SURFACE DRILLING
Drills . Harris oversees the development and application of Sandvik ’ s remote automation technology using AutoMine ® from a rotary drills point of view , as well as working with the rest of the surface drills division , including the boom drill product teams , on the application of digital and automation technologies . Subbiah has responsibility for the rotary product line including on-board automation advancement and application .
Sandvik ’ s surface drill automation has really progressed and accelerated in the past two years . Harris told IM : “ It is significant that Sandvik ’ s history of providing proven underground solutions with automation for loading and hauling dates back to 2004 . Fast forward to 2019 , we began validating AutoMine ® for our large surface rotary drills at our Alachua operation in Florida and we have already come a long way since then in a short time .” He added : “ I would say our approach in surface drilling automation is distinct from that of our competitors – given the breadth of our underground experience and background , we were also able to bring in some of those technologies to our surface drills . That includes things like our automation station , which is more like a virtual console that is connected to our rigs . What we are running onboard isn ’ t hugely affected by our remote operations . The APIs that we use are responsible for controlling the rig and receiving data back . We also have safety PLCs meaning our system is ISO-rated – if there are any connection breaks , we want to make sure the system fails the same way each time . If there are challenges with the customer network , we have built in functionality related to movement stop and to give the operator other options to reconnect .”
Subbiah says since 2019 Sandvik has continued to develop its platform in this way as customers say it matches their needs . Sandvik today has five different levels available in AutoMine ® for surface drilling – the first two are the performance and navigation packages . The performance package includes all the onboard automation functions . “ When a customer buys the drill , at any point they can start with onboard automation and then scale up without having to make any major changes to the hardware . The next level up is our navigation package , tying the onboard automation to Auto Drill and the drill pattern and from there move up to the remote automation functions , the most basic of which is line of sight where the operator is on the same bench as the machine . As previously explained , the automation station controls are structured to enable you to oversee the onboard automation . This ensures that the features included in both the performance and navigation packages remain accessible to the autonomous drill operator even
when operated remotely . Beyond this is our control room package that takes into account the operator needing more visibility and control of the whole drilling area with things like geofencing as well as safety elements like obstacle detection .”
Harris adds : “ We also have a feature called InfoGeoPhoto which layers over the drill plan onto the autonomous station screen to give the operator more awareness of their surroundings . Then the last state is full autonomy which adds AutoCycle functionality which enables a fully autonomous drilling cycle where work proceeds through the drilling cycle for multiple holes including hole-to-hole tramming without operator involvement . It can also allow control of multiple autonomous drills . Since releasing that in 2021 , we have continued to add new functionality – in September 2022 at our Innovation in Mining event in Tampere , we demonstrated to our customers the ability through our universal station to operate both boom rigs and rotary rigs from the same station – in that case controlling both a boom rig in Finland and a rotary rig in Florida .”
He says this functionality gives customers with both types of rig automation benefits across their fleet . A good example of a situation where this can be useful is with operations that have boom rigs in more remote perimeter areas of the mine , which are also operating on more uneven or difficult broken ground meaning there is often more need for operator interaction . The universal station allows an operator to keep one or two rotary rigs running autonomously while they pay closer attention to the boom rig . Harris and Subbiah also confirmed that the universal station is being rolled out with a customer in Mexico .
AutoMine ® is available for all iSeries drills – that includes the Leopard DI650i and Pantera DPI series boom drills , plus the rotary rig family – namely the DR410i , the DR412i , the DR413i and DR416i . Harris : “ Another thing that we have done in the rotary division is further develop our software , creating a platform called DRi . This signifies our capability to roll out software updates across all our rotary rig models . Furthermore , it also means we can easily incorporate our automation technology onto any new rigs as well . We recently released the DR413i in 2023 , an unparalleled rig that through DRi is fully compatible with AutoMine technology . With this advancement we were able to monitor the rigs operation and performance from our universal station . Everything is still underpinned by our SICA control architecture however , DRi has been added as a layer on top to allow us to have a single version of autonomy across all our rotary rigs . In terms of retrofitting , DRi is compatible with all new rotary rigs manufactured in the factory and compatible with over 85 % of the iSeries rotary rigs currently operating across the globe . As for the remaining 15 %, we offer a retrofit kit allowing all customers with iSeries blasthole drills the opportunity to harness the value brought forward through DRi .”
Looking at Sandvik drill autonomy , the number of rigs with the full autonomous capability is now in double digits , which includes both platform rotary and boom rigs , and as stated this is building on proven underground solutions which number in the hundreds underlining Sandvik ’ s commitment to delivering reliable and innovative AutoMine ® solutions for mining . A major contract was recently signed with LKAB and announced by Sandvik in December 2023 for the Leveäniemi open-pit mine in Svappavaara , northern Sweden , selecting Sandvik to supply a complete autonomous solution which includes three Leopard™ DI650i down-the-hole ( DTH ) drill rigs with AutoMine ® readiness , My Sandvik Onsite data analytics , rock tools and technical expertise and maintenance service .
Subbiah : “ There is a lot more interest in our solution today now that we are established in the surface market with autonomy and are adding new capabilities and functionalities . The interest is particularly from Chile , Australia , Africa , and Mexico as previously mentioned . We have been conducting customer demonstrations both in Alachua , Florida and in Tampere , Finland . Many customers are recognising the advantages of working with OEM solutions as that has a lot of benefits , and our automation is designed for Sandvik rigs to allow operation at maximum efficiency .”
Harris adds : “ We have all of the technology in place to ensure that we are also protecting the machine , and there is concern in the industry about future maintenance issues with non-OEM systems . Our drills are now being shipped AutoMine ® ready so it is really easy for customers to enable autonomous features when they are ready and with no downtime at the minesite or invasive work needed on the drill . From a digital standpoint the release of our My
APRIL 2024 | International Mining