Developing and Creating an Operational Controller for Automation Within Mining Operations

Abstract

Automating a shuttle car within room-and-pillar coal mines has a number of benefits, including removing the operator from the shuttle car, providing improved live information to users, and increasing efficiency of operations. However, the introduction of an automated shuttle car requires significant insight into how users will control operations of the vehicles. This paper demonstrates the development of the controller for achieving the goal of introducing automation to these haulage systems. To evaluate the design, a series of paper-prototype interviews were conducted with shuttle car operators and section foremen. Seven individuals at a partner mine were interviewed for input on the HMI designs and features necessary to implement before introducing an automated shuttle car into the mine. Feedback was implemented into the current design of the digital controller. Three different digital screens with a collective 52 data elements are incorporated into the controller design. It is particularly important to understand the limitations of both vehicle automation and organizational systems when incorporating new technologies into a work domain with significant hazards. This paper highlights the progress made on the development of the automation controller in an ongoing project to implement an automated shuttle car.