Caterpillar will display its 287C semi-autonomous Multi Terrain Loader (MTL) at the second annual Lunabotics Mining Competition conducted by NASA at the Kennedy Space Centre situated in Florida.
The program began on May 25 and is expected to extend for a period of three days. The program focuses on motivating students to choose careers related to the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields.
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Caterpillar’s CTO, Tana Utley, stated that the innovative technologies showcased at the competition can be used in work stations and mines. He added that these autonomous solutions will result in an improvement in safety and performance.
Students participating in the competition will develop and construct autonomous systems for use in lunar explorations. Teams will test the capability of their machines to determine, which one can be used to excavate the maximum quantity of simulated lunar dirt over a particular duration.
Eric Reiner, automation manager and event judge stated the importance of encouraging innovation, ingenuity and technology to students belonging to different age groups.