In a bid to boost safety onsite, Anglo American’s Capcoal Complex is trialling a remote-controlled stockpile dozer, with plans to retrofit the entire fleet.
Dozer operators at the site, near Middlemount, are training to embrace the remote control technology.
Anglo American operates five steelmaking coal mines across the Bowen Basin. Once the technology is fully deployed across all sites, in-cab dozer exposure time is expected to be reduced by 45,000 hours, to 75,000 hours a year.
Coal handling and processing plant dozer operators are the first to gain experience operating tele-remote dozers as part of a pilot program to reduce exposure to concealed stockpile voids.
The pilot includes retrofitting a stockpile dozer with the latest Wi-Fi-enabled technology to establish connectivity between the machine and the operator chair in the control centre.
Capcoal’s General Manager, George Karooz, said it was the first time the remote-control dozer technology would be used at Anglo American’s Australian operations.
“Upskilling our workers in this new technology is paramount to its success because their expertise is irreplaceable, even when the work is done remotely,” Mr Karooz said.
“In pursuit of safety and efficiency, the mining industry has been a constant driver of innovation for generations.
“Operating our fleet of dozers from a safe distance will reduce the number of hours in the cab and fully remove our operators from the dozer seat in what is another significant advancement in autonomous mining.”
Acting Automation Operations Manager, Matthew Wakeford, said operators were being trained in how to control a dozer from a remote-control centre, in a transition that has been nine months in the planning.
“We are re-imagining mining to improve people’s lives. From a business safety perspective, this will remove our coal miners from the hazards of working with voids in our coal stockpiles,” Mr Wakeford said.
“We are starting with small steps as our workers adjust from the ‘feeling’ of manual operation to remote control with cameras and computer screens.
“We already have microphones in the machine sending the sound back to the operators along with six cameras on the dozer itself and cameras around the stockpile, which can all be adjusted remotely.
“Through feedback, we are now looking at whether we can adapt the chair to tilt and provide movement feedback through the joystick the same way our operators would sense the stockpile beneath when manually operating the dozer.
“We’re starting with just one dozer, but the plan is to ramp up and retrofit the entire fleet – that’s 13 in total across our Capcoal and Moranbah operations.”
Featured image: Gorodenkoff/shutterstock.com
