• Overall watering heat map to show the age of water currently put down by all trucks in a shift
• Watering heat map by truck to show where each truck watered and what mode was utilized
• Utilization of fill spots by each truck
• Replay of truck watering activity for up to 8 previous weeks of data, depending on how many assets are tracked
• Suggested area to water based on the age of water and traffic utilization

The 789D AWT is eligible for Cat equipment protection plans (EPP) and customer value agreements (CVAs). Retrofit kits are available for existing Cat 789D truck platforms in the field.