CANADIAN TECHNOLOGY
devised can reduce the noise from these nuisance alarms by 90-95 % for a more accurate and reliable system that ensures the safety of miners working underground.
A case study presented at this year’ s SME Annual Meeting in Denver in February: Proximity Detection with Reduced Nuisance Alarms, Purpose-Built for Underground Hard Rock Mines by Alexandre Cervinka and Cynthis Younes, examined how Fresnillo’ s Juanicipio Project, a silver mine in Mexico, reduced the number of near-miss incidents as well as reduced lost time with this system.
Newtrax Technologies is now partnering with the Montreal-based Institute for Data Valorisation( IVADO). Together, they aim to create new value for existing customers with the big-data generated from Newtrax systems installed around the world.
Jean-Marc Rousseau, Director of Technology Transfer for IVADO, said“ the customer problems Newtrax is trying to solve and the datasets they have are a perfect fit for the expertise of our deep learning and operational research hubs”. Deep learning, the subset of artificial intelligence( AI) focused on teaching machines to find and classify patterns in mass quantities of data, is now the cornerstone of growth for Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon and a host of other Silicon Valley companies.
Cervinka, CEO of Newtrax, said:“ since our HQ is in the middle of what is becoming the Silicon Valley of AI( Montreal) with the world’ s largest number of independent data scientists a stone’ s throw away from our R & D centre, we are well positioned to leverage locally what globally is a very scarce talent pool.”
Breakthroughs in AI have historically been constrained by the absence of high-quality training datasets, not by algorithmic advances. Rapid progress in machine vision, language translation, and games only occurred after relevant and specialised big data became available.
In this context, Newtrax and IVADO are confident the combination of high-quality datasets with world-class AI expertise will deliver powerful decision-making tools for the underground hard rock mines of the future.
Safety is one of the core drivers of Wenco technology, best known for fleet management. A current focus is on integrating collision avoidance systems with fleet management data. Equipment status, destination, route network, bench elevation, and other parameters collected by a real-time fleet management system( FMS) have the potential to affect the severity of hazards found through a collision avoidance system.
Devon Wells and Wenco colleague Jason Clarke in Mining Safer Together: Stronger Collision Avoidance Through Integrating Contextual FMS Data, presented at the SME, note that“ many collision avoidance systems already send their data to FMSs to analyse and store for safety reporting. Using this integration to pull FMS data into collision detection and avoidance calculations presents an opportunity to advance operator safety while also reducing the false positives hampering the technology.
“ The latest collision avoidance systems have attempted to implement EMESRT Design Philosophies guidelines in order to improve upon best practices and pursue the ultimate goal— a thoroughly safe mining operation. Yet, efforts to date still fall short.
“ Even the most advanced technological solutions for collision avoidance come with substantial drawbacks that hinder their utility for surface mining. Complex systems and high costs render many options unviable, while GNSS-based peer-to-peer technology continues to deploy excessive false alarms that force its rejection by machine operators.
“ The contextual data gathered by an FMS, though, presents a real boon to these peer-topeer collision avoidance systems. Unlike stereoscopic video or lidar, this data comes at no additional cost to sites that already use an FMS. Yet, it can greatly aid collision avoidance systems in sorting real hazards from false alarms through its ability to provide information about site parameters and equipment behaviour. FMS data adds a GNSS-supported map of the mine’ s road network, which can facilitate more accurate predictions of equipment travel paths. It provides access to bench elevation data, so collision avoidance systems can nullify alerts produced by equipment operating on separate benches. It gives colour to equipment activities through status codes, allowing the system to mute alerts from equipment working under ordinary conditions.
“ In total, this additional data gives collision avoidance systems the context they need to judge hazards from safe operation and cease sending nuisance alerts to operators.
“ FMS data does not present the only option for
A screenshot of Wenco’ s new collision avoidance system, Fleet Awareness V2X
enhancing the safety of collision avoidance systems to EMESRT-approved levels. Technology vendors are continually working to develop new sensors and logic that can correct for many of the issues in current generation GNSS-based peer-topeer collision avoidance systems. These future options will undoubtedly reduce many of the current complications and raise mine safety to new heights. But, FMS data is already available to connect to collision avoidance systems to address many of the current concerns. In integrating FMS and safety systems, mines stand to significantly decrease the false positives arriving from their current collision avoidance systems and, thereby, make their systems more practicable for surface mining. This integration nudges the current generation of collision avoidance closer to the ideal vision for safety set out in the EMESRT Design Philosophies and offers a workable solution to enhance safety for everyone throughout the mining environment.
With Mines Going Deeper, Developing an All- Encompassing Passive RFID Solution can Help with Safety, Productivity, and Profitability was presented to the SME by M. Brunet of K4 Integration, noting that“ many newly discovered orebodies have been found deep within existing mining infrastructure. Logistical costs to access and maintain these areas are high and any reduction in operating expenditures is crucial.”
Deploying a passive RFID in these circumstances or in new operations is beneficial. It can be used for material handling and inventory: knowing what you have and where in the mine can make inventory management easy and reliable. Proactive ordering makes sure things never run out. Expensive equipment can be tracked in order to monitor its use.
Also, personnel tracking means energy used for lighting and ventilation can be controlled depending on activity in an area of the mine;
40 International Mining | APRIL 2017