With mining operations in Canada going deeper underground in many cases, new challenges arise for communications, situational awareness for miners and the ability to avoid collisions.
That was part of the presentation by Chao Yu, the founder and CEO of LoopX, a Waterloo- and Sudbury-based technology company specializing in AI (artificial intelligence) and robotics.
Yu was one of the speakers at the 27th annual Workplace Safety North mining safety conference held in Sudbury last week.
He told the audience that fatality rates in mining in the United States have "slightly increased over the past five years, indicating that current solutions are no longer sufficient to achieve zero-fatality goals."
Quoting additional data from the Ontario Ministry of Labour, Yu said that interactions with mobile equipment operating underground have emerged as a leading risk in mining.
Diving deeper into the U.S. statistics Yu said there was a significant decline of injuries and fatalities over a 50-year period, but that has changed in recent years, especially since 2019.
Ontario statistics also showed more underground collisions happening with large heavy machines with other machines, and also with pedestrians, said Yu.
Yu said this is happening as more mining operations are working deeper underground, in situations with dust and smoke, with the blinding glare of intense lighting, and in the case of battery-electric vehicles, machinery that runs so quietly miners may not hear a haulage truck or a scooptram (an underground front-end loader) approaching them.
Yu said the mining industry has gone through significant changes in recent years by adapting new technology, in particular through the use of RFID (radio frequency), BLE devices (bluetooth low energy), EM devices (electromagnetic), UWB (ultra wideband) and underground Wi-Fi devices.
He said while the devices all have advantages, there are too many reliability issues, along with some cost issues and operational concerns for hostile underground environments.
"That's why there's some new technology. Actually, we call it the sensor-based technology," he said. "So basically, it's the sensor to be mounted on mobile equipment. It detects pedestrians and vehicles. Also it can apply AI, artificial intelligence, to understand any obstacles."
He said sensors can include thermal cameras, infrared cameras, RGB (red, green, blue) cameras, radar and LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging).
As he discussed the pros and cons, Yu said sensor-based devices are usually in the low- to medium-price range. Thermal cameras however are higher priced, he said.
Radar devices are resistant to most environmental concerns such as dust, glare and intense light.
Yu said LIDAR is also resistant to environmental factors but has better distance measurement. He said most sensors are also adaptable to future AI applications for identifying objects that might be encountered by a mobile vehicle underground.
As part of his presentation, Yu spoke about his company's operations which began in Waterloo and now includes a LoopX facility on Maley Drive in Sudbury.
He said the company promotes a new situational awareness system using compact LIDAR sensors on mining vehicles that goes beyond traditional proximity detection.
Yu said better motion detection is also required for battery-electric mining vehicles, which not only run quietly but also accelerate more quickly because there is instant torque going to the drive wheels. Yu said the sensors can also be internally heated for working in Northern Ontario to avoid fog and frost in colder conditions.
Yu added there is no one sensor that can fit all applications. He said work still needs to be done so that underground workers can be provided with better situational awareness to notify them when mobile equipment is moving nearby. He said this is especially true with the use of more autonomous vehicles.
The other issue to be better defined, Yu said, is that collision avoidance should not necessarily be designed to stop mining production every time a proximity alarm is sounded, but rather to keep people and other machines from getting in the way during the production cycle of hauling or dumping ore.
"Also, many companies not only need a safety system, but also a system that does not jeopardize production," said Yu.
"If you jeopardize production, gradually it makes the system become slower, and gradually the system doesn't work."
Len Gillis covers mining and health care for Sudbury.com.
