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| CSIRO | SOLVE | Issue 3 - May 05 | |
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ARTICLE
ROBOTICS:
Robot Miners of the Future By TONY KAYE
ADVANCED ROBOTICS IS MAKING MANY MINING JOBS MORE EFFICIENT AND LESS DANGEROUS The world's largest robot has been strutting its stuff in a Queensland coal pit, demonstrating how open-cut mines of the future may work. The 3500-tonne monster, which featured on NASA's 'Cool Robot of the Week' website, is a 75-metre tall dragline that has been automated to turn the business of shifting millions of tonnes of rubble and rock into a highly precise operation needing 80 per cent less operator involvement. This massive beast, which can devour 120 tonnes of rock in a single bite, has essentially been fitted with a 'brain' to remove the stress and judgment needed by a human operator when controlling its 100-metre boom and swinging load.
Researcher Dr Jonathan Roberts explains: "A dragline picks up from 100 to 150 tonnes of overburden with every scoop, then swings it round and delivers it to the spoil pile, then swings back again. This is happening every minute so the smoother and more efficient you can make the operation, the less wear and tear on the machine, the more rock is moved and the less strain on the dragline's human operator." Computerisation has automated these repetitive movements; coordinating the hoist, drag and swing functions and placing of the 40-tonne bucket gently on the ground, ready for loading, with the computer moving the dragline's pedals and levers. It works by the dragline's human operator 'teaching' his robot partner the exact locations of the coalface and spoil pile, using a joystick. The computer memorises them and then performs the operation more smoothly than its human mentor. CSIRO researchers have also placed a laser at the boom tip. As the machine operates it compiles a map of the surrounding terrain. This allows mine managers to make rapid decisions about dragline operations and communicate these to operators in real time, significantly increasing mine flexibility. "The dragline is essentially 1950s technology. It's fairly low-tech. What we've done is retrofit it with a brain," says Dr Roberts, who is a principal research scientist for the CSIRO ICT Centre in Brisbane. It has been estimated that increasing the productivity of a dragline by about 4 per cent would save the typical Australian coalmine $3 million a year, or $280 million across the industry as a whole. The dragline automation project was funded through a consortium comprising the Australian Coal Association Research Program (ACARP), Rio Tinto, BHP Australia Coal and CSIRO. Other technical support was provided by Bucyrus (Australia) and Tritronics. The first robotic dragline was demonstrated at Anglo Coal Australia's Callide coalfield Boundary Hill pit in Central Queensland, and it is regarded as the forerunner of advanced robotics becoming the coalminers of the future. In late 2003 it moved 250,000 tonnes of overburden, setting an international record in robotic excavation. The use of robotics for mines is being developed in a series of projects undertaken by CSIRO in conjunction with companies such as Anglo Coal and funded by ACARP. Mining robotics are tipped to have wide application, in particular the automation of potentially dangerous work such as rock-breaking, rock-bolting in unstable geology and hole-drilling and charging. Robotics are also seen as a way to resolve productivity issues. For example, industry estimates put the savings from clawing back some of the time lost during shift changeovers and by reducing the workload on operators at $300 million a year. Through automation, mining companies are hoping their machines will run more efficiently and with less downtime. Dr Roberts says the aim is to develop automated systems to a level where operator stress is reduced at the same time as productivity is lifted. In other projects, robotics are being trialled on underground mining equipment, including self-navigating dump trucks, robotic devices for drilling and bolting mine roofs after blasting, and pilotless burrowing machines that can be used in situations considered unsafe for human operators. Vision systems for robots using cameras and laser devices are being developed to allow machines to operate automatically, and with precision, in three-dimensional environments like tunnels. Dr Roberts says there will not be a massive step change in introducing robots into mining, but rather incremental steps to allow operators to adjust gradually to the role of their new robotic workmates.
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