TECHNOLOGY
MAKING MINING
SMARTER, SAFER,
AND MORE
EFFICIENT
The addition of AutoMine for underground loaders and trucks
to Sandvik’s Interoperability Policy is the next step in Sandvik’s
continued journey to set the industry standard for mine
automation and digitalisation.
By Tarren Bolton
Sandvik’s high-tech solutions enhance customer productivity, profitability, and safety.
T
he mining industry and
customer requirements
are trending towards
higher levels of automation
and digitalisation, including
interoperability.
Sandvik Mining and Rock Technology is
developing an interoperable platform for
its world-leading automation system for
underground loaders and trucks — with
a focus on ensuring their game-changing
technology is easily adoptable for
customers with mixed equipment fleets.
“As a world leader in underground
automation, we have a responsibility to
make this game-changing technology
easier to implement for the mining
industry,” says Patrick Murphy, president
of Rock Drills & Technologies at Sandvik
Mining and Rock Technology. “While
we feel that customers will achieve
30
MAY 2019
the highest level of performance
when purchasing Sandvik equipment,
we recognise the need to unlock
automation’s full potential for all
equipment regardless of manufacturer.”
Automation solutions remove people
from the danger areas in the mining
operation. An operator can now operate
the machine from a comfortable station
either underground or on surface. The
operator is no longer directly exposed
to vibrations and fatigue associated with
operating the equipment. “And now,
customers with mixed fleets will have
the full power of AutoMine behind them
as well,” says Murphy.
How it works
To enable interoperability, Sandvik
Mining and Rock Technology will
introduce the AutoMine Access API
(Application Programming Interface
— a set of functions and procedures
that allows the creation of applications
that access the features or data of an
operating system, application, or other
service), which will provide standard,
predefined interfaces for connecting
third-party loaders and trucks for control
by Sandvik’s AutoMine system. “The
interface for third-party equipment is
in server level only. Sandvik will not
retrofit AutoMine onboard packages
to other manufacturers’ equipment.
The AutoMine Access APIs will include
functionality for both machine control
and safety. The Sandvik interface
allows both tele-remote control as a
mandatory basic level, and management
of automated missions with fleet traffic
control as an additional and optional
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