Mine Material Sorting With Autonomous Trucks and On-Site Sensing
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Solution Overview
Problem
In the mining industry, existing systems face inefficiencies in material categorization and transportation, particularly with ultra-class haul trucks requiring full loads to maintain efficiency, which can lead to incomplete loads and increased costs due to their high expense and limited availability, and conventional trucks have limitations in accessing all mine areas and achieving accurate material grading.
Innovation Solution
A material categorization and transportation system utilizing conventionally sized autonomous trucks equipped with sensing devices to categorize materials into high grade, low grade, and waste categories, allowing each truck to carry only one type of material, optimizing load distribution and reducing waste, and enabling dynamic re-direction and partial loading without significant impact on overall efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If ultra-class haul trucks are used to maximize load capacity, then transportation efficiency is improved, but the cost and complexity of the system increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the material transportation task by using multiple conventionally sized autonomous trucks instead of fewer ultra-class trucks. This segmentation allows the fleet to collectively achieve the same transportation capacity while reducing the complexity and cost associated with operating and maintaining ultra-class vehicles.
2Productivity
If ultra-class haul trucks are used to reduce the number of vehicles, then operational cost is reduced, but the ability to access all mine areas is limited
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting the transportation fleet into multiple smaller autonomous trucks, the system achieves both cost efficiency and adaptability. The smaller trucks can navigate confined mine areas that ultra-class trucks cannot access, while the collective fleet maintains operational cost effectiveness through automated operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the key parameter from vehicle size to vehicle autonomy. By using conventionally sized trucks with autonomous capabilities, the system achieves the accessibility benefits of smaller vehicles while maintaining the operational efficiency typically associated with larger vehicles through automated control.
3Adaptability or versatility
If conventional trucks are used to access all mine areas, then adaptability is improved, but material grading accuracy and waste reduction are insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The system replaces manual material grading and sorting operations with autonomous sensing and categorization technologies. Equipped with sensors and onboard computers, the autonomous trucks automatically detect, categorize, and sort materials by grade, significantly improving measurement precision compared to conventional manual methods.
Solution Approach 2:
The autonomous trucks perform self-service material categorization and sorting without requiring external intervention. The vehicles use their own sensing equipment and onboard processing to identify and sort materials, enabling accurate grading and waste reduction while maintaining accessibility to all mine areas.
4Measurement precision
If sensing devices and autonomous control are implemented, then material categorization accuracy is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The autonomous trucks serve multiple functions: they transport materials, sense and categorize materials by grade, navigate autonomously, and communicate with the central management system. This multi-functionality consolidates what would otherwise be separate systems into unified vehicles, managing complexity while achieving high categorization accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The sensing and categorization systems are self-contained within each autonomous truck, eliminating the need for external grading infrastructure. Each vehicle independently performs material analysis and sorting, reducing overall system complexity while maintaining high measurement precision through advanced onboard sensors and processing.
Data Source
AI summary
There is provided a material categorisation and transportation system including a plurality of mine vehicles for transporting material within a mine site from a first location in the form of a blast site to a second location. The system includes a sensing device for actively sensing chemical property characteristics of raw blasted mined material such that the raw material can be categorised into a plurality of material categories based on the sensed characteristics. The system further includes a loading device located at blast site for loading the raw material into a predefined one of the mine vehicles based on material category for transportation to the second location. The system is such that each of the mine vehicles only carries raw material of a predetermined one of the material categories.