12.

Underground mine planning and design

Copyright © 2005 Taylor & Francis Group plc, London, UK

 Application of Computers and Operations Research in the Mineral Industry –
Dessureault, Ganguli, Kecojevic & Dwyer (eds)
© 2005 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 04 1537 449 9

An innovative algorithm for intelligent block caving operations

G. Baiden & Y. Bissiri

Laurentian University, Penguin Automated Systems Inc.

ABSTRACT: Telerobotics focused on mass mining is currently being introduced into production systems
around the world. Mining companies in Canada, Sweden, South Africa and Australia have tended to lead the
international charge to this form of technology for mining. While this introduction is taking place a few basic
questions have yet to be answered. How many machines can a single operator run? How many types of machines
can a single operator run? How would you control the dispatching of telerobotic machines? A new Canadian
Research Chair in Robotics and Mine Automation has been established at Laurentian University. This chair will
investigate these questions and many more through a series of experiments in a newly established telerobotics
laboratory that connects Laurentian teleoperation workstations to model mining machines at Cambrian college’s
e-dome. The laboratory will support many experiments allowing researchers to physically run multiple robot
scenarios differing the numbers and types of machines at one/quarter scale. Further experiments are being
designed to investigate the potential for managing time delays in telerobotics. This paper describes the laboratory,
experiments and some preliminary results.

1 INTRODUCTION

Introducing the concept of telerobotics in the mining

industry (or telemining) was first brought to light in
the early 1990’s. Telemining not only increases work-
place safety and efficiency, it also enables operations
in inaccessible environment and reduces the mining
industry’s production costs1 . Today with the advan-
tages that telemining offers, many mining companies
around the world are introducing the technique in their
mines especially for mass mining.
There is no doubt today about the benefits of imple-
menting telemining operations in mass mining on
paper. But still, a few basic questions have yet to be Figure 1. The telerobotic chair.
answered. How many machines can a single operator
run? How many types of machines can a single oper-
ator run? How would you control the dispatching of particular. The lab can contain up to 8 researchers and
telerobotic machines? is equipped with a telerobotic chair donated by INCO
A new Canadian Research Chair in Robotics and (shown in Figure 1) a fibre optic network communi-
Mine Automation has been established at Laurentian cation station and several high-speed computers. The
University and is currently investigating these ques- fibre optic link was donated by the City of Sudbury
tions. The methods and techniques of investigation are and the Greater Sudbury Utilities Corporation. The
presented in this paper. out fitting of the lab was accomplished with the assis-
tance of the Canadian Foundation for Innovation and
the Ontario Innovation trust Fund.
2 THE TELEROBOTIC LABORATORY AT At the end of 2003 a teleoperated mini-scoop
LAURENTIAN UNIVERSITY AND THE (shown in Figure 2) was built by Laurentian Univer-
E-DOME sity in collaboration with Penguin ASI and Cambrian
College. Three additional teleoperated mini-scoops
The Telerobotic Lab was built in late 2002 to sup- are being built (final stage) and will form the fleet
port research related to automation systems and of teleoperated mini-scoops that will be used in the
telerobotics in general and mine automation in future for pilot-projects and experiments. Two of the

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Copyright © 2005 Taylor & Francis Group plc, London, UK


Figure 2. Laurentian University built mini-scoop.
Figure 3. Telerobotic Laboratory between Laurentian Uni-
versity and Cambrian College.
mini-scoops will be powered by Hydrogen Fuel Cells
for power plants. An operator placed in the telerobotic
chair at Laurentian University can physically run the
mini-scoops, located in a Lab space provided by
Cambrian College in one of their buildings (15 km
from Laurentian University) in the e-dome.
The idea behind the lab is to put an equipment oper-
ator “virtually” into the seat of a mining machine many
kilometres away. To accomplish this computer system
on board the machine must manage the voice, data and
video traffic to and from the machines. On-board the
mini-scoop is a series of sensors and actuators such
as colour cameras, and switches to turn actuators on
and off for example when using the bucket or driving
the machine. The movement of the information comes
via radio from the machine to a head-end located at
the college. This information is transferred digitally to
the teleoperator’s chair at Laurentian’s Lab where the
teleoperator controls the machine in real time.
3 EXPERIMENTATION
To answer the questions raised earlier, it was decided
that teleoperation be applied to block caving, a mass
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Copyright © 2005 Taylor & Francis Group plc, London, UK
Figure 4. Drawpoints representation (Pro-E design).
mining method recognized by many mines as being
the most cost-effective mining method suitable for
massive low-grade deposits. A pilot project has been
designed and is awaiting the completion of other tele-
operated mini-scoops before it is implemented at the
Lab space provided by Cambrian College. The pilot
project consists of bins representing the draw points
(see Figure 4). Each bin will be filled with sand that
will be differentiated upon the size of the sand grains
and its colour to represent different type of ore (grade
and particle size distribution). The teleoperated scoop
will be dispatched to the bins and it will load and dump
the sand in a conveyor belt that will sheave the sand
and replenish the bins so that the same material is used
continuously during each experimental run.
A simulation model is built in order to support the
pilot project in dispatching the mini-scoop to draw
points in a “near” optimal way. The simulation model
for dispatching scoops to drawpoints is based on the
behaviour of social insects such as ants leading there-
fore to a cooperative multi-agent system. The same
concept was applied successfully to the dispatch of
haul-trucks to shovel in an open pit mine2 where it was
demonstrated that applying the concept of agent based
modeling to dispatching trucks to shovels in surface
mine is more robust and flexible than dispatch systems
built on math tools such as linear or dynamic program-
ming and heuristic based systems. By analogies with
surface mining, the same concept can be extended to
the dispatching of scoops to draw points in a block
caving operation.
The simulation model proposed in this paper con-
sists of scoops being dispatched and/or allocated to
draw points by mean of teleoperating chairs. An oper-
ator sitting in one of these chairs will have the ability
to run more than one scoop from a remote location
making it possible to work in different mines at the
same time depending on the robustness and flexibility
of the computer model that makes dispatch decisions.
4 DESCRIPTION OF THE INNOVATIVE
SYSTEM
Agent based modeling uses the behaviour of social
insects such as a colony of ants to model real envi-
ronment. Ants have been known to possess little
 Figure 5. Description of the conceptual approach.
“intelligence” when observed individually but yet
when put together, their individual behaviour emerges
in some form “intelligence” allowing the colony to
adapt to changing environments while maintaining
their robustness in solving everyday complex prob-
lems crucial to their survival. The division of tasks in
an ant colony is such that ants will reorganize them-
selves continuously in a way to respond to events that
threatens their survival by using simple queues. Based
on the Wilson model3 , tasks represent agents and ants
the resources that the tasks are to compete for in order
to guarantee the well being of the colony. With an
update system, tasks will display a demand or stimu-
lus and ants will show their ability to respond to these
demand based on parameters such as their location,
previous tasks, age, morphology, etc …
In the simulation model discussed in this paper,
each draw represents an agent that will compete for
a scoop representing a resource relative to the draw
points. Then, the scoops become agents that com-
pete to be assigned to an available teleoperating chair
representing a resource relative to the scoops. The
model, illustrated in Figure 5, is therefore a nested
agent based model where scoops switch from being
resources to becoming agents. The direction of the
broken arrow in Figure 5 indicates that an agent is bid-
ding for resources. In the model, a demand function
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Copyright © 2005 Taylor & Francis Group plc, London, UK
or stimulus, represented by S is built for each agent
and the magnitude of that function at a time of dis-
patch will determine the intensity with which a given
agent needs a given resource. The demand function is
built in such a way that the operational objectives and
constraints are taken into consideration. The stimulus
function may be expressed for instance as follows:
S = function (grade, blending factor, draw factor,
rock stability, rock fragmentation.. . .)
The threshold function at the other end represented
by θ illustrates the ability of a resource to respond to the
demand of an agent. It may be expressed for instance
as follows:
θ = function (distance to agent, loaded or not,
previous assignment, . . .)
Finally the response function of a resource to the
demand of an agent is pseudo-probability function that
allows dispatch decision to be made.
The demand and threshold functions are dynamic
functions derived from solutions of several different
equations and from observations drawn from running
the pilot project, which plays the important role of
fine-tuning these functions in order to reflect near real
operational environments. At the end, the fact that the
system is built on agents competing for resources to
 Figure 6. Description of the centralised system for multiple mines.

satisfy operational objectives and constraints will yield
better scenarios.
4.1 Conceptual approach
The simulation is divided into two parts consisting of a
hybrid math-agent based algorithm and an animation.
In order to build the math-model for the agent based
part of the model, the key parameters involved in a
block caving process are represented by vectors and
matrices (as shown in Figure 5).
The number of machines a single operator can run
will be determined by the simulation aided in this
task by the pilot project that will help derive the
parameter functions needed for dispatch decisions.
The simulation will output scenarios that will be ana-
lyzed and tested against the operational objectives and
constraints.
Once successfully implemented this model could
easily be extended to multiple mines scenario where
a fleet of tele-operating chairs will control different
LHDs from different mines at different locations. This
will constitute a centralized multiple mining operation
system (illustrated in Figure 6). In this type of system,
an operator will have the flexibility to run different
machines from different mines. A central computing
system will decide where equipment is dispatched
based on operational objectives and constraints in a
way to optimize the operation.
The key parameters of the agent-based model con-
sist of the following variables:
• Stimulus or intensity of demand for resources which
are either mini-scoops or tele-operators
• Ability of a resource to react to a demand
• Response to a demand
4.1.1 Vectors and matrixes as parameters in the
agent based model
Sijl (t) = stimulus generated by draw point (i, j) from
mine l at a given time t
SMk
(t) = stimulus generated by maintenance module
relative to LHD # k
hij
SLHD (t) = stimulus generated by LHD # h located at
mine l
l,LHD
θijk (t) = Threshold or ability for LHD # k to respond
to draw point (i, j) from mine l at time t
l,op
θijk (t) = Threshold or ability for operator # k to res-
pond to draw point (i, j) from mine l at time t

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Copyright © 2005 Taylor & Francis Group plc, London, UK

 Rl,LHD
ijk (t) = Response of LHD # k to the demand of
draw point (i, j) of mine l
l,op
Rijk (t) = Response of operator to the demand of an
LHD relative to a mine l for draw point (i, j)
4.1.2 Drawpoint bidding for a LHD
The response of a LHD to the demand of a drawpoint
is given by equation 1.
4.1.3 LHD bidding for an operator
The response of an operator to the demand of a LHD
is given by equation 2.
4.1.4 Dispatch decision on sending a truck to a
draw point
Dispatch decisions concerning an LHD are made by
comparing all the responses of the LHD to all the draw-
points. At the time of dispatch decision, the LHD # k
is awarded to a draw point (i0 , j0 ) that satisfies the
following condition:
By analogy with draw points-LHD combination, the
same dispatch decision criteria are derived for LHD-
operator combination and the maintenance module–
LHD combination.
5 STRATEGIC APPROACH
In order to give greater flexibility to the opera-
tors, greater sections of autonomous operation will
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Copyright © 2005 Taylor & Francis Group plc, London, UK
be added to the system. One common scenario of
autonomous movement is to tele-operate the scoops
only when they are near (entering or exiting) draw-
points. Hence in the remaining sections, scoops will
travel autonomously. The ability to control multiple
machines will depend greatly on the dispatch algo-
rithm and the length of time each mini-scoop is
autonomously controlled. In order to do so, decision
nodes, consisting of points where responses are com-
puted to make a dispatch decision, are placed near the
entrance of each raw of drawpoints.
Later the simulation model is transformed into an
emulation model to allow control of the LHDs within
the pilot project by a computer by the mean of a com-
munication model for a better management of the data
collected from the different tests.
6 CONCLUSION
At this point, the dispatch algorithm was successfully
built and the pilot plant project will start next year for
the experimental testing in order to fine tune the func-
tions needed for the agent-based model. If successfully
implemented, there’s no doubt that the fact of being
able to control many machines at the same times at
different mines by one operator will be a revolution
in the mining industry. Furthermore, the combination
of the pilot project and the simulation model will help
derived better stimulus and threshold functions for the
dispatch software.
REFERENCES
1. Mirabelli, L.J. Mining Automation Programs, NAA –
NSA/USGS 2000 Automation Conference (Miami,
FL, October 2000).
2. Bissiri, Y. Application of Agent Based Modeling to
Truck-Shovel Dispatch Systems, Ph.D thesis, Univer-
sity of British Columbia, 2002: 28–61.
3. Wilson, E.O. The Reaction between Caste Ratios and
Division of Labour in the Ant Genus Pheidole, Behav.
Ecol. Sociobiol. 16 (1984): 89–98.