COLLISION AVOIDANCE soon . This technology also augments and supports our Open Autonomy initiatives . Booyco has already been offering an open pit solution since 2010 and has focused primarily to date in Southern Africa . Given our global footprint in open pit mining and philosophy of customerfocused open innovation that Booyco also supports , both companies understood that this partnership was a natural fit .”
Newtrax on taking CAS forward again
Newtrax has been deploying proximity detection systems in underground hard rock mines for the past 10 + years and was acquired by Sandvik in 2019 to develop an OEM-agnostic CAS L9 system suitable for automated BEVs in underground metal mines . IM spoke to Newtrax Product Manager , Patrice Corneau , who explained : “ This application is different from others for several reasons , including vehicle speeds up to 30 km / h and the need for predictable performance in environments where magnetic fields are distorted by metallic ore with conductive or magnetic properties , or by unevenly distributed rock reinforcement ( steel mesh , rock bolts ). Also , sources of low frequency interference such as lightning , transformers , running machinery – in particular battery electric vehicles – can cause a strong degradation in the magnetic flux of electro-magnetic fields modulated to transport data .”
He added that the ambition is to one day remove the barricades constraining the use of Sandvik AutoMine , however , committing to a specific safety integrity levels is not possible at this point of time , as industry organisations ( ICMM , EMERST , GMG ) have together concluded that current functional safety standards are problematic for collision avoidance systems in mining due to the perception technologies used .
In 2021 , Barminco , one of the world ’ s leading underground mining contractors with 25 active projects worldwide also announced a partnership with Newtrax to develop a new technology-led solution that improves the safety of pedestrians working near heavy vehicles underground . Barminco ’ s scale and underground mining expertise , combined with Newtrax ’ s leading-edge capability to develop collision avoidance systems and the high penetration of Sandvik heavy vehicles ( HVs ) featuring advanced controls , means this partnership is uniquely positioned to understand how people and equipment interact in underground mines .
Key features of this next generation system include OEM-grade product safety ( same as AutoMine ), OEM-agnostic vehicle interfaces and the most comprehensive safety and productivity
Perenti ’ s Barminco , Newtrax and Sandvik are partnering to develop what they say is a new technology-led solution that improves the safety of pedestrians working near heavy vehicles ( HVs ) underground
management software suite , including locationbased analytics on 3D mine maps . This latter capability was further enhanced by the acquisition of Deswik in December 2021 .
With more than 100 + employees in R & D dedicated to the development of this next generation CAS L9 solution ( which is RF-based ), several marquee early adopters and the global footprint of Sandvik for service and support , Newtrax told IM it is uniquely positioned to accelerate the roll out of CAS L9 worldwide .
Martin Preece , EVP for Gold Fields South Africa