Many believed electric vehicles were unsuitable for mining environments due to weaknesses such as range, horsepower, and battery life. However, the advent of stable lithium iron phosphate batteries, coupled with the energy recovery capabilities of pure electric vehicles during heavy-load downhill travel, have helped electric vehicles gain a firm foothold in the mining industry. This marked the first revolution in the mining industry in recent years. Meanwhile, the second mining revolution, led by autonomous driving technology, is slowly unfolding.
At present, the number of mines of all types is on a downward trend. The country encourages large mining companies to merge small and medium-sized mines, supports the green transformation of old mines and the intelligent upgrading of large mines, attaches importance to the major key technology research behind mine transformation, and strives to promote the intelligent development of coal mines.
Unmanned driving technology is an important part of the mining science and technology innovation support system, and is of great significance to the intelligent, information-based and green transformation of mines.The open-pit coal mining process is relatively simple, and there is a large demand for earth stripping and transportation. The application of unmanned mining systems in my country is mainly concentrated in open-pit coal mines. In addition, they are also used in small quantities in the mining of mineral resources such as iron ore, non-ferrous metal mines, and sand and gravel mines.Professional institutions predict that the market size of unmanned mines will reach more than 20 billion yuan in 2025.Shanghai Boonray Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Boonray Technology") is a leading company in electric autonomous driving in mining areas, providing full-stack Level 4 autonomous driving technology for open-pit coal mines. Boray Technology participated in the construction of the "5G+Smart Mine" project at Jiugang Group's Xigou Mine, the nation's first integrated smart mining system for vehicle, shovel, and drill operations, and the first example of nighttime operation without a safety officer in China.Figure 1: Unmanned mining truck operating in an open-pit mineUnmanned mining truck
Ushering in a period of efficiency improvement
Open-pit mines are more closed than open roads, have wider signal coverage than underground mines, and have relatively fixed site divisions and transportation routes. Transport vehicles travel at low speeds and do not carry passengers. Therefore, unmanned driving technology has a first-mover advantage in the implementation of open-pit mines.In addition, the demand side faces difficulties such as poor environment, difficulty in recruiting workers, and high costs. Mines have become one of the pioneering scenarios for the implementation of unmanned driving technology.
Boonray Technology CTO Yang Yang believes，The overall solution for intelligent mines based on unmanned driving technology has been verified in typical scenarios of open-pit coal mines, and the transformation of traditional mines has entered the model promotion stage. Yang Yang analyzed, "When making decisions, companies usually prioritize the overall interests of the mine, which is reflected in the production efficiency of each mining vehicle. To improve production efficiency in the three dimensions of high attendance rate, low failure rate, and strong robustness, we must start with the underlying autonomous driving algorithm."my country's mineral resources are characterized by widespread distribution and relative concentration, and the geological and climatic conditions of mines vary significantly. For example, the aforementioned "5G + Smart Mine" project at Jiugang Group's Xigou Mine is a typical example of a mine located in a high-altitude, cold region. "The diversity of my country's mining environments determines the diverse performance of mining vehicles," Yang Yang concluded. "Whether it's a mining truck or a wide-body truck, we establish dynamic and kinematic models that can mask the differences between different vehicle bodies. This is the underlying logic for developing autonomous driving algorithms."Figure 2 Cab-less, integrated charging and battery-swappable wide-body mining truck
Mining car environmental perception system
Continue to absorb new technologies
The autonomous mining truck developed by Boonray Technology can accurately and reliably complete various links such as driving along the line, autonomous obstacle avoidance, automatic reversing, and vehicle-excavation coordination at the mine site, all of which rely on its intelligent perception capabilities. The environmental perception system of the autonomous mining car mainly includes three hardware configurations: lidar, camera and millimeter-wave radar. Navigation and positioning use 5G network and vehicle network technology to achieve centimeter-level precise positioning.
"In the past, autonomous driving visual perception systems in mines were usually based on lidar sensors. LiDAR can measure distance and thus calculate the three-dimensional coordinate information of point sources. Therefore, it can detect retaining walls, fallen rocks and pits, calculate the drivable area, and reduce the occurrence of faults and dangers." Yang Yang believes that lidar can provide the main data source for autonomous driving decision-making systems in mining environments, but there are still some shortcomings. In recent years, the rapid development of visual environment perception technology has made up for the disadvantage of lidar's inability to recognize objects, and has been incorporated into the autonomous driving perception system together with the more penetrating millimeter-wave radar. Yang Yang gave an example, saying, "The mining environment doesn't allow vehicles to overtake. However, the addition of vision can help mine vehicles learn the types and states of obstacles ahead, improving vehicle behavior and mechanical collaboration, thereby increasing production efficiency."my country's C-V2X (Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything) technology and service capabilities are continuously improving, becoming a key driver of scientific and technological innovation and transformation. Connected vehicles are penetrating the mining sector, integrating intelligent operations across the entire open-pit mine process, from shoveling and transportation to unloading and dumping, and are gradually being integrated into the development of zero-carbon smart mining solutions.In the V2X vehicle networking system, Boonray Technology adopts a communication method that combines cellular communication and direct communication，The organic combination of the V2N vehicle networking system, the V2I vehicle-road collaboration system and the V2E vehicle-shovel collaborative operation system can effectively manage the coordination between vehicles, vehicles and roads, and vehicles and shovels, greatly improving production efficiency. At the same time, V2V communication can realize information exchange between vehicles, allowing vehicles from different roads to avoid collisions when they intersect.
Figure 3 Collaborative operation of vehicle and shovel
A new round of technological revolution is accelerating the deep integration of mining and information technology. 5G networks connect the entire mining process, reducing common issues like communication interruptions and facilitating the effective management of mine safety risks. Furthermore, 5G networks, with their ultra-high speeds and low latency, enable 24/7 monitoring operations, improving transportation efficiency and production capacity.Cloud scheduling management system
Realize the organic collection of operational data
High-precision RTK (Real Time Kinematic) and drone low-altitude photography can help overcome the technical bottleneck of signal transmission in the complex and unique environment of mines. This enables the automatic collection of topographic data and the construction of a 3D model of the mining area, which is then uploaded to a cloud database. By accessing the cloud database, each autonomous mining vehicle can quickly access the 3D model, quickly obtain road information, and continuously update the database.
Yang Yang said: "Open-pit mines are roughly divided into three areas: loading area, transportation area and unloading area.Based on our independently developed high-precision mining area map, we designed a cloud-based shovel monitoring and dispatching system. This system is compatible with various MES systems already deployed in the mining area, including open-pit truck dispatching. It can monitor all unmanned mining trucks and other auxiliary equipment in the mining area for unified dispatch and management.The cloud-based shovel monitoring and dispatching system displays real-time vehicle status and operational information, diagnoses vehicle performance issues, and displays real-time, rolling fault alarm information. The system also leverages big data and cloud computing technologies to process and analyze transportation data, developing functional modules such as production planning, intelligent operation scheduling, production management, report management, quality management, and monitoring management, further facilitating data management and optimizing resource allocation. In case of emergency or production scheduling needs, by operating the cloud-based shoveling monitoring and scheduling system, vehicles on routes requiring priority passage can interact with vehicles on other routes to achieve orderly priority passage on intersecting roads, without the need for staff to go to the site in person for scheduling. Cloud management systems can reduce staffing requirements, lower labor intensity, and optimize the allocation and use of human resources.
Figure 4 Boonray Technology - Shovel Monitoring and Scheduling System
Autonomous driving offers significant economic advantages. However, building a fully autonomous mine is not a one-day undertaking, and in practice, manual intervention may be required.Boonray Technology deploys human-computer interaction terminals in unmanned mining vehicles, supporting three driving modes: manual driving, automatic driving, and remote control.The terminal integrates functions such as map creation, precise navigation, vehicle data monitoring, and vehicle data statistics. In manual driving mode, it is also designed with functions such as intelligent braking, panoramic view, anti-fatigue driving, and real-time tire pressure monitoring to ensure driving safety in all aspects.At present, unmanned mines still have constraints such as manual takeover by safety officers, insufficient operation time, and unstable performance. There are still certain deficiencies in clustered operation scheduling capabilities and production operation collaboration, creating a closed-loop supply chain and reducing the cost of key components remain important challenges that all parties in the supply chain need to solve. "We are further improving both per-vehicle transport efficiency and overall operational efficiency," Yang Yang explained. "As autonomous driving applications in mines become more widespread, the complexity of scenarios will continue to increase, which is a foreseeable challenge. To this end, we have built an autonomous driving demonstration mine and implemented regular operations to fully verify the product's stability in practice."The 2024 Government Work Report emphasized the need to strengthen energy and resource security and intensify the exploration and development of oil, gas, and strategic mineral resources. As technological innovation increasingly demonstrates its positive impact on mineral resource extraction, intelligent continuous operation and unmanned transportation will become key enablers for building intelligent and information-based mines. Building a mineral mining system with intelligent perception, intelligent decision-making and automatic execution will become an inevitable choice to promote mining companies to innovate management models, enhance core competitiveness and achieve sustainable development.
