I
n 1979, the first company specialising in
fleet management system for the mining
industry was founded and incorporated as
Modular Mining Systems Inc. (MMSI). In
1996, Komatsu America Corp. (KAC) acquired a
controlling interest in MMSI and, in 2003, KAC
acquired the remaining shares. Since then, the
number of companies offering fleet
management solutions for opencast mining has
proliferated and now includes
Leica Geosystems Mining and Devex Mining
(both companies now owned by Hexagon),
Wenco International Mining Systems (now
owned by Hitachi), Caterpillar Global Mining
and Micromine Pty Ltd. Traditionally, fleet
management systems include real-time
production monitoring and production
optimisation with customised hardware and
software. The objective is to optimise the
assignment of haulage units to loading and
dumping points, thus reducing the haulage
cycle and queue time. In the past 10 years, fleet
management systems have become integral to
any new mine development; the cost is finally a
line item on most feasibility studies. The market
is now saturated with options, while the science
and engineering behind these systems has been
refined so that any product hardware/software
upgrades provide only a marginal value-added
benefit to the end-user. So what is the next step
change?
In the past five years, the industry has been
abuzz with developing, testing and proving
autonomous vehicles for an opencast mine.
With the support of mining companies, OEMs
and original technology manufacturers (OTMs)
have been leading the way. The development of
Vivien Hui
looks
into what the future
might hold for fleet
management systems
and autonomous
haulage.
September 2014
|
World Coal
|
21
