SURFACE LOADING
Hitachi will use a hydraulic EX3600-7 excavator in its remote control verification tests
of ultra-large hydraulic excavators to enable mining site customers to use the equipment they currently operate , while supporting autonomous operation at mining sites in the future , HCM said .
The company explains : “ Mining resources
including iron ore and copper sustain the activities of global industries , and the sites which mine these resources are required to operate in a stable manner 24 hours a day , 365 days a year . “ In contrast , the operators of ultra-large hydraulic excavators are required to repeatedly perform complex operations for a long period of time while paying attention to avoid collision with surrounding equipment and the stability of the vehicle , in order to excavate and load mining resources in an efficient manner .”
Because the safety and productivity of ultra-large hydraulic excavator operation largely depends on the operator ’ s skill and experience , building a production system that does not depend on these skills and reduces the operator ’ s workload are important issues at mining sites , it said .
Such developments have been coming from the group since it entered the mining machinery business in the late 1970s , and it has already made leaps in tele-remote operations of excavators within other sectors . For example , the company used a remote-controlled unmanned excavator to advance the development of technologies in the reconstruction work at Mount Unzen Fugen-dake volcanic eruption in 1992 . In 2013 , it also led the industry by advancing the development of technologies for long-distance remote control by remotely operating a hydraulic excavator located in the Urahoro test site , Hokkaido , over an internet connection from approximately 800 km away in Tsuchiura City , Ibaraki Prefecture .
“ Now , we have decided to begin verification tests at an actual mining site to advance the development of autonomous driving for ultralarge hydraulic excavators , reflecting the needs of customers ,” it said .
The autonomous operation for ultra-large hydraulic excavators can be deployed as a standalone system , or as a part of fleet management system ( FMS ), such as Fleet Control from Wenco International Mining Systems , a HCM subsidiary with a solid implementation track record at large-scale mines . “ Our goal is to balance a high degree of safety and productivity by having autonomous operation through sharing the information among the autonomous ultra-large hydraulic excavators , dump trucks and other equipment ,” the company said .
Because it is difficult to assess the conditions around the vehicle and the inclination of the vehicle during remote control compared with a manned operation , the actual machinery will be equipped with a collision avoidance system and a vehicle stability monitoring system to reduce the burden on the operator performing the remote control during the verification tests , HCM said .
In addition , Wenco has been advancing the development of an excavator payload monitoring system , which measures the weight of the material inside the bucket , and plans to test this feature at the same time . Reflecting the needs of actual customers through verification testing will further improve remote control and driving support technologies in ultra-large hydraulic excavators , HCM said .
“ These operator support systems can be retrofitted onto the EX-7 series of ultra-large hydraulic excavators and are scheduled to be ready for the market during the 2022 financial year ( April 1 , 2022 onwards ) as systems installed on actual machinery to increase operation safety ,” the company said .
HCM began researching AHS in 2009 , with six EH5000 rigid dump trucks recently starting 24- hour autonomous haulage at Whitehaven ’ s Maules Creek coal mine in New South Wales , Australia . Because a diverse and large quantity of manned and unmanned machineries mix together in a large-scale mining operation , the radio communication needed for the operating control must be managed in a stable manner , HCM explained .
“ The AHS from Hitachi Construction Machinery runs on the Wenco FMS and utilises various technologies from the Hitachi Group to realise a significant advantage by extending its range of control up to a maximum of 100 vehicles ,” the company said .
The goal of autonomous ultra-large hydraulic excavators is to balance a high level of safety and productivity , even in the autonomous mining sites of the future , by sharing information with dump trucks and other machinery .
MARCH 2021 | International Mining