Vehicle safety in mining

There is no doubt that heavy mining vehicle operators have to accomplish a difficult task. The increase in mine productivity has led to a proportional increase in the size of the equipment used. Most vehicles have considerable operator blind spots, due to scale alone.

Despite the best efforts of operators, accidents on mine sites remain an industry-wide problem. The reasons for accidents are diverse, so too are the collision scenarios.

Safety and health commissioner Stewart Bell estimates that greater than 50% of mining operations in Queensland are currently trialling or operating proximity detection systems (PDT) on heavy mining vehicles to reduce these accidents.

Building on its experience in the development of advanced driver assistance systems (including: adaptive cruise control (ACC); automatic emergency braking (AEB); pedestrian protection (PP); lane departure warning (LDW); and up to complete autonomous driving platforms) Sick has introduced a turnkey proximity detection system for the mining industry.

The Sick suite of collision avoidance systems (CAS) allows for the combination of different technologies in order to be truly fit for purpose. The building blocks of the Sick CAS suite are a number of advanced laser scanners used cooperatively with other sources of information like GPS. Qualified obstacle information from these sensors is used in a warning strategy, which alerts an operator, via a simple user interface, to take evasive action. The same technology has been widely used in passenger vehicles to automatically control the vehicle, adapt the speed to a safe distance and to avoid the collision.

The CAS is a turnkey retrofit solution suitable for surface mining operation. The multiecho detection provides good performance in rain, dust, fog and even snow. It can be configured to fit existing mine operation processes.

The company has invested in the adaptation of proven technologies in a way to be used by mining companies. This has resulted in a product that is easily installed onto a variety of vehicle types and makes a ‘plug-and-play’ system without the necessity to be integrated into the vehicle’s control and sensor system. This allows for cost-effective adaptation and offers further integration into fleet management or other collision avoidance systems as required.

The first installation of the CAS was completed in cooperation with BEC Engineering at Alcoa’s Huntly mine site in 2010. The success of the implementation exemplified the importance of the end user’s dedication to the project and ownership of the technology. Unintended road departure, potential collisions as well as reversing incidents are prevented by alerting the operator, displaying only relevant information and alarming audibly, if necessary.

It has been developed to be an aid and not an annoyance, as it has an in-built awareness of intentional driving behaviour, like the avoidance of a rock or turning at an intersection. It also automatically adapts warning zone dimensions according to the speed and switches the context between reversing, travelling forward, crossing roads, turning and loading. A digital map is used to raise the operator’s attention in their approach to predefined hazardous areas like intersections and construction sites.

The effective combination of technologies is a sensible approach, when considered that fatalities and serious injury can occur in all possible scenarios from: a close proximity crush; an operator misjudgement during a precision loading or unloading process; a microsleep while at the controls of a vehicle.

Ultimately, people working within the mines bear the costs of such incidents. The interest from the mine management shouldn’t arise from pending regulation, but from the interest to overcome existing challenges and the desire to be reputed as an industry innovator. This requires comprehensive risk assessment, followed by the implementation of robust process and the effective use of suitable collision avoidance technology. This approach means ‘safety first’.

A number of proximity detection systems are available on the market, all of which are designed to help save lives. No individual system offers the ‘silver bullet’ solution, but adds a layer of protection to infrastructure, equipment and people working in mines.