availabletotheminingindustrytoday,all
seekingtoimproveoperatorsafety.
However, many challenges still exist that
prevent them from ensuring a collision-free
environment, according to Bardo.
“For example, vehicle-to-vehicle
communication is oten delayed and
unreliable with many existing technologies;
traditional communications networks
require that a signal hit numerous access
points before reaching the operator or
central oice, delaying the notiication and
givingtheoperatorverylittlechancetoafect
the situation,” he said.
“In addition, collision awareness systems
are complex capital investments, making
themmorediiculttojustifyinadown-
turned industry.
“However, the challenge that seems most
prevalent in today’s collision awareness
systems lies in the frequency of ‘false
positives’.
“hesefalsealarms,alsoknownas
‘nuisance alarms’, oten desensitise operators
to actual collision risks, training them, in a
sense, to adopt unsafe practices as a result
of alarm annoyance; as operators realise the
number and frequency of nuisance alarms,
theybegintotuneoutallalarms.
“hesefalsepositivesare,byfar,the
most dangerous of the challenges that face
collision awareness systems in the mining
industry,andthey’realsooneofthemost
widespread.”
Bardo said the common weakness of
existing proximity and collision awareness
approaches on the market today was their
inabilitytoilterouteventsthatwerenot
actually potential vehicle collision risks.“One of the major challenges for a
collision awareness system is the ability to
predict a driver’s actual, near-term direction,”
he said.
“Many systems on the market today
use range and proximity sensors that alert
operators when two vehicles are approaching
each other, but a system that considers
proximity, speed, and bearing alone will
oten alarm in normal operating conditions,
even though no collision risk is imminent.
“A common example of this is when two
haul trucks on the haul route are passing
each other, going in opposite directions
and in diferent lanes. his appears to be acollision risk due to the fact that the vehicles
will, at some point, be in close proximity
to each other, with what appears to be
intersecting paths.
“If proximity, speed and general bearing
are used alone in classifying the risk, the
normal passing maneuver will trigger an
alarmwhennodangeractuallyexists.
Modular’s path prediction capability enables
the system to accurately diferentiate
vehicles traveling in diferent lanes and also
determine that their paths are not likely to
intersect, acting as another ilter against false
alarms and providing a more trustworthy
warning when an alert is issued.
“he path prediction algorithm works with
collision scenario recognition to provide
a strong iltering mechanism that alerts
operators only when a true risk exists.”
Bardo said communication was the
fundamental component of any safety system,
as this deined how quickly and reliably
informationwouldbepassedtotheenduser.
“Regardless of a collision awareness
system’sabilitytoilteroutfalsealarms
and quickly communicate potential risks,
technology alone should never be a mine’s
only line of defense in the goal to avoid
vehicle collisions,” he said
“In order to create a truly safe working
environment,minesneedtolookatsafetyas
a mine-wide practice; a collision awareness
system should simply complement and
reinforce this established practice.”
“If an untrained or insuiciently-trained
operator gets behind the wheel, there’s
very little that a collision awareness system
candotopreventapotentialcatastrophe,
so properly training the right people is an
invaluable irst step to site-wide mine safety.”
A safe mine is not determined by the
best collision awareness system, the bestoperators, or the best equipment, according
to Bardo.
“Trueminesafetyisacomplex
combination of all of these components, and
more,” he said.
“Collision awareness technology for
mines has advanced rapidly in recent
years, and while technology should not be
a mine’s irst line of defense, the increased
situational awareness these systems aford,
combined with it-for-duty operators who
are suiciently trained for the job, procedural
compliance, and healthy equipment, can
undoubtedly help mines move towards a
zero-incident workplace.”36 AMM December 2017 http://www.miningmonthly.com
MINE SAFETY
Many challenges still commonly exist that prevent mines from
ensuring a collision-free environment.
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