Background

Open-pit mines have the characteristics of operation range wide, large location changes, and rapid changes in equipment status. The traditional production scheduling and production organization methods cannot timely, comprehensively and accurately grasp the frequent changes of on-site operating conditions. Relying on dispatchers’ personal experience to adjust production, the optimization and high efficiency in the mining production process cannot be guaranteed. Manual collecting information and manual calculating data results in low data accuracy and poor response timeliness; and manual implementing the ore blending plan to dispatch vehicles results in large fluctuations in the blending grade. In order to improve production efficiency and reduce production consumption, it must be based on the overall management of large-scale production, based on the optimal real-time scheduling of real-time production information, and form a scientific and intelligent computer scheduling system, which can fundamentally solve the problem in production management process issues to ensure efficient and productive production goals are achieved.

In 2001, Beijing Soly Technology Co., Ltd. undertook the “Tenth Five-Year” scientific and technological research project of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, and began to independently develop an intelligent truck dispatching system. The project was implemented in Shougang Shuichang iron mine in 2002 and passed the national acceptance in 2003. After more than 20 years of dedicated research, it has developed to the fifth generation, and has achieved the following achievements:

In 2006, the Beijing Science and Technology Commission identified it as “the domestic initiative and the international advanced”

In 2007, won the second prize of National Science and Technology Progress Award;

In 2011, obtained the copyright of the GPS truck intelligent dispatching system for open-pit mining;

In 2012, obtained the invention patent of “Automatic Hole Arrangement System for High Precision GPS Roller Drilling Machine”

In 2019, won the second prize of Building Materials Science and Technology Award;

In 2019, Intelligent Ore Mixing System for Open-pit Stopes obtained the computer software copyright registration certificate of.

In 2019, Research on Open-pit Mine Fuel Intelligent Control System and Key Technologies obtained the third prize of Metallurgical Mining Science and Technology Award.

Solution

System structure
The system makes comprehensive use of global satellite positioning technology, wireless communication technology, cloud technology, artificial intelligence, data analysis and other technologies to intelligently control the whole process of loading, transportation and unloading in the stope.

The system consists of three parts: intelligent terminal, control center and wireless communication system.

Functional Architecture
The system adopts a modular design and consists of many sub-modules, including: intelligent scheduling, two-dimensional electronic map, three-dimensional electronic map, intelligent report, intelligent ore proportioning, fuel control, anti-collision, anti-fatigue driving, reversing image, vehicle-mounted video, tire pressure management, weighing management, large screen display, video monitoring, automatic high-precision holes layout and other modules.

Network Architecture
The network includes local area network and stope wireless network.

According to the actual situation in the mine, the stope wireless network supports MESH, 4G ad hoc network, 5G ad hoc network, 4G public network, 5G public network, etc. to the cover the stope, and combined with the mine management network and control network to achieve multi-network unity for unified management.

Intelligent Terminal
The intelligent terminal is installed on the mobile equipment in the stope with the functions of waterproof, dustproof, anti-heating and anti-seismic. It can adapt to the industrial site, and has the function of self-protection against overvoltage, overcurrent, overheating and undervoltage. Adopt colorful touch screen menu operation, with functions of positioning, automatic identifying equipment status, dispatching, vehicle status reporting, sending information for other equipment, system establishment, computing, communication, navigation, interface, information caching, voice broadcast prompt, information query, equipment maintenance management, alarm function, system interface and other functions.

Production command center
The production command center is the brain of intelligent mining scheduling and future smart mine system construction. It is responsible for the production command, overall coordination of the production in the mining area, and executing higher-level production planning, management and other related functions. It is the direct command organization for production in the entire open-pit mine.

Implement features and optimize

Smart scheduling
Real-time dynamic collecting data, synthesizing more than 20 constraint factors, without human intervention, the system dynamically and intelligently dispatch vehicles.

Equipment status monitoring
The system automatically performs position monitoring by Beidou and GPS tracking system, automatically collects the production equipment information at any point in time, such as position, status, speed, direction, material, etc., and displays it on the software interface at any time.

Scheduling Chart
The system can automatically generate various production data statistical reports in real time, including personnel output reports, truck and shovel output reports, equipment transportation distance query, overspeed conditions, etc., which is displayed in intuitive ways such as pie charts, bar charts, and curve graphs to provide evidence for production decision-making.

Management business cockpit
The management business cockpit provides managers with more comprehensive, more intuitive and more instructive decision-making data.

Intelligent ore proportioning
According to the current situation of open-pit mining, the mining plan and the grade distribution of blasting piles, the set ore quantity and grade constraints, the optimal ore proportioning scheme can be obtained through the optimization calculation among multiple blasting piles, and the adjustment knob can be used to seek the best balance between proportioning fineness and production efficiency.

Fuel consumption control
The system is mainly composed of a tanker control device, a vehicle identification device, a fuel consumption collection device, a vehicle terminal, data transmission network and a central control center. It can realize real-time tracking the oil flow and gas station consumption, oil tankers, dump trucks and construction machinery, and can effectively prevent the abnormal oil loss in the refueling process.

Weighing management
The system adopts radar measurement technology, and the scanning device is installed on the gantry crane that the mine cart must pass through. When trucks pass under the gantry crane at a constant speed, the radar measuring instrument scans the truck bucket outline at a fan-shaped angle to obtain volumetric images and data of the ore loaded in the truck.

Tire pressure management
Mining vehicle tires are one of the three major consumables invested in mining. Many mining tires are scrapped due to early failure, even spontaneous combustion, explosion, and life safety. The tire pressure management system can monitor the running status of tires in real time, detect tire failures in time, prevent tire bursts and other emergencies to ensure safe and efficient production.

Anti-collision
Using GPS positioning technology, wireless communication technology, supplemented by technologies such as voice alarm and prediction algorithm, it can fully solve problems of vehicle collision accidents that plagues production managers caused by complex working space, high working intensity, many dead zone, complex vehicle models, and long-term work in the mining area to provide a reliable safety guarantee for the normal production in open-pit mines.

Anti-fatigue system
It analyzes the driver’s dangerous driving behavior and performs early warning and the driver’s face attendance. The collected video is used for the host executing the intelligent algorithm for analyzing the dangerous driving behavior. It can detect behaviors such as smoking, phone calls, not looking ahead, fatigue driving, etc., and send an alarm to remind the driver in time.

Reverse image
When the truck is reversing, the reversing image is displayed on the smart terminal to ensure the reversing safety.

High precision holes arrangement of drilling machine
The high-precision centimeter-level multi-system satellite positioning technology is used to realize the precise positioning of the drill pipe, realize the hole layout and perforation process, improve the automatic control level and accuracy of hole layout and perforation operation, and achieve the refinement management process and control process digitization.

Effect and Benefit