COLLISION AVOIDANCE
installing Nerospec VICs , and therefore making the vehicles ISO201815 prepared . This is happening before the actual CAS / PDS vendor has been decided – effectively these mines are getting themselves Level 9 CAS ‘ ready .’ This means whatever CAS is chosen can easily be plugged in . But having Nerospec ’ s VIC installed also means the miner gets a lot of valuable data monitoring before the CAS is actually in place . “ This covers things like maintenance , traffic control , operational performance data and machine movement control . This install of VICs before the PDS is a big part of our current value proposition to the market as it brings them a combination of value . It also gives some of these mining clients greater freedom to run trials with different Level 9 PDS vendors .”
Pohlmann said that in many cases , while the
The neroVIEW in-cab screen , in this case in a Caterpillar truck , provides operators with data from the machine and works with the neroHUB vehicle intervention controller enabling Level 9 collision avoidance
equipment OEM or a PDS supplier that they own or have partnered with , say they offer a Level 9 solution together including vehicle integration , the mines still opt to use the neroHUB VIC because it is the most proven option in terms of consistency and reliability . “ Often mines have older machines they need to integrate , plus you have a fleet wide equality requirement – where you want all the machines standardised as much as possible in terms of the Level 9 deployment , and our VIC is the only real way to do that . Plus , you get the data collection element across all the machines .” Pohlmann also said that consistency of the vehicle intervention configuration . “ That means at what point do you actually start slowing down the vehicle and how strongly do you brake , then when do you actually stop the machine . These are customisation parameters that you want to manage across the fleet , not vehicle by vehicle or OEM by OEM . The PDS vendors that also offer their own interface to talk to the machine via ISO21815 often do not get consistent results and can result in abrupt emergency stops which is not ideal for neither the operator nor the machine . This configurability and consistency is something we at Nerospec specialise in and take care of . We optimise the machine response and behaviour .”
The " vehicle intervention ready " offering is something Nerospec is also offering directly with OEMs . “ in South Africa , for example , the PDS vendor is something that is chosen later or in some cases changed later . Having the neroHUB already fitted – a customisable and configurable fleet wide interface - means any options are possible . Where other OEMs have opted to tie themselves to just one specific PDS vendor whether through ownership or partnership – this can lead to issues later on as PDS performance varies across different machines and there is no one size fits all solution .”
What about the neroHUB itself – is it an evolving technology ? “ We have made significant headway in the past year in terms of our ability to integrate with more vehicle types . As mentioned this includes surface machines – where we have learnt a lot about optimising electrical and hydraulic integration with large surface trucks – as the approach to slowing them down with gradual braking and stopping them is quite different to the approach with underground machines due to the systems used and the size of the machines as well as the speeds they are travelling at .”
IM
International Mining | JANUARY 2024