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AutoDESPATCH: GPS based Mine Production Monitoring System
Kartikeya Verma,
V.K. Anand, Amit Kr. “Montu”,
Jai Kumar, Jayati Paul, Ashutosh Gopinath, R. P. Singh
Automation Division, Tata Steel, Jamshedpur, India
Abstract:
Mining is a very capital-intensive business with forecast for long term profitability often forming the basis of new ventures or expansion. Simply put, performance is dependant on how cost effective the mine equipment is from day one.
The cost of owning and maintaining capital equipment requires the mine to ensure the mobile fleet is effectively utilised for optimal productivity. To achieve this level of monitoring, information needs to be made available in real time. For example, in frequent situations, Rear Dumpers can be queuing at one Excavator whilst excavator at another location are idle waiting on dumpers to arrive. In both the situations either the dumpers or the excavators are being under-utilised. In other scenarios, excavators underloading dumpers results in production decrease and if overloaded, may cause damage or premature wear & tear resulting in costly bills and excessive down times.
AutoDESPATCH takes care of above mentioned issues in totality and therefore it is basically a real time Mine Production Monitoring System designed & developed for Opencast mines, using several technologies, which includes GPS Technology as one of them. It takes care of on-line recording of production of Rear Dumpers, Excavators, Drill Machines and can be extended to any other HEMMs deployed in mining operation. The AutoDESPATCH apart from capturing production data from different HEMMs, it also captures engine parameters from HEMMs in order facilitate Maintenance crews for preventive wear & tear of the costly equipment. Also in order to maximise the optimal usage of fleet (especially Rear Dumpers & Excavators), the system dynamically reassign the resources, inform personnel of individual equipment performance, production cycle abnormalities and situation where the equipment can be better utilised. The system also captures online drilled depth by Drilling Machines as per drilling plan for optimal blasting effort. The system is also intends to capture online data for fuel dispensed by Fuel Tanker / Station to different HEMMs in-order to monitor the production w.r.t. fuel consumption. In general, the AutoDESPATCH system by tracking mining equipment using GPS technology and using several other sensor technologies, offers a complete Mine Production Monitoring System to facilitate a mining manager for cost effective operation of the mine.
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