HIGH PROFILE
Autonomy ’ s boots on the ground
Sedna autonomous implementation team on the ground at Roy Hill mine , Western Australia . From left to right , Kurt Crossman , Jordan Oxborrow and Jacques Dijzel mine planning and operations . Often IT and the inpit mining teams have not worked so closely before – now they really have to .
Seldom are the specialist integrators that really get autonomous mining projects working on the ground talked about – but they play a crucial role . Paul Moore caught up with Darryl Mitchell , Sedna CEO
Q Are you system integrators or installers and where do you fit into the market versus others ? A We are all at once autonomous mining system integrators , troubleshooters , trainers and facilitators . A lot of Sedna ’ s work is with Epiroc , FLANDERS and ASI – which is dominated by autonomy retrofit to blasthole drills and mining trucks . Others in the market are also involved in retrofits but are dealing mainly with “ new ” autonomous machines working closely with equipment OEMs in a more productised approach . Examples include Autonomo and Mining Technicians Group Australia ( MTGA ) who between them have handled many of the big AHS and autonomous drilling projects in Australia , particularly since the early days . While we overlap with them to some extent , given that we are mainly retrofit focused , I would say among our strengths is coming up with innovative solutions to engineering , operational & technology problems .
Q On the ground with autonomy retrofit , what are the main challenges you help mines face ? A Number one is definitely networks . Autonomous systems have a big reliance on communications . Often it is the first time that that the comms team onsite have been tested due to the new demands being placed on the network – they are going from being largely a support function , ie maintaining systems , to becoming an integral part of the mining process . The other challenge we see relates to mine planning and surveying as there is a lot that must be put in place on that side of things for an autonomy project to be successful . AHS in particular is a lot less flexible in regard to mine planning versus conventional manned operations . All this is not meant in a negative sense – it is just part of the process that mines must go through on their autonomy journey , so change management plays a key role . I like to think of AHS as being like a process plant – and these mining companies already have people running processing plants facing very similar problems with similar procedures to mitigate risks .
Q Can you describe the IT and comms challenges in more depth – is it related to use of legacy systems ? A The fact is that the comms requirement for AHS is much more demanding than anything that has been done before in terms of its criticality . Fleet Management Systems , usually the main customer of in pit networks , are far more tolerant to comms failures and dead zones than AHS . In the event of a total comms failure a FMS continues to run and add value – with autonomy , comms reliability makes a difference to real time productivity . Autonomy can be achieved with WiFI , wireless mesh or LTE – what matters more is planning and maintenance of the network , and that the comms people have a seat at the top table in terms of
Darryl Mitchell , Sedna CEO
Q Given all this , what role does Sedna play in this mix ? A All of these autonomy projects have an operational readiness phase where we try to get the key decision makers to understand the technology properly , ie this is the system you bought , and this is how it works . Then we work on how to get through the main hurdles to make it work well on site , plus understanding the safety and productivity risks and how to manage those risks . There is starting to be a lot of knowledge of how autonomous systems work in general – but this does not always relate to the specifics of how the particular system being implemented actually works . Incorrect assumptions can be made . We also need to identify for that particular mine what the unique mining challenges are and translate those into system requirements , so that our partners such as ASI can work through them and come up with solutions where needed . After the operational readiness phase there is usually some kind of limited production phase , which will be when the first trucks will be retrofitted . We will sometimes get involved with designing the integration of the drive by wire system , but this is more a part of ASI ’ s role than ours . Often this is the first time a particular model or variant of truck will have been retrofitted so there tends to be some backwards and forwards work to get the drive by wire element working well . We support our client ASI with a raft of data and testing to help get this done . Everything on top of this layer is relatively standard .
Q Does it get easier after each project or is it always like starting over again ? A It has been getting easier from a technology and project implementation point of view ! Autonomy is also getting more common . The challenge is now to keep up with timelines and new projects . We remain a fairly small company but in terms of the experience and skills of our people on the ground we very much hold our own against anyone else . This is the real challenge now – there is only a handful of people with meaningful project experience in autonomy project implementation and as demand grows exponentially , this needs to change .
Q Are you predicting a lot more interest in retrofit as a solution such as from Tier 2 miners , contractors and others ? A There is a significant strategic advantage for a miner to remain autonomous from a single OEM ,
80 International Mining | SEPTEMBER 2021