3 ms·

http://www2.sandvik.com/sandvik/0120/Internet/Global/S003713.nsf/Alldocs/22E4D21836AF0147C22572B2002C3F2F http://www2.sandvik.com/sandvik/0120/Internet/Global/S

http://www2.sandvik.com/sandvik/0120/Internet/Global/S003713.nsf/Alldocs/22E4D21836AF0147C22572B2002C3F2F http://www2.sandvik.com/sandvik/0120/Internet/Global/S003713... http://www.mining-technology.com/features/feature41780/ http://www.mining-technology.com/features/feature41780/

georgecmu 16y ago
AutoMine systems are currently operating at Codelco's El Teniente Mine in Chile (since June 2004), Inmet Mining's Pyhäsalmi Mine in Finland (since January 2005), De Beers' Finsch Mine in South Africa (since August 2005) and Williams Mine in Canada (June 2007). A system is also installed in Sandvik's Test Mine in Tampere, Finland, which is used as a platform for developing and testing future system developments and for demonstration purposes. Interesting. Do you guys rely on GPS with corrections alone or do you use active sensing? I imagine ladar is not that great in dusty conditions?
- edfvbrfgb 16y ago
  GPS tends not to work terribly well 1000m underground. They use a combination of laser scanners following the contours of the wall and triangulating from fixed reflective prisms. Sometimes around crushers/trains you use buried electric cables or magnets for precise sensing. Surface mining uses GPS and lasers, in the bottom of an open pit GPS requires a bunch of expensive repeater stations because of the poor sky view.
  - georgecmu 16y ago
    I didn't realize this was underground mining. So, you're really working on driverless trains, not cars or trucks, correct?
    - anamax 16y ago
      > I didn't realize this was underground mining. So, you're really working on driverless trains, not cars or trucks, correct? Why would one think that "underground" implies trains? Trains require tracks. Roads are less precise and have cheaper intersections.
      - edfvbrfgb 16y ago
        They are diesel powered trucks which navigate by following the wall profile - slightly confusingly they are often called 'trams' because moving muck underground is called 'tramming' from the original medieval mine railways!
        georgecmu 16y ago
        So that brings me to my original question -- what kind of sensing do you use on these trams, both to follow the walls and to detect obstacles?
        edfvbrfgb 16y ago
        Time of flight laser scanners (LIDAR). Scanners on each side of the truck measure the shape of the wall. you drive the truck down the tunnel once (in one system) it stores a map of the wall shape and then follows the same shape to keep the same distance form the walls. Another laser scanner checks the tunnel ahead (and behind) for obstacles, other trucks, people, rockfalls etc. On some systems a spinning laser on the top hits fixed prism reflectors with known position on the roof and walls, it constantly resects it's position from this.
      - georgecmu 16y ago
        Maybe because of this exchange in one of the pages he posted? AH: Where did the concept of driverless trains come from and how will it enhance efficiency at the Pilbara mines? GG: Automated trains have been around for some time in airports but they are not used on a heavy-oil long-haul railway network of this scale. We believe the network at the Pilbara mines to be one of the largest private railways in the world, so although the technology is not new, the scale is. The railway stretches from our Pilbara ports to the mines, which covers roughly 330km. It's a long stretch and train drivers can only physically drive so far before being replaced. We only have a single driver per train, with each train stretching over 2.5km long usually consisting of 230 carriages. We cannot find enough train drivers to maintain our expansion forward and the ones we are hiring are getting older and harder to replace.
jacquesm 16y ago
And here I was thinking Sandvik only makes excellent hand tools... Thanks for opening my eyes to this. And what an interesting job you must have.

georgecmu 16y ago

AutoMine systems are currently operating at Codelco's El Teniente Mine in Chile (since June 2004), Inmet Mining's Pyhäsalmi Mine in Finland (since January 2005), De Beers' Finsch Mine in South Africa (since August 2005) and Williams Mine in Canada (June 2007). A system is also installed in Sandvik's Test Mine in Tampere, Finland, which is used as a platform for developing and testing future system developments and for demonstration purposes. Interesting. Do you guys rely on GPS with corrections alone or do you use active sensing? I imagine ladar is not that great in dusty conditions?

edfvbrfgb 16y ago
GPS tends not to work terribly well 1000m underground. They use a combination of laser scanners following the contours of the wall and triangulating from fixed reflective prisms. Sometimes around crushers/trains you use buried electric cables or magnets for precise sensing. Surface mining uses GPS and lasers, in the bottom of an open pit GPS requires a bunch of expensive repeater stations because of the poor sky view.
- georgecmu 16y ago
  I didn't realize this was underground mining. So, you're really working on driverless trains, not cars or trucks, correct?
  - anamax 16y ago
    > I didn't realize this was underground mining. So, you're really working on driverless trains, not cars or trucks, correct? Why would one think that "underground" implies trains? Trains require tracks. Roads are less precise and have cheaper intersections.
    - edfvbrfgb 16y ago
      They are diesel powered trucks which navigate by following the wall profile - slightly confusingly they are often called 'trams' because moving muck underground is called 'tramming' from the original medieval mine railways!
      - georgecmu 16y ago
        So that brings me to my original question -- what kind of sensing do you use on these trams, both to follow the walls and to detect obstacles?
        edfvbrfgb 16y ago
        Time of flight laser scanners (LIDAR). Scanners on each side of the truck measure the shape of the wall. you drive the truck down the tunnel once (in one system) it stores a map of the wall shape and then follows the same shape to keep the same distance form the walls. Another laser scanner checks the tunnel ahead (and behind) for obstacles, other trucks, people, rockfalls etc. On some systems a spinning laser on the top hits fixed prism reflectors with known position on the roof and walls, it constantly resects it's position from this.
    - georgecmu 16y ago
      Maybe because of this exchange in one of the pages he posted? AH: Where did the concept of driverless trains come from and how will it enhance efficiency at the Pilbara mines? GG: Automated trains have been around for some time in airports but they are not used on a heavy-oil long-haul railway network of this scale. We believe the network at the Pilbara mines to be one of the largest private railways in the world, so although the technology is not new, the scale is. The railway stretches from our Pilbara ports to the mines, which covers roughly 330km. It's a long stretch and train drivers can only physically drive so far before being replaced. We only have a single driver per train, with each train stretching over 2.5km long usually consisting of 230 carriages. We cannot find enough train drivers to maintain our expansion forward and the ones we are hiring are getting older and harder to replace.

jacquesm 16y ago

And here I was thinking Sandvik only makes excellent hand tools... Thanks for opening my eyes to this. And what an interesting job you must have.