COLLISION AVOIDANCE designed and manufactured in-house by Newtrax at its Montreal base in Canada , along with local long-term component suppliers . Cap Lamp 3.0 , he says , is “ `a complete transformation from what has come before in terms of both sophistication and capability .”
Newtrax is equipping all the new Level 8 and Level 9 CxS installations with Cap Lamps 3.0 , including mining groups in the APAC region mentioned in previous articles by IM . “ These lamps are no longer prototypes and are now mass-produced , with thousands being manufactured annually . The current limitation to market availability is our production capacity . Although the system has yet to be commercially deployed on Sandvik BEVs at a fleet scale , it has been successfully tested and is compatible with different powertrains . Additionally , the Sandvik machines already have ISO21815 MIC access for seamless vehicle integration .
Nerospec ’ s neroHUB – configurability and consistency
Nerospec SK with its neroHUB universal interface for Trackless Mining Machines ( TMM ) and Collision Warning Systems ( CWS ) has been and remains the market leader in this niche . This is because the neroHUB as a Vehicle Intervention Controller ( VIC ) makes EMESRT Level 9 collision avoidance possible in a very consistent and reliable way . Of course PDS ( Proximity Detection System ) vendors and equipment OEMs today argue that due to the ISO21815 protocol a separate universal VIC is not required – but experience so far has often shown that because Nerospec ensures configurability and consistency across the fleet and on every single machine regardless of type or age with a high degree of customisation even when ISO21815 is not available – that it is the safe and in many cases the only option as well as giving the most consistent results that mines are looking for .
IM spoke to Eric Pohlmann , Nerospec SK CEO , beginning with some insight into the situation in South Africa since Level 9 was mandated in December 2022 . “ Of course , we have had a huge increase in activity as well as enquiries since the Level 9 mandating in South Africa . This includes numerous meetings with the mine owners and operators and with the PDS vendors themselves either separately or all together or in the same room . Sometimes the regulators are also present and in some cases the equipment suppliers . The discussions are all focused on what is being done and by when , plus who is taking responsibility for what . Some mines are going full steam ahead on it with a lot of drive and commitment , already with a well organised step by step deployment plan . In these cases the DMRE is mainly observing . Others have taken a more conservative stance and are basically trying to
Matrix launches OmniPro Vision AI
Matrix Design Group , a leading technology provider for industrial and mining safety and productivity , is introducing OmniPro ® Vision AI , a state-of-the-art collision avoidance system . This highly powerful system is designed to provide alerts when pedestrians , vehicles and other potential hazards are detected in the path of mobile equipment .
OmniPro Vision AI is says allows for fully customisable zones and the ability to work in low-light and all-weather conditions , making it suitable for a wide range of equipment applications and operating environments . “ With its high-speed processing rate , OmniPro Vision AI minimises false positives and nuisance alerts that often desensitise workers to alarms . Operating without the need for personal wearable devices or tags , OmniPro Vision AI is capable of identifying individuals wearing PPE and pedestrians in any posture , including standing sideways , crouching , kneeling , or in partial view . OmniPro Vision AI allows for visual and audible zone breach alerts for both equipment operators and pedestrians and easily integrates with OEM controls for slowing and disabling machine movement .”
OmniPro Vision AI it says also can be aligned with the OmniPro InFocus cloud application , which delivers 24 / 7 access to an advanced dashboard with real-time metrics and analytics . OmniPro InFocus provides management with essential operational insights and intelligence to make the best decisions for the operation . All data , including zone breach incidents and timestamped photos , are recorded and stored for future reference and reporting . Essential reporting , including average daily breaches per machine and trending breaches over time , is available , along with custom reporting and analytics .
assess how far they need to go to reach compliance with everyone around the table . The DMRE actively encourages the big mines to get full fleets with Level 9 CAS running as soon as possible to act as an example to the rest of the industry and all those mines , particularly on surface , for whom it is a completely new prospect . Underground is less of an issue as the PDS market was already maturing there – both in metallic mines like platinum , gold and chrome but also in coal .”
He added that Nerospec has had a very significant neroHUB order intake in South Africa for its local Nerospec OSCON business since the mandating – it has more than doubled its business in the country in just a year . “ This is both surface and underground demand – traditionally we have been more underground focused but the stark need in the surface market for direct vehicle intervention means this is a very fast moving area for us .” In terms of where Level 9 demand is outside of South Africa : “ We see a lot of interest and pick up of discussion in Australia and we see this as the next big Level 9 market – because of the significant safety concerns there and also their capacity in terms of technology capability and the ability of their mine teams to deal with the change management that comes with these projects . Australia aside , we are working with a major miner in Canada on underground trials of our VICs , as well as with a Tier 1 miner in the US as well as on a fleet of 75 machines in Mongolia and have tendered for a large project involving over 100 machines in Brazil , just to mention a few ."
Interestingly , Pohlmann said that a lot of major miners , who know that Level 9 CAS will come in the near term – are actively going ahead and
Epiroc ' s comprehensive offer post Mernok buy
In December 2022 , Epiroc announced it was to acquire Mernok Elektronik ( Pty ) Ltd , a South African company that provides advanced collision avoidance systems for mining companies - this was duly completed in February 2023 . But with so many PDS / CAS related companies active in South Africa , how does the Epiroc offering now stand out ? Andreas Prill , Acting BLM , Digitalisation at Epiroc told IM : “ The Epiroc CAS / PDS is very unique in the sense that it comprises of a number of sensors raging from low frequency , sub GHz RF , time of flight , GPS , cameras and radars which can be freely combined to achieve the highest level of safety for various environments like underground or surface operations and for the individual use cases a mine wants to address . We understand that there is not one technology when it comes to CAS / PDS which is why we have a very modular and very flexible system to achieve the highest level of safety .” Epiroc is also unusual among OEMs in also offering a factory fitted ISO21815-2:2021 CAS interface . The interface allows for third party systems to communicate with Epiroc ' s Rig Control System , RCS , in a completely new way . This enables a third party PDS added to the vehicle , when needed , takes interventional control of the machine to prevent accidents . The CAS interface can be ordered for the complete Epiroc RCS Loader fleet as well as for the Minetruck MT42 and Minetruck MT65 . The interface has been developed working closely with Vehicle Intervention Controller leader Nerospec SK .
JANUARY 2024 | International Mining