Mining Vehicle Obstacle Screening to Prevent Unnecessary Stops

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Solution Overview

Problem

Mining vehicles often experience unnecessary stops due to obstacles detected in their safety zones, leading to inefficiencies in their automatic driving routes, particularly in narrow mining tunnels where obstacles are close but not hazardous.

Innovation Solution

A method and apparatus that compare obstacle location information detected by scanners with pre-stored safe obstacle information to prevent unnecessary stops by determining if an obstacle is safe, allowing the vehicle to pass by it rather than stopping.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If the safety system stops the mining vehicle upon detecting any obstacle in the safety zone, then the safety of the mining vehicle is improved, but the productivity deteriorates due to recurrent unnecessary stops

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvesafety of mining vehicleVSAvoidoperational efficiency
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary action by storing location information of obstacles determined to be safe in advance. When the scanning device detects an obstacle, the control unit checks against this pre-stored safe obstacle information before triggering a stop, allowing the vehicle to continue operation without unnecessary interruptions while maintaining safety standards.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

2Measurement precision

If the safety zone is set to monitor all areas around the mining vehicle, then the detection capability is improved, but the false alarm rate increases in narrow tunnels with close obstacles

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveobstacle detection capabilityVSAvoidfalse alarm rate
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSLoss of information

Solution Approach 1:

The system implements feedback by continuously comparing scanning results with stored safe obstacle location information. When an obstacle is detected within the safety zone, the control unit retrieves location information of previously identified safe obstacles and compares it with the detected obstacle's position, providing feedback that distinguishes between hazardous and non-hazardous obstacles, thereby reducing false alarms.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #23Feedback

3Reliability

If the mining vehicle stops automatically when an obstacle is detected in the safety zone, then the protection against hazards is improved, but the route navigation efficiency deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveprotection against hazardsVSAvoidroute navigation time
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary action by pre-storing location information of obstacles that have been determined to be safe during previous operations or route planning. This allows the vehicle to navigate efficiently by comparing detected obstacles against this pre-established safe obstacle database, avoiding unnecessary stops and maintaining optimal route navigation speed while still providing protection against actual hazards.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Data Source

PatentEP2569652B1Method and apparatus for mining vehicle safety arrangements
Publication Date: 2021.03.10 SANDVIK MINING & CONSTR OY
  • EP2569652B1 patent drawingFigure 1~3a
  • EP2569652B1 patent drawingFigure 3b~4
  • EP2569652B1 patent drawingFigure 5~6

AI summary

The present invention relates to a method for a safety system of a mining vehicle. The method comprises scanning the surroundings of the mining vehicle while the mining vehicle is driven and giving a collision warning if an obstacle is detected in a safety zone of the mining vehicle.In the system, there is stored obstacle information comprising at least location information of predetermined obstacles. Location information of the obstacle detected on the basis of the scanning is compared with the location information determined in the obstacle information. Stopping of the mining vehicle, caused by the safety system due to the detected obstacle, is prevented in response to the detected obstacle being determined safe on the basis of checking the obstacle information.