Robotics in the mining industry

working in a mining environment is associated with numerous risks. In its turn, modern industry demands more and more minerals, but rich deposits are running out. Now mining enterprises have to develop deposits with more complex mining and geological conditions. As a consequence, the risks become more dangerous and more likely to occur. In the mining industry, the number of fatal accidents is 10 times higher than the industry average. The solution to this problem could be industrial robotization. An analysis of existing robotic installations in the mining industry showed that they need to be systematized according to the degree of their autonomy. A similar challenge was already faced in the automotive industry, and the J3016 standard was created by the SAE Marketing Group in conjunction with the Technical Standards Committee. Taking into account existing examples of systematization of autonomous devices and the experience of related industries, we have developed our own analogue. Compared to existing systematizations, we proposed a refinement of this classification to reflect current solutions. After analyzing the existing robotic systems in terms of their degree of autonomy, it turned out that open-pit mining is already well-positioned for introducing the concept of a “humanless open-pit”. However, underground mining operations can only robotize some processes. This is mainly due to the lack of a GPS signal and the difficulty of conducting WI-FI and 5G LTE in mine workings.

Glatko Y. S., Sultimov R. V., Bondar G. E., Buttaev S. T., Malykh M. N., Myaskov A. V. Robotics in the mining industry. MIAB. Mining Inf. Anal. Bull. 2022;(10-2):147—155. [In Russ]. DOI: 10.25018/0236_1493_2022_102_0_147.

Glatko Y. S.¹, PhD student, e-mail: yr.glatko@yandex.ru, ORCID ID: 0000-0002-9784-7632;
Sultimov R. V.¹, student, e-mail: yr.glatko@yandex.ru, ORCID ID: 0000-0001-9081-2616;
Bondar G. E.¹, student, researcher at Robotics laboratory e-mail: gbondartest2@yandex.ru, ORCID ID: 0000-0002-3319-9170;
Buttaev S. T.¹, student, e-mail: buttaev77@gmail.com, ORCID ID: 0000-0001-7028-799X;
Malykh M. N.¹, student, e-mail: m_malyx@mail.ru, ORCID ID: 0000-0002-8936-3208;
Myaskov A. V.¹, Dr. Sci. (Ec.), professor, Head of NUST MISIS College of Mining, e-mail: myaskov@misis.ru, ORCID ID: 0000-0002-8520-3653;
¹ National University of Science and Technology MISIS, Moscow, Russia.

Sultimov R. V., e-mail: roman.sultimov@mail.ru.

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