Mine Mobility Route Control for Puddle-Aware Road Friction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing systems fail to effectively manage operations of vehicles in mines with unpaved roads, leading to decreased work efficiency due to puddle formation from water sprinkling, which causes uneven road surface friction coefficients and potential skidding.
Innovation Solution
An operation management system that generates road surface map data associating positional and road surface information, computes puddle positions, and modifies target routes and speeds for designated vehicles to avoid or safely traverse puddles, using a computer to manage a plurality of registered mobilities with installed road surface condition detecting devices.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If water sprinkling is performed over a dry unpaved road to suppress soil dust, then soil dust and sand dust are suppressed, but puddles are formed causing reduced road surface friction coefficient and potential skidding
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary detection of hollowed portions on the road surface before water sprinkling occurs. By identifying these vulnerable areas in advance and pre-calculating puddle formation positions based on sprinkling schedules, the system can proactively adjust vehicle routes to avoid puddles before they form, thus preventing friction coefficient reduction and skidding risks
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously collects road surface condition data from detecting devices on multiple vehicles, feeds this information back to the server, and dynamically updates puddle position calculations and route recommendations. This closed-loop feedback mechanism allows real-time adaptation to changing road conditions, maintaining reliable friction coefficients by steering vehicles away from newly formed puddles
2Object-affected harmful factors
If water sprinkling is performed to suppress dust, then air quality is improved, but work efficiency decreases due to skidding and mobility disturbances
Solution Approach 1:
The system calculates and communicates target route modifications to vehicles before they encounter puddles, allowing continuous operation without stopping or manual intervention. This preliminary route guidance prevents work interruptions caused by skidding, thereby maintaining high productivity while dust suppression remains effective
Solution Approach 2:
Each vehicle's automated driving system autonomously receives puddle position information and automatically adjusts its own target route without requiring external control or manual operation. This self-service capability ensures continuous work efficiency as vehicles independently adapt to changing road conditions caused by water sprinkling
3Productivity
If the target route is modified to avoid puddles, then work efficiency is maintained, but the operation management system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The server performs multiple functions using the same computational resources: it generates road surface maps from vehicle sensor data, calculates puddle positions based on sprinkling information and terrain data, determines optimal target routes, and communicates with vehicles. This multi-functionality avoids the need for separate dedicated systems for each task, thereby limiting overall system complexity while maintaining productivity
Solution Approach 2:
The server acts as an intermediary that centralizes complex calculations (puddle position computation, route optimization) and provides simplified guidance information to vehicles. This intermediary approach concentrates system complexity in a single coordination point rather than distributing it across multiple vehicle systems, making the overall system more manageable while preserving work efficiency
Data Source
AI summary
An operation management system configured to manage operations of registered mobilities in a limited specific area, including a computer configured to: generate a road surface map data such that a position in map data and road surface information are associated with each other, based on positional information and road surface information obtained from at least one of the registered mobilities on which a road surface condition detecting device is installed; compute a positon where a puddle is formed, based on i) one of water sprinkling information that is information on water sprinkling over a road surface by a sprinkler vehicle or weather information of the specific area and ii) the road surface map data; designate a designation mobility from among the registered mobilities and modify a target route of the designation mobility based on the puddle position; and send a command regarding the modified target route to the designation mobility.