A robots perspective of the future of mineral mining

World Congress on Industrial Automation

July 20-22, 2015 San Francisco, USA

William Lovell

Posters-Accepted Abstracts: Adv Robot Autom

Abstract :

As a race, our resource consumption is increasing exponentially as we expand in both population and intellectuality. For mineral recovery, we now must delve deeper into the earth, into realms more unforgiving and dangerous for humans. The use of robots in mining brings into play some unique challenges in what is expected and performance. Is the equipment, a full autonomous robot or a tele-operated robot Will it be utilized in above ground or underground mining, maybe even under the ocean A further examination of current technology to determine needs to move robots forward in this arena. COTS (Commercial off the Shelf) equipment is the starting point, this means use the mining equipment already on-hand, built, designed and certified. Sometimes it does make the conversion to a robot cumbersome, but it is a cost reduction in most cases. Sensor arrays are needed and will push our imagination and creativity to the limits. The sensor arena has an almost unlimited potential for use and expansion. For this paper sensor will encompass RF, light and optical. Above and below ground, what type of sensors are we using and can we improve on our methods. Power plants and final control, do we let the robot work or hold its hand How does this all play with the governing institutes like the U.S. the Department of Labor�s MSHA or Australia�s own MSHA Why are we not seeing MSHA certified robots for S&R in a tunnel collapse