Book Description

"As the mining industry continues to embrace technology to become more efficient and more environmentally conscious, automated solutions and processes will become more common. This is true for all types of mining independent of commodity or type of operation (surface or underground). Due to the specifics of its application a production drill used in surface mining is an attractive use case for automation – either full or of operator assist variety.The full operational cycle of a production drill rig is explored in detail; challenges and constraints regarding the implementation of automation are identified. The operational impacts of utilizing an automated production drill rig are commented upon.The research details the design, development and testing of a novel and advanced drill control system that incorporates advanced exceptions handling concepts thereby allowing the solution to be more appropriate for use during long periods of unsupervised drilling which represents the majority of a production drill’s operational cycle. Testing of the developed drill control system at a working mine site on a production drill was conducting and the results are presented and discussed. In addition, the influence of drill bit design on drill performance (and control) is explored and the influence of bit wear is commented upon.A drill propel and positioning solution that incorporates HPGPS sensor information and crawler track motor speed sensor information is proposed. Required positioning accuracy is defined. The propel and positioning solution was tested at a working mine site on a production drill and the results are presented and discussed. The requirements of an automatic levelling system are defined, and an improved solution is proposed.The research concludes with a proposal for a new intelligent drilling concept that includes better incorporation of the mine model and mine planning tools, automatic blast pattern generation, and on-the-fly pattern adjustment based upon monitoring-while-drilling signals. An overall, conceptual integration of the various proposed solutions is also presented"--