A Lab-scale autonomous haul truck for underground mine operations: Design and development

The objective of this project is to facilitate the use of automation in an underground mining environment. In an active underground mine, there are several hazards a worker can face. The implementation of autonomous control of the mobile equipment used in these mining operations is one of the ways to cut down the number of injuries. It can also result in less time wasted for the workers as well as an overall safer mining environment. With autonomous vehicles in underground mines, it is less likely for accidents to occur involving mine employees. In order to implement autonomous control, several different types of sensors must be installed. The utilized sensors include multiple ultrasonic range detectors, and an image processing unit. These sensors provide complementary data to an Arduino microcontroller for collision avoidance and tunnel navigation, respectively. Experiments will be conducted to test the performance and reliability of the developed autonomous underground mine truck. The performance (timing) results from the experimental data will be analyzed and compared to those results from the manual mode of operation of the haul truck.