Current State and Development Prospects of Autonomous Haulage at Surface Mines

Abstract

Autonomous (or unmanned) haulage systems have been used in surface mining for more than 10 years. Most of the equipment at such mines is remotely controlled by electronics, for which they are sometimes called "smart mines". The elimination of the "human factor" from the pro-duction process should theoretically increase its safety and productivity, as well as reduce the operating costs of its implementation. However, despite the obvious advantages of this technology, it is not spreading as fast as ex-pected. This suggests that there are a number of problems that limit its de-velopment. In this paper, a review and analysis of the experience in the in-dustrial implementation of autonomous haulage in surface mining is car-ried out in order to identify existing problems and possible directions for their further development. The prerequisites, a brief history and some im-portant results of the introduction of autonomous haulage systems in sur-face mining, their main types and constituent elements are outlined, as well as the existing problems and expected directions of their development are highlighted.