UNDERGROUND AUTOMATION
Robotic hauls underground
Paul Moore takes a detailed look at why autonomy of trucks has lagged LHDs underground and where the major players are in terms of offering and development
So far in the underground mining equipment market – two of the market leaders , Sandvik Mining & Rock Solutions and Epiroc , have released or partly released autonomous truck solutions into the market . Sandvik AutoMine ® -enabled truck loops have actually operated underground for many years – notably at the Finsch diamond mine in South Africa , as well as at the Williams gold mine in Canada .
Epiroc made a pre-release of its Minetruck Automation solution , which is part of its 6th Sense offering , in 2021 , and is now refining its offering at Garpenberg . Caterpillar has not yet publicly released formal information but is working on its first autonomous truck offering which will be applied on the AD45 .
First off , we spoke to Vladimir Sysoev , Epiroc ’ s Global Portfolio Manager 6th Sense about the company ’ s evolving offering . He had this to say : “ From the broader perspective , in Epiroc we use our Rig Control System ( RCS ) that is common across all our automated and autonomous machines . The question is how far can you take the solution with trucks that is already globally proven on loaders ? The major difference when automating underground trucks , and this is true for all the major OEMs , not just us , is that currently it is still necessary to seal off the autonomous working area of the mine , usually with laser gates . In the case of loaders this is not as much of an issue – normally the tramming distance for an autonomous loader is not more than 200 m , so the segregated area is relatively small . While it still creates constraints with mine planning , if you just have loaders going from the stopes , or drawpoints in the case of a block cave , the need for interaction with manually operated vehicles is limited .”
He adds : “ When it comes to trucks , there are some significant differences – first of all , generally you will be running the trucks at higher
Sandvik AutoMine equipped truck at Williams gold mine in Hemlo , where an autonomous truck loop ran for 16 years
speeds than loaders and over a longer , often much longer , tramming distance . Secondly , the truck itself has to be loaded by something – that may be a chute , but it also may be a loader so then you have another machine to deal with , whether it is also automated or not . Third , in
Epiroc says Minetruck Automation provides a full autonomous cycle with automated dump function and programmed routes . One operator can control a mixed fleet of automated trucks and loaders
76 International Mining | SEPTEMBER 2022