Dump Truck Cycle Balancing for Queue-Free Mass Excavation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Mass excavation operations face challenges in maintaining a balanced flow of dump trucks due to imbalances at construction sites, leading to queue buildup, environmental impact, and inefficiencies, often requiring manual intervention by dispatchers.
Innovation Solution
An automated method and system for transport cycle balancing that forecasts imminent imbalances using data from dump trucks, determining mitigative actions to prevent queue formation by adjusting truck movements, speeds, and routes, communicated through user devices or autonomous systems.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If conventional strategies use intentional overcapacity in terms of number of dump trucks to ensure load site always has at least one truck ready to be loaded, then the load site maintains adequate truck availability, but this increases cost and has negative environmental effects due to more trucks circulating and potential queue buildup
Solution Approach 1:
The system continuously monitors the positions, speeds, and operational status of all dump trucks in real-time, feeding this data back to the control server. The server processes this feedback to dynamically adjust truck schedules, ensuring optimal truck availability without overcapacity. This closed-loop feedback mechanism replaces the open-loop conventional approach of maintaining fixed overcapacity, reducing environmental impact while maintaining productivity.
Solution Approach 2:
The control server forecasts potential imbalances in truck arrivals before they occur by analyzing current truck positions, speeds, and scheduled operations. When an imbalance is predicted, the system proactively adjusts schedules of inbound or outbound trucks to prevent queue buildup. This preliminary action eliminates the need for reactive measures and excessive truck circulation, reducing environmental harm while maintaining adequate truck availability.
2Ease of operation
If manual intervention by dispatchers is used to command drivers via voice radio to resolve ongoing imbalance, then immediate corrective action can be taken, but this increases operational complexity and response time
Solution Approach 1:
The system automatically detects imbalances, forecasts future imbalances, and executes corrective schedule adjustments without human intervention. The control server autonomously communicates schedule changes to truck drivers via the mobile application, eliminating the need for manual dispatcher commands. This self-service automation reduces operational complexity and accelerates response time while maintaining the flexibility to handle diverse operational scenarios.
Solution Approach 2:
The system replaces the mechanical voice radio communication system with an electronic digital communication system through mobile applications. This substitution enables automated, text-based schedule adjustments to be transmitted instantly to drivers, eliminating the delays and complexities of manual voice commands while preserving operational flexibility through the user interface.
3Productivity
If dump trucks queue at dump site or main load site due to limited capacity, then material handling capacity is exceeded, but this causes trucks to not be able to shut off engines resulting in fuel waste and environmental pollution
Solution Approach 1:
The system forecasts potential queue formations by analyzing current truck positions, speeds, and site capacity status. When a queue is predicted, the system proactively adjusts the schedules of inbound or outbound trucks to stagger their arrivals, preventing queue formation before it occurs. This preliminary scheduling action ensures continuous material handling throughput while eliminating fuel waste from idle trucks waiting in queues.
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously monitors site capacity status and truck arrival patterns, using this feedback to dynamically adjust truck schedules in real-time. When sites approach capacity limits, the system automatically modifies subsequent truck schedules to maintain optimal throughput while preventing queue buildup. This real-time feedback control eliminates the need for trucks to idle, reducing fuel consumption while maintaining high productivity.
4Adaptability or versatility
If drivers bunch together at sites before breaks or end-of-day, then social needs are met, but this causes unnecessary queue buildup and waiting time at various sites
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts truck schedules in real-time based on current operational status, allowing flexible accommodation of driver break needs without fixed bunching patterns. The control server can stagger break times or adjust schedules to distribute arrivals across different times, maintaining driver flexibility while preventing queue buildup. This dynamic scheduling replaces static, rigid schedules that force bunching, reducing waiting time while preserving adaptability.
Data Source
Figure 1A~1C
Figure 2~3B
Figure 4~6B
AI summary
A method of transport cycle balancing is provided, including recurrently receiving first data indicative of movements of a plurality of dump trucks (130a-i) operating in accordance with a respective transport cycle including a planned hauling of material between a same first site (no) and at least one second site (120a-c), forecasting an imminent imbalance of inbound and outbound trucks for the first site based on the received first data, determining one or more mitigative actions for the trucks in response to forecasting the imminent imbalance, and communicating the mitigative action(s) to at least one truck. A corresponding monitoring system, dump truck, vehicle fleet, computer program and computer program product are also provided.