FLEET MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS easy to manage network expansion . Also , in an open pit mine , the work performed at a location typically does not change frequently — you may be drilling a bench for a few days , and after the blast , an excavator typically works the bench for the next few days , and sometimes even weeks . Optimising load-haul is super important .”
But in an underground mine , ever work location sees at least five different kinds of equipment to do various activities - cleaning the heading , drilling , powder loading , blasting , mucking , scaling , bolting , cleanup , and spraying — all within a day . Task sequencing for ‘ cycling-aheading ’ becomes a lot more important . “ The well known FMS solutions were built for open-pit use cases which don ’ t translate well into underground use cases . And they rely on network availability at all times . The UI / UX is also very open pit centric . Underground has a very different set of needs . There have been mines where they ’ ve tried these FMS underground - but have had to rip them out because those systems don ’ t meet the requirements for underground mines .”
GroundHog ’ s Underground FMS it says is built around the underground use cases — with the assumption that networks are not continuously available . The primary use case is to optimise for ‘ cycling-a-heading ’ faster and maximise availability and utilisation . And then solve for optimising load-haul cycles . “ In areas were there is no network , GroundHog automatically creates peer-to-peer networks so supervisors have nearreal-time visibility of everything going on at the face . And unlike some open pit FMS where you have to buy all their expensive hardware , GroundHog uses standard , off-the-shelf hardware that customers can buy by themselves and easily deploy the system in a matter of a week , and see production improvements within the first 6-8 weeks - it is very easy to justify the ROI . GroundHog is also a very extensible platform with a lot of apps you can download and add over time - they start with Short Interval Control and Fleet Management , and then expand to RTLS and Safety , then Telemetry and Maintenance , and Grade Control , and finally Inventory Management .”
KMO-Fleet and data driven productivity
New FMS entrant KMO-Fleet with its mantra “ data driven productivity ” is a spin off from the UK ' s Camborne School of Mines – COO Dr Matt
Eyre is still a Senior Lecturer at CSM while his colleague , the CEO Herman Aguirre-Jofre , a Chilean Mining Engineer , completed his PhD at CSM .
To date the company has been funded by Innovate UK to help it commercialise into industry . KMO is currently coming to the end of that funding with a view to transitioning into commercial sales of the system from May 2023 onwards . It has been built as a modular offering – designed to be both low cost and easily deployable without a lot of requirements for support by highly technical staff .
Aguirre-Jofre is a former Director of Operations Management at Codelco Andina . In his previous career in Chile he says more complex systems took time to install , were obviously costly and while effective in the main pit where not always keeping up with the new areas of the mine being developed .
He told IM : “ I had the feeling that FMS should be more plug and play . We have also interviewed 100s of smaller mines that have told us – they don ’ t need real time second by second data – the end of the shift is enough – and this brings the cost down hugely for them being able to use KMO ." Eyre adds : " And even with satcomms running off a solar panel , we can still achieve near real time – often we will position an uplink beacon at the crusher so the system is only ever half a cycle behind . Also installation is measured in hours , not days or weeks . Users don ’ t pay a big upfront cost – they pay per machine logger . So they avoid a big initial CAPEX .”
There are different ways KMO uses the sensor data – of course it runs digital signal processing algorithms and can also use AI where the machine will define the state it is in . As well as
KMO-Fleet ' s data driven productivity FMS is now running at customer sites in Chile and Argentina
being OEM-agnostic , KMO gives users complete access to the data . Plus , they can configure dashboards to focus on whatever specific data they are most interested in . Or they can have the raw data if they need that .
KMO is now a year into its journey . Eyre : “ The whole ethos of KMO is to produce something which is low cost , simple to produce and provide a basis for a mine to facilitate and install without having sophisticated network infrastructure – saleable , low cost solutions for any size extractive operation . We went through Innovate UK ’ s ICURe program which focuses on spinning out expertise from universities into industry .”
The system has been designed to be intuitive , easily installed , and reconfigured if required when the mine expands . The system works independently of GPS connectivity , unlocking both surface and underground operations . KMO has also now certified its own hardware which will be hardwired in . “ If we have GPS we will use GPS but we have an amalgamation of other sensors that we use – 16 in all – that we use to make interpretations through AI and signal processing for example . We are also independent of wireless networks whch is obviously a big cost advantage ." Its target market is small to medium scale mines as a lighter system .
KMO uses an ad hoc WiFi system locally between the machines ( store and forward ). The logger is also OEM agnostic and can be fitted to any machine of any type and age – important for some smaller mines and quarries using mixed fleets of equipment that they may have had for 20 or even 30 years or more . When the truck
MAY 2023 | International Mining