The University of Queensland

Quantifying Road Surface Quality For Underground Haul Roads

By Liam D. Walls B.E. (Mechanical, Hons)

A thesis submitted for the degree of Master of Philosophy

Principal Supervisor: Assoc. Professor P. R. McAree Associate Supervisor: Professor H. Gurgenci

Division of Mechanical Engineering, School of Engineering, The University of Queensland, Australia.

July 2006

c Copyright 2006 by Liam D. Walls

I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and to the best of my knowledge it contains no material previously published or written by another person, nor material which to a substantial extent has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at UQ or any other educational institution, except where due acknowledgement is made in the thesis. Any contribution made to the research by colleagues, with whom I have worked at UQ or elsewhere, during my candidature, is fully acknowledged. I also declare that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work, except to the extent that assistance from others in the projects design and conception or in style, presentation and linguistic expression is acknowledged.

Liam D. Walls

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Abstract

A recent innovation in underground mining operations is the use of automated LoadHaul-Dump (LHD) vehicles. These vehicles are able to transport ore from a stope to an ore-pass and return without the direct in involvement of a human operator. An interesting, and unexpected, problem that has arisen with the introduction of these vehicles is that the haul road on which they operate can become heavily degraded due to a lack of feedback on road condition. This results in increased maintenance and downtime. On non-automated LHD vehicles, the problem is circumvented by the on-board operator who senses road condition by ride quality and reports back to his or her supervisor when the road becomes unacceptably degraded. This thesis develops a simple tool, called the Road Surface Quality (RSQ) monitor, that aims to report road condition to the automated vehicles supervisory control system. The monitor is intended to provide feedback on road condition analogous to that provided by an on-board operator. This feedback can in turn be used to guide decisions such as the operating speed over dierent sections of road and when to perform road-maintenance such as re-grading. The methodology used to determine road condition is to capture the vertical acceleration of the vehicle chassis and derive a measure of the bounce energy of the vehicle as it traverses the road to serve as a proxy for the quality of ride. The approach exploits the fact that automated LHD vehicles make repeatable passes iii

from run-to-run. In particular, the wheel tracks and speed are consistent during each transit from the stope to the ore-pass and back again. This makes possible the direct comparison of signals measured from run-to-run. The main conclusion of the thesis is that it is possible to dierentiate between roads of dierent condition using measurements of vertical acceleration on automated LHDs. This conclusion is supported by several case studies based on installation of the monitor on the Dynamic Automation Systems (DAS) Autotram LHD in operation at Olympic Dam Mine. Data collected from the monitor shows the system is also capable of detecting abnormally rough operation of the vehicle, e.g. unnecessarily heavy collisions of the bucket with the environment. A detailed plan for further testing of the monitor is also proposed.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my supervisor Ross McAree for his limitless support and innite wisdom and for pulling me out of the gutter, handing me a hot cup of coee, a pencil stub and a piece of torn napkin whilst muttering the wise words Better get started. Youve got a ways to go. This project was conducted through CRCMining who provided me with a Postgraduate Scholarship and an outstanding environment in which to undertake Postgraduate study. The project would not have been possible without the nancial and practical support provided by Charles McHugh during his Tenure with WMC. A big thank you to all the people at Olympic Dam, including those from WMC, BHP and DAS who were a great help during the experimental trials. I would also like to thank my girlfriend Jess for reading and rereading a thesis that she doesnt understand nor care to understand and for providing me with nourishment as required; and my parents for living 1600 kilometres away and only visiting occasionally. Thanks also to Michael Little for his help with troubleshooting hardware and for giving up precious time for preliminary testing; Mark Calder for his seemingly limitless knowledge of electrical systems and for passing that knowledge onto me; and Rowan Gollan for the latex template on which this document is based. v

Contents

1 The rationale for monitoring underground road surface quality 1.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2 Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2.1 1.2.2 1.2.3 Olympic Dam Mine (ODM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The RH2900 Load Haul Dump (LHD) vehicle . . . . . . . . . The Dynamic Automation Systems (DAS) Autotram system .

5 5 7 7 8 8

1.3 Motivation for monitoring road surface condition 1.3.1 1.3.2 1.3.3

. . . . . . . . . . . 11

LHD productivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Abnormal event detection such as collisions . . . . . . . . . . 15 Grader scheduling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

1.4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 2 Methods for measuring and interpreting road roughness 17

2.1 Road roughness measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

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2.2 Road roughness measurement standardisation and the International Roughness Index (IRI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 2.2.1 2.2.2 2.2.3 Denition of the IRI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Calculation of the IRI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Summary of the IRI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

2.3 Power Spectral Density (PSD) methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 2.3.1 2.3.2 2.3.3 2.3.4 2.3.5 Hypotheses for simplied road roughness description . . . . . 23 Homogeneity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Isotropy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Transient identication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 The Gaussian assumption and problems associated with nonstationary PSDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 2.3.6 2.3.7 2.3.8 PSD shape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Response-type versus prolometric methods for underground haul roads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 3 Design and development of the road surface quality monitor 31

3.1 An overview of the Autotram control system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 3.2 Integration of the RSQ monitor with the Autotram system . . . . . . 33 3.3 RSQ monitor hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 3.3.1 Accelerometers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

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3.3.2 3.3.3 3.3.4 3.3.5 3.3.6

Anti-aliasing lter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Analog-to-digital converter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 The delay-boxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Compact ash data storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

3.4 RSQ monitor software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 3.4.1 RSQ monitor software architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

3.5 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 4 Monitoring road surface quality 47

4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 4.2 Denition of the RSQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 4.3 Choice of data for computing the RSQ index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 4.3.1 4.3.2 Which accelerometer? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Which tramming direction? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

4.4 The tramming route . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 4.5 Road surface quality along the tramming route . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 4.6 Road degradation with number of runs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 4.7 The RMS-RSQ: A broad measure of road surface quality . . . . . . . 66 4.8 Case studies in the use of the RSQ index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 4.8.1 Case study 1: Day-shift of October 4, 2004 . . . . . . . . . . . 68

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4.8.2 4.8.3

Case study 2: Day-shift of October 18, 2004 . . . . . . . . . . 70 Case study 3: Day-shift of October 19, 2004 . . . . . . . . . . 73

4.9 Summary and conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 5 The RSQ monitor as a collision detection tool 77

5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 5.2 Operator feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

5.3 LHD UL038 - 15/16th of June, 2005 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 5.3.1 Background information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

5.4 Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 5.4.1 5.4.2 Identifying cause of collisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Estimating Collision Intensity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

5.5 Conclusion and Future Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 6 Conclusions and recommendations for future work 94

6.1 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 6.1.1 6.1.2 Aims of eld trials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Experiments addressing longitudinal study aims . . . . . . . . 98

6.2 Concluding remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 Bibliography A Data analysis methodology 105 106

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List of Tables

2.1 A comparison of response-type and prolometric methods for measuring road roughness *[1]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 2.2 The nine parameters used to completely describe a road surface [2]. . 28

List of Figures

1.1 RH2900 autonomous LHD at Olympic Dam Operations. . . . . . . . 1.2 Stope mining process. (Figures taken from http://www.uraniumsa.org) 1.3 The RH2900 LHD. Top view shows articulation motion. Side view shows various bucket positions. Figure taken from the CAT RH2900G

6 9

data sheet without permission. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 1.4 Time spent in each gear vs. number of buckets/hr. Buckets/hr is shown for current gear conguration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

2.1 The Golden Car model [3]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 2.2 Comparison between measured coherency functions and those calculated assuming isotropy. (A: Motorway, B: Minor road, C: Paving) [4] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 2.3 Road elevation domain vs. road spatial acceleration domain (raw data and statistical distribution) [5]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 2.4 Statistical distributions of spatial acceleration and transient amplitudes [2]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 2.5 Four PSDs for roads of dierent roughnesses [6]. . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 xi

3.1 A schematic representation of the Autotram network with the RSQ monitor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 3.2 The Autotram control room supervisory control system (SCS) workstation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 3.3 The relationship between the Autotram OBC and SCS and the RSQ monitor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 3.4 The RSQ index as displayed on the Autotram operator control console. 35 3.5 The RSQ monitor hardware. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 3.6 The LHD with accelerometer and RSQ monitor mounting locations shown. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 3.7 The method of mounting the accelerometers to the LHD. A lid is then used to seal the protective case and prevent internal corrosion. . . . . 38 3.8 Signal processing in the RSQ monitor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 3.9 Power ow wiring diagram for the RSQ monitor. . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 3.10 A diagrammatical representation of the nite state machine RSQ monitor software. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

4.1 An example of smooth and rough underground haul roads. The light source is displaced vertically downwards to allow road surface irregularities to present more clearly. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 4.2 Bode plot showing the frequency response of the RSQ lter applied on squared acceleration measurements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

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4.3 A plan view of the tunnels that make up the 58 Orange 57 haul route with draw-point and ore-pass marked. The path taken by the Autotram is shown by the blue dashed line. The portion of the haul route between the green triangle markers is referred to as the main section of the tramming route. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 4.4 Front vs rear accelerometer frequency information. Empty-tram data. 53 4.5 Front vs rear accelerometer frequency information. Full-tram data. . . 56 4.6 A plan view of the path the LHD takes along the 58 Orange 57 haul route (see Fig. 4.3 for a map of the route itself). O designates the coordinate origin and dotted horizontal lines designate sections of curved road. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 4.7 Data from the LHD during the empty-tram runs on the night-shift of the 16th/17th October 2004. Two separate y-axes are shown for each gure. Vertical lines represent important features. The solid lines represent the boundaries of the area of road that is used to obtain results, the dashed lines represent the zones where gear changes occur and the dotted lines represent the segments of curved road. . . . . . . 59 4.8 A 3D realisation of the RSQ measure (from the night-shift of the 16th/17th October 2004) mapped against the haul route. The x and y-axes are the x and y haul route map coordinates respectively, and the z-axis is the RSQ corresponding to the x-y coordinate. . . . . . . 62 4.9 Waterfall plots of the RSQ versus sample number with increasing runs for the entire night-shift on the 16th/17th of October 2004. Each plot is an average of ve runs; the rst plot represents runs 1 to 5 etc. Both plots are presented because they clearly show dierent aspects of the RSQ trend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

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4.10 A waterfall plot of the dierential RSQ (minus the initial RSQ) versus sample number for the main section of road (between the vertical solid black markers in Fig. 4.7) with increasing runs for the entire nightshift of the 16th/17th of October 2004. Each plot is an average of ve runs; the rst plot represents runs 1 to 5 etc. . . . . . . . . . . . 65 4.11 The RMS of the RSQ vs run number for every run of the night-shift on the 16th/17th of October 2004. A moving average curve is plotted in red to help identify the trend in the data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 4.12 The haul route road at the end of the day shift on the 4th of October 2004. The light source is displaced vertically downwards to allow road surface irregularities to present more clearly. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 4.13 A waterfall plot of the dierential RSQ over the entire day shift on the 4th of October 2004. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 4.14 The RMS-RSQ for every run over the shift on October 4, 2004. . . . 70 4.15 A 2D waterfall plot of the RSQ over the entire day shift on the 18th of October 2004. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 4.16 A plot of the rear accelerometer data (converted to g) from run 60 on the day shift of October 18, 2004 at the time of the large RSQ spike. 4.17 2D waterfall plots of the RSQ data obtained on the 19th of October 2004. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 4.18 The RMS-RSQ of the RSQ data obtained during the day shift of the 19th of October, 2004. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 72

5.1 Damage to transmission cover plate.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

5.2 Damage to DAS remote control logic box and main steering hose. . . 80

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5.3 Grizzly with rails to prevent LHD damage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 5.4 LHD and grizzly. Detail shows how bucket tip collides with edge of Grizzly. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 5.5 Longitudinal LHD acceleration vs time (hrs) for the 15th and 16th of June. Points of high acceleration are shown: green = > 10g, yellow = > 15g, red = > 20g, where 1g is approximately 9.81m/s2 . The X is the location of the grizzly center and the traced circular line has a radius equivalent to the distance from the LHDs coordinate centre to the grizzly when the LHD bucket is touching the grizzly edge. The acceleration spikes marked with a cross are spikes deemed to be a result of something other than grizzly collision. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 5.6 Longitudinal acceleration vs Time of UL038 over two days. Vertical dividers represent shift change and S represents a LHD service. Time is in 24 hour time in the format HH:MM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 5.7 A time-scaled plot of y-acceleration Vs. time for one of the collisions. Sample points, represented by hollow circles, are 1/200sec apart. Time units are HH:MM:SS:SSSS in 24 hour time. . . . . . . . 92 5.8 A time-scaled plot of y-acceleration Vs. time for the positive acceleration spike. Sample points, represented by hollow circles, are 1/200sec apart. Time units are HH:MM:SS:SSSS in 24 hour time. . . . . . . . 92

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Nomenclature

zk Dex Df x N

A unit-less scaling factor used to scale the RSQ to a more palatable magnitude The measured acceleration at sample k The distance travelled in x gear during the empty-tram The distance travelled in x gear during the full-tram The moving average window size

RSQj The RSQ at sample j T The total time to transport one bucket of ore from the draw-point to the ore-pass Tb Td Te Tf Tex Tf x The time taken to bog the ore The time taken to dump the ore The time taken to tram back to the draw-point The time taken to tram the ore to the ore-pass The time spent in x gear during the empty-tram The time spent in x gear during the full-tram

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Tmin The minimum possible time to transport one bucket of ore from the drawpoint to the ore-pass. Vex Vf x The LHD speed in x gear during the empty-tram The LHD speed in x gear during the full-tram

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Abbreviations

ARS average rectied slope AD analogue-to-digital BHPB BHP Billiton CAT Caterpillar CRCMining Cooperative Research Center for Mining DAS Dynamic Automation Systems EBX embedded board expandable EMR electro-magnetic radiation FIR nite impulse response GUI graphical user interface HUD heads up display IRI International Road Roughness Index IRRE international road roughness experiment IRSQ instantaneous road surface quality 1

KE kinetic energy LAN local area network LHD load-haul-dump OBC on-board controller ODM Olympic Dam Mining Operations OS operating system PDF probability density function PSD power spectral density RMS root mean square RPM revolutions-per-minute RR road roughness RSQ road surface quality SCS supervisory control system UDP user datagram protocol WMC Western Mining Corporation

Terminology

Articulate The action of a load-haul-dump (LHD) vehicle steering about its articulation point. Damage Fatigue or direct stress felt by a LHD. Dierential RSQ The RSQ minus the RSQ at the start of the shift. This is a convenient way of looking at the increase in RSQ. Draw-point The area at the bottom of the Stope from where the ore is extracted. Empty-tram The trip from ore-pass to draw-point. Named empty-tram because of the lack of payload. Full-tram The trip from draw-point to ore-pass. Named full-tram because of the payload. Grizzly The steel grid that is placed over the ore-pass to prevent oversize passing. Haul A LHD tramming with a full bucket is said to be hauling. Haul route The road connecting the draw-point and ore-pass traversed by an LHD.

 Ore-pass Where ore is dumped to be taken to the surface via the underground rail system through. Oversize The name given to large, insuciently broken ore, too large to t through the grizzly and proceed to the next stage in the stope mining process. Road Roughness Variation in elevation of road prole. Run The trip from the draw-point to ore-pass and back again (a run). Stope An area in an underground mine where ore is blasted for extraction. Tram The action of a LHD vehicle moving from one place to another (tramming). Tramming route See Haul route.

Chapter 1

The rationale for monitoring underground road surface quality

1.1

Introduction

Load-haul-dump (LHD) vehicles, see Fig. 1.1, are used in underground mining to transport blasted ore from a draw-point to an ore-pass. They are critical production units at most underground mines, and the ongoing imperative to increase production has lead to the development, in the last ve years, of fully autonomous LHD systems. This thesis makes contributions to the problem of monitoring the condition of the roads on which these vehicles operate with the specic aim of developing a road quality monitor suitable for autonomous LHDs. The role of this monitor is to provide the automation system with feedback on road condition in a similar fashion to the way the roughness of the ride provides information of road condition to a human operator physically present on the machine. In the absence of such feedback, it has been found that these automated vehicles are often run for extended periods on poor quality roads to the detriment of the mechanical integrity of the machine. The specic objective of this thesis is to establish whether it is possible to monitor road condition with sucient delity to determine degrading road surface quality 5

1.1. INTRODUCTION

Figure 1.1: RH2900 autonomous LHD at Olympic Dam Operations. using measurements of vertical acceleration made from the chassis of LHD vehicle. An underlying assumption for the work is that there exist critical levels of road quality at which the road must either be graded or the travelling speed reduced to maintain control of the vehicle and preserve mechanical integrity of the machine. Operators do this implicitly by gauging the roughness of ride, but an automation system requires explicit guidance. The system developed in this thesis is intended to provide such guidance. When passing over a rough section of road, for example, the monitor would advise the automation to change down a gear (or two!) to preserve good control and avoid damage. The remainder of this chapter gives background information for the problem and provides a more detailed motivation for the work. Chapter 2 reviews the various methods that have been proposed for the description of road roughness against the 6

1.2. BACKGROUND specic objective or developing a road roughness measure for underground loadhaul-dump vehicles. Chapter 3 describes the hardware and software developed to monitor road surface quality. This system integrates with the Dynamic Automation Systems (DAS) Autotram control system, broadcasting road surface quality information over the local area network connecting the vehicle to the surface. This road condition information is displayed in realtime on the surface control console, allowing degrading roads to be visualised and monitored. Chapter 4 develops a measure of road condition and reports on the performance of this measure on data obtained from experimental trials at Olympic Dam. It is shown that the approach can provide information on road surface quality. Chapter 5 explores the possibility of using the monitor to detect collisions between the LHD and the operating environment with a view towards alerting the Autotram system or remote operators to potentially signicant damage events. Chapter 6 gives recommendations from the study including the proposal for a longitudinal trial of the technology.

1.2
1.2.1

Background
Olympic Dam Mine (ODM)

The experimental component of this thesis was conducted at Olympic Dam Mining Operations (ODM), located 560km northwest of Adelaide near Roxby Downs in South Australia. The ODM orebody was discovered in 1975 and production began in 1988. The mine has the fourth largest known remaining copper resource, the fourth largest gold resource, and the largest uranium resource in the world. ODM is

1.2. BACKGROUND also the largest underground mine in Australia. In 2004, ODM produced 224, 000t of copper, 4, 400t of uranium, 87, 600ounces of gold and 868, 000ounces of silver. ODM comprises a fully-integrated underground mine and above-ground metallurgical complex. All processing is done on-site to remove and contain the high-levels of radioactivity present in the ore. ODM utilises the stope mining method, which involves progressively blasting rock in layers from the ore-body to form a cavity, see Fig. 1.2. The rock falls through an opening, at the base of the cavity, to a draw-point where it is extracted by an LHD. The LHD hauls ore from the draw-point to an ore-pass, where the ore is dumped. The ore is then transported using an underground rail system to a high-speed lift, where it is taken to the surface and along a series of conveyors to the stockpile, ready for processing.

1.2.2

The RH2900 Load Haul Dump (LHD) vehicle

The LHD used in this study is an RH2900 manufactured by Caterpillar-Elphinstone. The RH2900 is an articulated vehicle: steering is achieved by the actuation of hydraulic rams that pivot the vehicle about a central pivot point, see Fig. 1.3. The axles and chassis are rigidly joined; suspension is provided entirely by the air-lled tyres. The RH2900 weighs 50t when the bucket is empty and up to 67t when fully loaded.

1.2.3

The Dynamic Automation Systems (DAS) Autotram system

The automated LHD is a retrot to a standard RH2900 LHD that allows it to operate autonomously. This retrot is a product of Dynamic Automation Systems

1.2. BACKGROUND

(a) Before Blasting

(b) After Blasting

Figure 1.2: Stope mining process. (Figures taken from http://www.uraniumsa.org)

(DAS), a subsidiary of Caterpillar. The retrot involves installing multiple sensors, an on board computer-based control system, and communications equipment. The retrotted vehicle has three modes of operation: (i) manual mode; (ii) co-pilot mode; and (iii) Autotram mode. Manual mode is a pure teleoperation mode that allows the operator full control of the LHD using the joystick. The operator obtains information from an on-screen display that includes:

Real-time video footage from cameras mounted on the front and rear of the LHD. Real-time updates of walls and other obstacle locations relative to the LHD.

1.2. BACKGROUND

Figure 1.3: The RH2900 LHD. Top view shows articulation motion. Side view shows various bucket positions. Figure taken from the CAT RH2900G data sheet without permission. Maps of the tramming route. LHD dashboard information such as speed, gear, battery voltage, oil temperature, headlight status, engine RPM, angle of articulation, and bucket status (up or down).

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1.3. MOTIVATION FOR MONITORING ROAD SURFACE CONDITION In Autotram mode, the LHD follows a pre-set path and uses its onboard sensors to correct for errors and avoid collisions. No operator input is required when in this mode. Co-pilot mode is a middle ground between manual and Autotram modes. It is similar to manual mode in that the operator controls speed, direction of travel and steering mechanism, however the computer system intervenes to prevent collisions with the operating environment. Each mode of operation is intended for a specic purpose. The operator, working from a surface console, digs (or bogs) ore from the stope draw-point in manual mode. The system is then switched into Autotram mode and the LHD autonomously travels (or trams) to the ore-pass, dumps the ore, and then returns to the stope. On arrival it switches back to manual mode and the cycle repeats. Co-pilot mode is not used during normal operation, but is commonly used when moving the LHD around to deal with exceptional circumstances outside the normal bog-haul-dump-tram cycle. Autotram systems oer numerous benets over manual operation, including: (i) improved safety by removing the operator from the machine and thereby the underground environment; (ii) productivity increases due to higher tramming speed, improved dumping precision and continued operation while blasting is in progress; (iii) production cost reductions through the ability to have one operator, control several LHDs simultaneously; and (iv) lower development costs that come by virtue of less stringent ventilation requirements.

1.3

Motivation for monitoring road surface condition

The primary motivation for this thesis is to facilitate productivity improvement in underground stope mines through better utilisation of LHD vehicles. The second level of motivation is to provide LHD operators with information on potentially

11

1.3. MOTIVATION FOR MONITORING ROAD SURFACE CONDITION damaging LHD collisions. A third motivation is to provide a means for better time management of grader vehicles using logged road roughness information.

1.3.1

LHD productivity

The most important indicator of LHD productivity is the number of bucket loads of ore an LHD transports from the stope to the ore-pass per hour. The total time taken to transport one bucket can be broken into four components:

time to bog the ore, Tb ; time to haul the ore to the ore-pass, Tf (the full-tram)); time to dump the ore, Td ; and time to tram back to the ore-pass, Te (the empty-tram). Therefore, total time to move one bucket of ore is given by: T = Tb + Td + Tf + Te (1.1)

Since the quality of the road has little eect on bog or dump times, the improvement in productivity due to improved road quality will be seen in the tramming and hauling parts of the cycle. Put simply, only the haul and tramming times are functions of road roughness (RR). T (RR) = Tb + Td + Tf (RR) + Te (RR) (1.2)

The RH2900 has three gears for travelling in each direction, termed rst, second, and third. The machine is typically operated continuously with full-throttle to maintain hydraulic pressure and, ideally, the vehicle runs in third gear (highest speed) to minimise hauling and tramming times. A manual operator makes gear 12

1.3. MOTIVATION FOR MONITORING ROAD SURFACE CONDITION changes according to his judgement and skill. Under autonomous operation, the gear changes are programmed to occur at various points along the haul route. The full-tram time (Tf ) and the empty-tram time (Te ) can be represented by the time spent in each gear, i.e. Tf (RR) = Tf 1 (RR) + Tf 2 (RR) + Tf 3 (RR), Te (RR) = Te1 (RR) + Te2 (RR) + Te3 (RR). (1.3a) (1.3b)

The time spent in each gear depends on the distance travelled in that gear, so Tf (RR) = Te (RR) = Df 1 (RR) Df 2 (RR) Df 3 (RR) + + , Vf 1 Vf 2 Vf 3 De1 (RR) De2 (RR) De3 (RR) + + . Ve1 Ve2 Ve3 (1.4a) (1.4b)

Where the total tramming route length is given by D = Df 1 (RR) + Df 2 (RR) + Df 3 (RR) = De1 (RR) + De2 (RR) + De3 (RR). (1.5) (1.6)

Therefore total time for one cycle is T = Tb + Td + Df 1 (RR) Df 2 (RR) Df 3 (RR) De1 (RR) De2 (RR) De3 (RR) + + + + + . Vf 1 Vf 2 Vf 3 Ve1 Ve2 Ve3 (1.7)

The minimum cycle time is (with the entire run done in third gear): Tmin = Tb + Td + D D + Vf 3 Ve3 (1.8)

An example will illustrate the benets that can be derived from being able to travel in higher gears. The data used was from the 58 Orange 57 haul route at ODM. The production rate for this haul route was approximately fourteen buckets per hour with the gear change timing conguration in place at the time of testing. The LHD spent approximately 40% of the tram in 1st gear and 60% in 2nd gear. No time was 13

1.3. MOTIVATION FOR MONITORING ROAD SURFACE CONDITION programmed in 3rd gear (where the machine runs fastest) for two reasons: (i) the conditions of the roads made steering dicult; (ii) the mine site lacks condence in Autotram and chose not to risk the system. The latter is related to the acceptance of new technology. The former is an area for improvement, and is where this projects eorts are primarily focused. If the machine were to operate in third gear along the entire haul route, productivity would increase to approximately twenty buckets per hour. This is equivalent to a 42% increase in productivity. The productivity associated with the time spent in each gear is shown in Fig. 1.4 along with a marker showing the current conguration. For stopes with longer tramming routes, the theoretical increase in productivity is higher, approaching 115% for a very long tramming route.

Figure 1.4: Time spent in each gear vs. number of buckets/hr. Buckets/hr is shown for current gear conguration.

14

1.3. MOTIVATION FOR MONITORING ROAD SURFACE CONDITION To improve road quality we must rst understand how haul roads degrade with time. Only by measuring the road condition, can the degradation trends be analysed and the contributing factors established. Road degradation information could then be linked to the associated costs, leading to a feasibility study of better road surfacing techniques.

1.3.2

Abnormal event detection such as collisions

In addition to general road surface quality, there is the need to be able to identify what might be called exceptional events whose occurrence can adversely aect the integrity of the machine. These events might include the development of a signicant pothole or a large rock falling across one of the wheel-tracks. Similarly, there is the possibility of the Autotram LHD colliding with the side walls or other damage causing events such as the bucket impacting with the steel grid or grizzly that is placed over the ore-pass to prevent oversize passing. In principle, an on-board monitor could be used to detect these events and report and log them. In the case of a pothole or spilt rock across the wheel-tracks, this information could be used to identify the presence of these irregularities and to action corrective maintenance. In the case of glancing wall collisions, provided they were not too severe, the LHD would otherwise continue operating. The occurrence of a collision probably indicates that control of the vehicle was lost prior to the collision. Providing notication of the collision to a supervisory operator would allow him to address this by, for example, changing gear to maintain vehicle control. The early detection of other damage causing events, possibly related to operator behaviours in manual mode, could be used as feedback to alert the operator of an issue and allow for prompt corrective action.

15

1.4. SUMMARY

1.3.3

Grader scheduling

Graders are large machines used to reduce the unevenness of rough unsealed roads. This is done by removing the top layer and lling depressions, smoothing the road surface. Currently, LHD operators decide when the haul road has reached a critical level of roughness and inform a grader operator of the problem. The grader operator then travels from their current location and grades the road. Travelling from jobto-job can take up a signicant portion of a graders time and the process could be improved with better forward planning. A system that provides a continuously updating map of the mine, displaying road roughness on all traversed tunnels would allow this forward planning to take place.

1.4

Summary

This chapter has introduced the thesis topic. The next chapter surveys previous work in the area of road condition monitoring and analysis with a view towards identifying the most eective method for monitoring road surface quality.

16

Chapter 2

Methods for measuring and interpreting road roughness

Road roughness is an encompassing term used to describe the variation in elevation of road proles and is a major contributing factor to vehicle operating eciency, quality of ride, and the rate of accrued damage. Interest in road roughness is often initiated by a desire to understand vehicle ride, so it is often studied alongside specic vehicle dynamics. Various methods have been proposed for the description of road roughness. It is the purpose of this chapter to review these against the specic objective or developing a road roughness measure for underground load-haul-dump vehicles.

2.1

Road roughness measurement

There are two basic approaches to measuring road condition: (i) indirect methods based on the measurement of the response of a vehicle as it passes over a road, and (ii) direct methods based on road prole measurement. The rst category are known as response-type methods; the second as prolometric methods. Table 2.1 summarises the advantages and disadvantages of each, based on the discussion in [1]. 17

2.1. ROAD ROUGHNESS MEASUREMENT

ion ?*

Response-type Prolometric

Fast Low Fast High

Table 2.1: A comparison of response-type and prolometric methods for measuring road roughness *[1]. Response-type methods measure the response of a vehicle as it passes over a road. They are more commonly used than prolometric methods because of the ease and speed at which data can be gathered and because the required equipment is relatively inexpensive and simple to design. Regular re-calibration of a response-type system is required if a standard measure is being calculated from the data, such as the International Road Roughness Index (IRI) (see Section 2.2). Vehicle response is commonly established by either measuring the suspension displacement, that is the change in position between the axle and body of the vehicle, or by measuring the vertical acceleration of the vehicle body. Measurement of suspension displacement is generally preferred because the results show better correlation with the IRI. Chassis acceleration is, however, often used in practice because it is easier to measure. Prolometric methods have the advantage of providing a description of the geometric prole, and so can be used for calibration of response-type measurements. Prolometric methods do not require constant re-calibration. Two kinds are in common use:

1. Manual prolometers (rod-and-level surveys) for slow, low cost, accurate rough18

Ac qu isit Eq ion uip Sp me eed nt * Co Ac st* cur acy * De sig nC om ple Du xit st y* Sen sit ivi ty Re qu ire sR egu lar Re cal ibr at

Da

ta

Med High

Low High

Low Med

Yes/No No

2.2. ROAD ROUGHNESS MEASUREMENT STANDARDISATION AND THE INTERNATIONAL ROUGHNESS INDEX (IRI) ness measurement. 2. High speed laser prolometers for high speed, but more expensive, accurate roughness measurement.

2.2

Road roughness measurement standardisation and the International Roughness Index (IRI)

In the early 1980s, the World Bank sponsored an experiment named the international road roughness experiment (IRRE) [7]. The World Banks interest in road condition was motivated by their agenda to improve the eciency of world trade. Transport of goods and services is a signicant cost to all economies. Road transport is the dominant transportation method, and well maintained roads allow goods to be transported cheaper and faster than is possible over poorly maintained roads. The IRRE led directly to the development of the so-called International Roughness Index (IRI) and involved all commonly used response-type and prolometric road roughness measurement systems to ensure compatibility with most roughness measurement systems. Sayers, Gillespie and Queiroz et al. developed the IRI to reconcile these dierent road roughness measures [8, 7, 1, 9, 3].

2.2.1

Denition of the IRI

Sayers, Gillespie and Queiroz considered many models for calculating the IRI, using the following four criteria [7]: 1. Time stability: The IRI must not change with time. 2. Transportability: It must work in all parts of the world and with all measurement methods (Response-type and prolometric methods). 19

2.2. ROAD ROUGHNESS MEASUREMENT STANDARDISATION AND THE INTERNATIONAL ROUGHNESS INDEX (IRI) 3. Relevance: It must reect the road condition in terms of ride quality, vehicle operating costs and safety. 4. Validity: Procedures put in place for IRI measurement must be such that IRI measurements are repeatable. A quarter-car analysis, see Fig. 2.1, was selected because it satised these criteria as well as possessing the following desirable attributes: (i) it can be calculated directly from road prole; (ii) it shows good correlation with response-type systems (since it is a dynamic model of a response-type system); and (iii) it acts as a high and low pass lter, removing unwanted frequencies from the data. The IRI results were found to be sensitive to the dynamic parameters of the quarter car model so standard values were selected for the mass, stiness and damping according to which frequencies should be ltered. The resulting quarter car model is known as the Golden Car, see Fig.2.1.

Figure 2.1: The Golden Car model [3]. To obtain good correlation between results from dierent response-type instruments, the traversing speed must be the same. For the IRI, a reference speed of 80km/h is used, chosen to reect the typical speed of a light vehicle travelling on a highway. The inuence of the dynamic properties of the vehicle from which the response-type 20

2.2. ROAD ROUGHNESS MEASUREMENT STANDARDISATION AND THE INTERNATIONAL ROUGHNESS INDEX (IRI) measurements are made have been explored by [8]. It was found that while the use of dierent vehicles resulted in dierent IRI values, there was a strong correlation in the results. Therefore, the IRI can be used to compare results found using dierent vehicles as long as calibration is performed. The method for this is discussed in the following pages.

2.2.2

Calculation of the IRI

For response-type methods, the IRI is calculated as follows: 1. The vehicle is driven over the road in question at 80km/h (standard traversing speed). 2. Displacement of the vehicle suspension is accumulated over the length of the road. 3. The accumulated suspension displacement is then divided by the distance travelled to get the average rectied slope (ARS). 4. The ARS is correlated with the IRI calculated from the prole of the same road, measured using a prolometric method. 5. This correlation is used to nd a calibration equation and the IRI is calculated from the ARS. Steps 4 and 5 must be repeated on a semi-regular basis to recalibrate as vehicle dynamics change with time, causing drift in the calculated IRI. The IRI is calculated from prolometer data as follows: 1. Data is ltered using a moving average (of 250mm) to simulate the enveloping eect of the tyres and to reduce the sensitivity of the IRI algorithm to the sample interval [3]. 21

2.2. ROAD ROUGHNESS MEASUREMENT STANDARDISATION AND THE INTERNATIONAL ROUGHNESS INDEX (IRI) 2. This data is then used as an input to the Golden Car quarter car model. 3. Displacement of the suspension is accumulated over the length of prole data. 4. The IRI is calculated by accumulating the suspension displacement and dividing by the distance travelled (the ARS for the golden car).

Simply put, this is a response-type simulation of the IRI golden quarter car model passing over a measured road prole. The IRI is the ARS calculated using this method [8, 7].

2.2.3

Summary of the IRI

Calculation of the ARS, and thus the IRI requires measurement of the suspension displacement, therefore it is required that the vehicle used to obtain the data has some form of suspension between the chassis and axle. It is also necessary for calculation of the IRI that roughness measurements are taken while travelling at 80km/h. In the case of LHDs on haul roads these conditions cannot be satised because: (a) LHD vehicles rely on only rubber air-lled tyres for suspension so the ARS cannot be calculated; and (b) the LHD used in this study has a maximum speed of approximately 20km/h. For these reasons, the IRI is not directly applicable to LHDs. However many of the ideas resulting from investigations into the IRI are applicable to LHDs, specically, the strong dependence of the measure on vehicle speed. This has important implications for this project as the LHD operates at one of three speeds depending on gear selection.

22

2.3. POWER SPECTRAL DENSITY (PSD) METHODS

2.3

Power Spectral Density (PSD) methods

The power spectral density (PSD) provides a means for extracting frequency information from road roughness data. When calculated from time domain data, the resulting power spectral density (PSD) is in the frequency domain, whereas a PSD calculated using spatial domain data is in the spatial frequency (or wave number) domain.

2.3.1

Hypotheses for simplied road roughness description

In 1973, Dodds and Robson carried out an extended study of road surfaces [4]. They suggested road surfaces could be adequately described using a Gaussian, homogenous and isotropic random process, provided data spikes (transients) were removed from the data and analysed separately. The elements of this hypothesis are:

Homogeneity: The Spectral characteristics are the same independent of the measurement starting location. Isotropy: Spectral characteristics are independent of the direction of travel. Gaussian process: Data is random and distributed such that its distribution is Gaussian, allowing the distribution to be described using only a mean and standard deviation (rst and second order moments).

For an isotropic and homogenous road surface, spectral characteristics taken starting at any location and in any direction, could be used to develop a description of the entire surface. Dodds and Robson [4] aimed at justifying the hypotheses of homogeneity and isotropy with a view to signicantly reduce the complexity of road descriptions. It is assumed that the road prole follows a Gaussian distribution.

23

2.3. POWER SPECTRAL DENSITY (PSD) METHODS

2.3.2

Homogeneity

Dodds and Robson [4] undertook dual-track geodesic surveys on three types of road: motorway, minor road, and paving. After removing low frequency components (road slope) and high frequency transient components (potholes etc.), the spectral characteristics of the road surface were analysed. The spectral information obtained from the two wheel-paths showed good agreement for all road types, supporting the hypothesis of homogeneity.

2.3.3

Isotropy

To test the hypothesis of isotropy, Dodds and Robson [4] formulated a coherency function (the cross-spectral density normalised by the one sided spectral density), assuming isotropy. This coherency function was then compared to experimental results and the two were found to agree for low wave numbers (see Fig. 2.2). Dodds and Robson [4] argued that this conrmed the accuracy of the homogeneity hypothesis whilst backing the isotropic assumption. As seen in the gure, however, the validity of this assumption is questionable for higher wave numbers. Although limited experimental evidence was available, Dodds and Robson concluded that the hypothesis of isotropy was supported in the case of all three types of roads. They stated that further experiments would show that the proposed classication method completely denes road-surface roughness. Kamash and Robson [10] proposed that not all road proles are isotropic. They provided conditions of admissibility that a surface must satisfy to be classied as isotropic. If these conditions are satised, the road can be described by a one dimensional PSD. If a prole does not satisfy the conditions of admissibility, however, it is not independent of travelling direction and must be described using a twodimensional PSD.

24

2.3. POWER SPECTRAL DENSITY (PSD) METHODS

Figure 2.2: Comparison between measured coherency functions and those calculated assuming isotropy. (A: Motorway, B: Minor road, C: Paving) [4]

2.3.4

Transient identication

Roulliard, Sek and Perry [6] suggested that when analysing road surfaces with large peaks or transients, it may be possible to use crest factor analysis (a description of the quantity and amplitude of sharp peaks in the data) to identify transients. It was suggested that crest factor should be studied using a moving window on the data, calculated by nding the highest peak in the window and dividing it by the root mean square (RMS) for that window. This was called crest factor variation and was shown to be useful for identifying smaller as well as larger crests in the data. This method of transient identication is also used successfully by Bruscella, Roulliard and Sek [5] and Roulliard, Bruscella and Sek [2] in later works. The spatial acceleration domain (double derivative of prole with respect to direction of travel) has been used (Bruscella, Roulliard and Sek [5]) to identify transient events (outliers) with greater accuracy and reliability than when using road elevation as an analysis domain. As seen in Fig. 2.3, the transient is within the 95% condence interval in the road elevation domain, whereas it is an outlier in the spatial accelera25

2.3. POWER SPECTRAL DENSITY (PSD) METHODS tion domain. Crest factor analysis has been used in the spatial acceleration domain as an eective means of identifying transients (Bruscella, Roulliard and Sek [5]). An alternative method proposed by Roulliard, Bruscella and Sek [2] for removing and recording the amplitude and location of transients is discussed below.

Figure 2.3: Road elevation domain vs. road spatial acceleration domain (raw data and statistical distribution) [5].

2.3.5

The Gaussian assumption and problems associated with non-stationary PSDs

Roulliard, Sek and Perry [6] question the validity of assuming a Gaussian distribution. It was shown that for rough roads, the data was approximately Gaussian, but less rough roads showed values of kurtosis as high as double the normal Gaussian 26

2.3. POWER SPECTRAL DENSITY (PSD) METHODS value (here, we refer to the kurtosis proper, which is three for Gaussian distributions). It was concluded that the Gaussian assumption is applicable for rough roads but not for roads with smaller amplitude surface irregularities. For the PSD and probability density function (PDF) of a random process to be meaningful, the data is required to be stationary. If the data is not stationary (which it often isnt), the PSD and PDF will produce results of little value. Bruscella, Roulliard and Sek [5] show that road elevation is a highly nonstationary, nonGaussian process containing transients. Transient events can be identied and removed using crest factor analysis (as discussed), but since skewness and kurtosis are sensitive to non-stationarity as well as transients, the data is still non-Gaussian. Roulliard, Sek and Perry [6] suggest the need for a method to analyse data with nonstationary components, stating the majority of road surface data is nonstationary. Roulliard, Bruscella and Sek [2] proposed a universal classication methodology for bitumen and other roads with nonstationary RMS. They suggest that the proposed method is an accurate means to characterise road roughness levels for roads with either stationary or nonstationary RMS. They propose that any road surface can be described by two fundamental components:

1. Underlying road surface irregularities 2. Transients

Transients are removed using crest factor analysis and the remaining data is split into sections of constant RMS. This eectively divides the road up into many discrete segments according to roughness. This was implemented on the entire 415km of road samples, resulting in two components: a series of constant RMS (stationary) road segments with the transient components removed, classied according to RMS level; and data containing the number of removed transients and their amplitudes. 27

2.3. POWER SPECTRAL DENSITY (PSD) METHODS

Figure 2.4: Statistical distributions of spatial acceleration and transient amplitudes [2]. It was found that the amplitudes of the transients could be described using a statistical distribution as could the discrete RMS sections (Fig. 2.4). A set of nine parameters were dened to describe these statistical distributions (Table. 2.2). These nine parameters were used to fully describe the distribution of stationary segments according to RMS and the distribution of transients according to amplitude. Parameter (1) T T T MT RT RM S RM S MRM S RRM S Denition (2) Transient density (transients/unit length) Transient amplitude mean Transient amplitude standard deviation Transient amplitude median Transient amplitude range RMS distribution mean RMS distribution standard deviation RMS distribution median RMS distribution range Typical Limits (3) 0 - 80 100 - 600 50 - 800 50 - 400 20 - 1500 30 - 110 10 - 60 15 - 95 5 - 250

Table 2.2: The nine parameters used to completely describe a road surface [2].

2.3.6

PSD shape

Roulliard, Sek and Perry [6] also found that for roads of dierent roughness, the shape of the PSD curve remained almost unchanged although the RMS varied as 28

2.3. POWER SPECTRAL DENSITY (PSD) METHODS the PSD shifted vertically according to the road roughness (Fig. 2.5). This is an observation also conrmed by Bruscella, Roulliard and Sek [5].

Figure 2.5: Four PSDs for roads of dierent roughnesses [6]. This is an important attribute of road surfaces, as it shows that the area under the PSD (the RMS) increases with road roughness.

2.3.7

Conclusions

There is much useful information to be gained from this large body of work. The following are the most useful points (in no particular order):

Roads can be classed as locally homogenous. PSD shape remains unchanged with changes in road roughness. Data must be stationary for PSD to be meaningful. Spatial acceleration domain is useful for identifying transients with greater accuracy. Methods for the following are suggested: Testing whether a road prole is isotropic. Transient identication and analysis. Analysis of nonstationary data. 29

2.3. POWER SPECTRAL DENSITY (PSD) METHODS This information is useful in quantifying haul road roughness. Specically, methods for identifying transients caused by potholes and spilt rock and analysing nonstationary data may prove to be extremely useful in analysing the road surface.

2.3.8

Response-type versus prolometric methods for underground haul roads

When deciding on which of these methods to use, it is important to ask which information is more valuable, the prole of a road, or a vehicles response to that road. Is it degradation of road prole or vehicle wear that is of more value? The most relevant measure is decided on a case-by-case basis depending on the application. For underground LHDs on haul roads, we are primarily interested in LHD productivity and control of the LHD at high speeds. Measuring the prole of the road would provide a direct measure of road unevenness, but since we are more interested in the eect of the road on the vehicle, it is more appropriate to measure the LHD response directly. LHD vertical acceleration holds more signicance than actual road prole. It is not possible to measure suspension displacement, as LHDs have no suspension per se. Accelerometers were selected for measuring vehicle response for this reason and because they are relatively simple to install and provide accurate measurements of vehicle vibration.

30

Chapter 3

Design and development of the road surface quality monitor

This chapter describes the hardware and software developed in this project to monitor road surface quality. The monitor integrates with the DAS Autotram control system, broadcasting road surface quality information over the local area network connecting the vehicle to the surface. The road quality information is displayed in real time on the console used by the remote operator, allowing degrading roads to be visualised and monitored.

3.1

An overview of the Autotram control system

The Autotram control system comprises an on-board controller (OBC), underground, on the LHD and a supervisory control system (SCS) at the surface. The OBC is responsible for autonomous navigation of the vehicle and communicates with the SCS via a local area network (LAN) (Fig. 3.1). Sensor information as well as streaming audio and video is sent from the OBC to the SCS. In remote operation mode, the operator garners this sensor information with experience to

31

3.1. AN OVERVIEW OF THE AUTOTRAM CONTROL SYSTEM make control commands, e.g. steer, accelerate, lift bucket, raise engine revolutionsper-minute (RPM), switch operation mode and so on, that are sent to the LHD over the LAN. Under automatic operation, this information is used for automated supervisory control of the vehicle.

Figure 3.1: A schematic representation of the Autotram network with the RSQ monitor. The OBC consists of a control computer connected to several sensors, notably:

scanning ladar devices used to map the environment and, in particular, localise the LHD with respect to the haul route walls; radio receivers used to establish LHD position from beacons located along the haul route;

32

3.2. INTEGRATION OF THE RSQ MONITOR WITH THE AUTOTRAM SYSTEM

Figure 3.2: The Autotram control room supervisory control system (SCS) workstation. wheel speed sensors; and an articulation angle sensor.

The OBC also makes used of information from various other sensor measurements including engine speed and temperature, fuel and oil levels, and the binary state (on or o) conditions of several quantities such as mode of operation and bucket position.

3.2

Integration of the RSQ monitor with the Autotram system

The road surface quality (RSQ) monitor integrates with the Autotram system as shown in Fig. 3.3. Its primary purpose is to provide the SCS with an indication of

33

3.2. INTEGRATION OF THE RSQ MONITOR WITH THE AUTOTRAM SYSTEM road roughness. To achieve this, road surface quality information is inferred from the measured output of accelerometers mounted on the vehicle chassis, sampled at moderate rates (200Hz). A basic requirement of the RSQ monitor is that it reduce the signicant quantity of measured sensor data acquired during this process to an indicative measure of road surface quality called the RSQ index. The theory used for this data reduction is detailed in Chapter 4.

Figure 3.3: The relationship between the Autotram OBC and SCS and the RSQ monitor. The existing LAN infrastructure at ODM has the capacity to transmit data to the SCS, so the basic system design described below is predicated on this capability. Road surface quality information is sent in user datagram protocol (UDP) packets [11], over the LAN using a format styled on the pre-existing control system packet structure used to communicate information between the OBC and SCS. The RSQ monitor connects to the Autotram network as shown in Fig. 3.1. Information on road surface quality received by the SCS is displayed on the haul 34

3.3. RSQ MONITOR HARDWARE

Figure 3.4: The RSQ index as displayed on the Autotram operator control console. route map that appears on the operator console. A screen dump showing an example haul route with an LHD in operation and road surface quality information is shown in Fig. 3.4. The magnitude of the RSQ measure is used to colour triangles of the Delaunay triangulation generated and used by the LHD navigation system. These colors are graded so that green indicates good quality roads and red poor roads.

3.3

RSQ monitor hardware

The RSQ monitor consists of an Advantech PCM-9572 PC-104 embedded board expandable (EBX) computer tted with an Advantech PCM-3718 analogue-to-digital (AD) converter. The PCM-9572 computer reads and processes acceleration data from two accelerometers via the PCM-3718 to produce an index representing road

35

3.3. RSQ MONITOR HARDWARE surface quality. Measured data is archived to a compact ash solid state memory disk and the road quality index measure is broadcast synchronously over the LAN at a reduced rate. The RSQ monitor (Fig. 3.5) is mounted centrally on the LHD in the location shown in Fig. 3.6.

Figure 3.5: The RSQ monitor hardware. The RSQ monitor and accelerometers have been designed to be robust to:

1. High vibration/shock: The LHD experiences high energy vibration and shock whilst in normal operation due, inter alia, to road surface unevenness. 2. High temperatures: The engine on the LHD generates signicant heat. Ambient air commonly exceeds 60 C, with the LHD body reaching much higher temperatures.

36

3.3. RSQ MONITOR HARDWARE 3. Corrosion: Mine dust at ODM contains high quantities of copper which promote corrosion. Additionally, underground vehicles are cleaned using highpressure salt water, a powerful corrosive.

Figure 3.6: The LHD with accelerometer and RSQ monitor mounting locations shown. These environmental factors place signicant demands on the hardware system, requiring careful component selection. The RSQ monitor is physically protected by an IP66 Rittal AE1057.600 steel case. This is to protect against falling rock and other potential damage. It also has good heat conduction properties which is important for this application, as airow cannot be used to cool the RSQ monitor due to the corrosive environment in which it operates. A fan mounted inside the case ensures that the ambient temperature is constant throughout for maximum heat conduction. The RSQ monitor is attached to the LHD using vibration isolation mounts. These mounts are eective at isolating the monitor from high frequency vibrations, however low frequency motions are still transmitted to the box with the potential to fatigue fasteners. Military specication connectors are used for all connections and are 37

3.3. RSQ MONITOR HARDWARE treated to prevent corrosion.

3.3.1

Accelerometers

The primary source of information used by the RSQ monitor is obtained from two accelerometers. One mounted at the front of the LHD; the other at the rear. The accelerometers are mounted as shown in Fig. 3.7 in the locations shown in Fig. 3.6. The accelerometer at the front of the vehicle measures accelerations in three orthogonal directions: the lateral (X), longitudinal (Y), and vertical (Z) directions. The rear accelerometer measures only vertical (Z) acceleration.

Figure 3.7: The method of mounting the accelerometers to the LHD. A lid is then used to seal the protective case and prevent internal corrosion. The key consideration for accelerometer selection is dynamic range, namely the range between the smallest and largest accelerations that can be measured. However, the expected range of accelerations for motion of the Autotram LHD was not known at the design stage of the RSQ monitor. The Autotram LHD has a mass of 55, 000kg suspended on air-lled tyres and the suspension is dynamically complex and therefore dicult to predict. For this reason, 25g accelerometers, as

38

3.3. RSQ MONITOR HARDWARE commonly specied in automotive applications, were chosen. The minimum acceleration that these accelerometers can measure is 0.010g, sucient sensitivity for this purpose. This was veried during trials. The accelerometers are contained within individual cases for protection against physical damage and high pressure water. These cases are sti and securely attached to the LHD body for maximum accuracy in the acceleration measurements.

3.3.2

Anti-aliasing lter

The accelerometer signals pass through an anti-aliasing lter (Fig. 3.8) to remove any frequencies above 20Hz. This value is used because the sampling frequency of the AD card is 200Hz, and the guideline adopted to ensure aliasing does not aect the data is to use a sampling frequency of ten times the highest frequency measured. This lter ensures that high frequency vibration such as engine noise is removed, so the road roughness data remains unaected by aliasing upon digitisation.

3.3.3

Analog-to-digital converter

The PCM-3718 AD converter accepts analogue inputs from the accelerometers as well as an engine-on signal and converts these signals to digital format for use within software. The analogue-to-digital converter used in the RSQ monitor is twelve-bit, so it has 212 (4096) discretisation levels spread over the range of the input. The selected accelerometers have a 0g voltage of 2.5V and a range of 2V, so the AD converter is set to unipolar mode, measuring inputs over the range 0 5V. This gives a resolution of: = 5 = 1.22mV 4096

39

3.3. RSQ MONITOR HARDWARE

Figure 3.8: Signal processing in the RSQ monitor. The selected accelerometers have a sensitivity of 80mV/g, so this AD converter resolution is equivalent to a resolution of 0.015g, a slightly lower resolution than the accelerometers are capable of (0.010g). Too low a sampling frequency can result in the loss of information relating to higher frequency road surface irregularities. On the other hand, too high a sampling frequency can lead to large quantities of data, requiring more storage space. A sampling frequency of 200Hz is used for this application. This is sucient for capturing LHD vibrations in the range 0 20Hz. This range is sucient, because due to the LHDs high mass and low tyre stiness (and therefore low natural frequency) and low traversing speed, the bulk of the vibrational energy is contained in low frequencies (below 20Hz).

40

3.3. RSQ MONITOR HARDWARE

3.3.4

The delay-boxes

The Autotram OBC uses an engine-on signal internally. This signal is also fed into the RSQ monitor via the AD converter (see Fig. 3.8) to provide a means to shut down the RSQMon software and operating system (OS) before power is cut. When the engine-on signal is lost, a delay-box waits twenty seconds before disabling power. This ensures that the system has time to shut down cleanly. A second delay-box is used to delay the RSQ monitor from starting once the LHD is activated. When the LHD is used for on-board operation, the DAS system is deactivated. As a result, the engine-on signal does not activate when the engine is started, so the RSQ monitor remains disabled. A switch is used to control the source of the engine-on signal. This switch has three positions: Engine-on; simulated engine-on (5V DC); and disconnected. The rst of these is the engine-on signal from the DAS system as discussed (the default position). The second mode is a simulated engine-on signal which allows the unit to be activated for testing and debugging when the LHD engine isnt on. The third mode allows the RSQ monitor to be deactivated.

3.3.5

Compact ash data storage

The RSQ monitor uses compact ash solid state memory. Two high-speed 1GB compact ash cards are used: one for the OS and one for data storage. Solid state memory is used because of its reliability under high vibration, high temperature conditions and although ash memory does not have the fast write speeds or large storage capacity of hard disk drives, it is sucient for this application. To maximise storage space, data is compressed upon archival. Sixty hours of data can be stored on a 1GB card at the 200Hz sampling rate used.

41

3.3. RSQ MONITOR HARDWARE

3.3.6

Power

A circuit diagram for the RSQ monitor is shown in Fig. 3.9. It uses approximately 40W (1.6A at 24V) when in operation using power sourced from the 24V DC battery on the LHD. This power source is passed through a diode bridge rectier whose purpose is to supply an output voltage with a polarity independent of the input polarity. The bridge rectier prevents current back-ow if the supply potential drops below that of the internal batteries. Two 12V, 1.2Ah lead-acid batteries in series act as a uninterruptable power supply for the monitor. These batteries smooth the input voltage supplied to the monitor and are charged from the LHDs alternator. The power line is then passed through a wide-range voltage regular, that takes an input of 10-40V DC and outputs 24V DC. This unit is also used to protect the internal components from variations in supply voltage in case the internal batteries are unable to smooth the voltage suciently. It is also used to ensure a constant 24V DC output independent of the input, as the LHD battery voltage can vary between 16V DC when low on charge and 28V DC when charging. With the current drawn by the RSQ monitor, the wide range voltage regulator can supply 24V DC output from a power source as low as 16V. The two time-relays discussed in Section 3.3.4 are used to ensure that the RSQ monitor is only operational when Autotram is running to avoid draining the LHD battery. Voltage regulators (24-12V DC and 24-5V DC) are used to obtain the necessary voltage lines for the computer components and accelerometers. The 5V DC line powers the motherboard, the AD converter, the ash memory, and the RAM. The 12V DC line is used for the tri-axial accelerometer and is passed through a 125V DC regulator for the single axis accelerometer. This separate voltage regulator is necessary to protect the single axis accelerometer from noise on the 5V line during periods of high power drain because this accelerometer does not contain its own

42

3.3. RSQ MONITOR HARDWARE

Figure 3.9: Power ow wiring diagram for the RSQ monitor.

43

3.4. RSQ MONITOR SOFTWARE voltage regulator. A cable with both 12V and 5V lines is available for any necessary additional peripherals required during OS installation or system maintenance (e.g. a CD-ROM).

3.4

RSQ monitor software

The RSQ monitor computer systems runs the QNX realtime operating system. The monitor software, known as RSQmon, is written in the C programming language. The functional requirements of this software are to:

1. Read accelerometer data synchronously at 200Hz. 2. Listen on the LAN for relevant information communicated between the OBC and SCS, e.g. LHD speed and position. 3. Buer the accelerometer data, and the OBC information gathered from the network, in memory. 4. Reduce the measured accelerometer data to an RSQ index. 5. Broadcast this index over the LAN. 6. Compress and archive buered data for analysis. 7. Listen on the network connection for instructions and status and data information requests, e.g. start logging, stop logging, extraction of data. 8. Monitor appropriate machine signals to identify times when the operating mode must change, e.g. if the engine is turned o, it is necessary to shutdown the logger to prevent battery drain.

44

3.4. RSQ MONITOR SOFTWARE

3.4.1

RSQ monitor software architecture

The RSQ monitor software has been designed as a nite state machine to realise the functional specication. Specically, the software has several identied states. These include (Fig. 3.10):

a READY state which serves as a platform for entering other system states; a MONITORING state in which the system calculates the road surface quality; a LOGGING state in which accelerometer and OBC data is written to disk without calculation; and a FAULT state to handle exceptions.

Figure 3.10: A diagrammatical representation of the nite state machine RSQ monitor software. 45

3.5. SUMMARY The state machine is event-driven with events falling into two categories, termed internal and external events. Internal events are events triggered by a change within the system. These include synchronous events such as clock ticks, whose occurrence initiates the process of collecting and processing accelerometer data; events that trigger on criteria, for example writing data to disk when a buer becomes full; and error events, generated, for example, on failure of a unit operation such as a service request made to the operating system to write data. The sources for external events can be exogenous happenings that trigger according to predened criteria, or can be explicit instructions to the RSQ monitor. An example of an exogenous happening is the LHD engine being turned o. This event is detected by monitoring the appropriate digital signal line and when detected, raises an event that instructs the RSQ monitor to shut down. An example of an explicit instruction is the command to start monitoring. The RSQmon software listens on a dedicated port for UDP messages encoding such commands, and on receipt of a command to start logging, an event is raised that brings the RSQmon nite state machine into the MONITORING state.

3.5

Summary

The hardware and software solution described in this chapter has been deployed successfully at ODM for periods of several months at a time and has survived the service conditions of the mine with only minor repair required between service inspections. The next chapter details the calculation of the road surface quality measure generated by the motor and displayed at the operator console as in Fig. 3.4.

46

Chapter 4

Monitoring road surface quality

The purpose of this chapter is to develop a measure of road quality and to use this measure to analyse road roughness data obtained from experimental trials on site at Olympic Dam. A measure of road surface quality is proposed and justied using data obtained from these trials and its limitations are discussed.

4.1

Introduction

Figure 4.1 shows underground haul roads in dierent conditions. An Autotram operator has no clear view of the road condition, yet it is desirable that he or she be able to establish when the road is in poor condition, such as in Fig. 4.1(b). This chapter develops and tests a simple measure that we call the RSQ index, derived from accelerometer data obtained using the system described in Chapter 3. The RSQ index is intended to provide road condition information to the Autotram operator that could be used to make decisions such as to reduce speed on some section of road or to call in a grader to recondition the entire haul road surface. The data used in this chapter was collected from an installation of the monitor at ODM on stope 57 Orange 58 in October 2004. Unless otherwise stated, the data 47

4.2. DEFINITION OF THE RSQ

(a) Smooth road

(b) Rough road

Figure 4.1: An example of smooth and rough underground haul roads. The light source is displaced vertically downwards to allow road surface irregularities to present more clearly.

used is that collected during the night shift of the 16th/17th of October 2004 on a DAS Autotram LHD. The data was pre-processed using the methodology described in Appendix A to extract useful segments of data.

4.2

Denition of the RSQ

The key requirement of the RSQ index is that its magnitude should increase as the road becomes rougher. The decision to base the RSQ index on accelerometer signals is founded on the observation that the vertical response of a vehicle becomes more energetic as the road on which it runs degrades. The vertical acceleration directly measures the excitation of the vehicle in response to road unevenness. A 48

4.2. DEFINITION OF THE RSQ simple measure of the energy of this excitation is provided by computing a moving average of the square of the measured acceleration. That is, we dene the road surface index by the mean-squared vertical acceleration over a moving window. Let zk be the measured acceleration at sample k. Then the RSQ measure at sample j is thus dened to be RSQj = N
j

(k )2 z
k=jN

(4.1)

where N denes the length of the window and is a unit-less scaling factor used to bring computed RSQ values to a reasonable magnitude for display purposes. The hardware described in Chapter 3 samples acceleration measurements at 200Hz. Trials for dierent window sizes suggested a reasonable window size was 2.5 seconds, resulting in N = 500. The scaling factor was set to = 1000. There are various interpretations we can make of Eqn. 4.1. One such interpretation is that it denes a low-pass lter on the squared acceleration signal. We call this the lter interpretation and a Bode plot of the lter frequency response is shown in Fig. 4.2. We note that the 3dB bandwidth of the lter is approximately 1 rad/s. A second interpretation of Eqn. 4.1 is as an estimate of the expected value of the squared acceleration, E[2 ], over the moving average window. This interpretation z emphasises that the squared acceleration signal is stochastic. It is well established, see for example Chapter 5 of [12], that the mean square of a stationary random process is equal to the area under the graph of spectral density versus frequency. Assuming the acceleration signal is stationary over the moving average window this links the RSQ index to more classical spectral analysis methods. In early testing of the RSQ index this spectral interpretation was explored, and, in particular, more complicated versions of the RSQ index were tried involving weighted spectral densities, wherein a weighting function was multiplied with the spectral density plot in an eort to improve the sensitivity of the measure. The

49

4.3. CHOICE OF DATA FOR COMPUTING THE RSQ INDEX

Bode Diagram 50 0 Magnitude (dB) Phase (deg) 50 100 150 200 250 270 180 90 0 90 10
2

10

10 10 Frequency (rad/sec)

10

10

Figure 4.2: Bode plot showing the frequency response of the RSQ lter applied on squared acceleration measurements. weighting functions explored amplied the resonant frequencies and attempted to attenuate other frequencies on the basis that the resonant frequencies are those most likely to cause damage to the vehicle. In the nal analysis, however, such enhancements did not appear to increase the ability to discriminate road condition and for this reason are not pursued further in this thesis. The spectral content of the acceleration signals are, nevertheless, investigated below to assist in the selection of the accelerometer information used for computing the RSQ.

4.3

Choice of data for computing the RSQ index

Large quantities of data are captured by the RSQ monitor during Autotram operation. It is necessary to identify which data is most useful for representing road quality. This will ensure that the resulting RSQ index is as accurate as possible. 50

4.3. CHOICE OF DATA FOR COMPUTING THE RSQ INDEX Figure 4.3 shows a plan view of the haul route with the draw-point and ore-pass marked.

Figure 4.3: A plan view of the tunnels that make up the 58 Orange 57 haul route with draw-point and ore-pass marked. The path taken by the Autotram is shown by the blue dashed line. The portion of the haul route between the green triangle markers is referred to as the main section of the tramming route. The section of road between the triangle markers in Fig. 4.3 is referred to as the main section of the haul route throughout this chapter. Only RSQ information collected while travelling along this portion of the tramming route is used for analysis because, while turning sharp corners and while digging and dumping at the drawpoint and ore-pass, the LHD is subject to signicant vibrations from sources other 51

4.3. CHOICE OF DATA FOR COMPUTING THE RSQ INDEX than the road surface. Additionally, the LHD speed outside of the main section is variable, so results are not comparable. The RSQ monitor described in Chapter 3 receives inputs from two accelerometers, one mounted on the front section of the LHD and one on the rear. Section 4.3.1 argues that the accelerometer mounted on the rear section of the LHD should be used in calculating the RSQ index as it is more representative of the road surface than the front accelerometer. LHD vehicles transport ore from stope to ore-pass. Each run can be looked at as comprising two individual stages: (i) the tram from draw-point to ore-pass with a full bucket, which we call the full-tram; and (ii) the return trip, which we call the empty-tram. Section 4.3.2 argues that the empty-tram data is more representative of the road surface.

4.3.1

Which accelerometer?

The rationale for deploying two accelerometers (one on the front and one on the rear of the LHD) is that the dierent bodies to which the accelerometers are attached have dierent associated dynamics, and so will experience dierent vibration patterns. It was not known a priori which of these accelerometers would produce the most useful signal for calculating a road surface quality measure. The objective of this section is to justify the selection of the rear mounted accelerometer as the signal from which the RSQ is calculated. Figure 4.4 shows PSD plots for the front and rear accelerometers. This data is based on the vehicle travelling in straight line motion and the accelerometer signals both reasonably satisfy the requirement of stationarity [13]. The plots show two modes, at 1.5Hz and 2.4Hz. There are various plausible vibration modes associated with the LHD and it is likely that these peaks in the PSD are associated with the dynamic modes resulting in the most signicant motion in the vertical plane. The 52

4.3. CHOICE OF DATA FOR COMPUTING THE RSQ INDEX

(a) Front accelerometer

(b) Rear accelerometer

Figure 4.4: Front vs rear accelerometer frequency information. Empty-tram data. 53

4.3. CHOICE OF DATA FOR COMPUTING THE RSQ INDEX likely associated mode shapes include:

Bounce of front and rear bodies Pitching In-phase and anti-phase motions of the front and rear bodies.

To resolve the mode shapes, more detailed analysis including a larger number of measurements would be required. For the purpose of this section, however, it will be assumed that the peak at 1.5Hz is associated with the vibration of the rear section of the LHD and the peak at 2.4Hz is associated with vibration of the front section. It is observed that the PSD of the rear accelerometer shows higher magnitude values than that of the front accelerometer. That is, the rear body undergoes larger accelerations.

4.3.2

Which tramming direction?

Each run comprises a full- and an empty-tram. Acceleration measurements taken during full-tram are not comparable to those from an empty-tram. The purpose of this section is to argue the use of data measured during the empty-tram for RSQ calculation. There are several factors that inuence the magnitude of the measured accelerations. The most signicant are: (i) vehicle dynamics, (ii) vehicle traversing speed, and (iii) road quality. The road surface quality measure is intended to describe (iii) alone, so it is desired to be independent of the (possibly varying) vehicle dynamics and speed. The Autotram system (conveniently) provides us with accurate, piecewise control on speed: vehicle gear changes are triggered by software at the same location on the road each time the LHD passes. Additionally, the vehicles dynamic properties

54

4.3. CHOICE OF DATA FOR COMPUTING THE RSQ INDEX do not change as it passes along the road. The LHD speed and dynamics dier, however, between full and empty-trams. The major dierences are: 1. Bucket payload. The bucket is approximately 15t heavier when full. 2. Bucket position. When the bucket is full, the LHD traverses with the bucket raised. When empty, the LHD traverses with the bucket lowered. 3. Vehicle speed. At full engine RPM1 , the LHD reverse gears are faster than forward gears. This is a consequence of the standard RH2900 gear-box conguration which allows for faster travel during reverse tramming. 4. Wheel-path, which is consistent for each pass in the same direction but usually diers for opposite directions of motion. 5. Vehicle orientation. The LHD travels forward when empty and backwards when full. Figure 4.5 shows PSDs of the accelerometer data for a sample run with the bucket full and the vehicle travelling in straight line motion. When compared with PSDs from the empty-tram, see Fig. 4.4, it is apparent that the full-tram presents a new observable mode in the z-acceleration measurements at approximately 10.5Hz. This additional mode is conjectured to be associated with the bucket position during the full-tram. It is evident that the dynamics observable in the accelerometer measurements dier between full and empty-tramming. To provide an appropriate control to marginalise this variation, it is clear that one direction of tramming should be adopted, and the other ignored. Empty-tramming is chosen because the vehicle is lighter by approximately 15t and the dynamics are simpler, in particular the 10.5Hz mode is not observable, viz.
The engine always operates at full RPM (full throttle) to maintain hydraulic pressure for steering and bucket control.
1

55

4.3. CHOICE OF DATA FOR COMPUTING THE RSQ INDEX

(a) Front accelerometer

(b) Rear accelerometer

Figure 4.5: Front vs rear accelerometer frequency information. Full-tram data. 56

4.4. THE TRAMMING ROUTE Figs. 4.4 and 4.5. It is also to be noted that because the vehicle travels slower in forward, the RSQ provides better resolution of the road surface during the emptytram. Because the vehicle travels back and forth on a reasonably regular basis (once every couple of minutes) the restriction of the calculation to one direction of motion does not make this approach impracticable. It is, in fact, unnecessary to receive updates on the road quality more often than this, as the tram in the opposite direction has minimal eect on the quality of the road. The analysis techniques used in this chapter are designed specically as a means of calibration and apply only to the data attained during the trials that took place on the 58 Orange 57 route at ODM in October 2004. This clarication is necessary because there are important dierences between stopes. Most importantly: the full-tram and empty-tram are not necessarily carried out (respectively) in reverse and forward; and all haul routes are designed dierently, consequently leading to large variation in the length of the route and the number of corners. Although this calibration is specic to this stope, the techniques used can be transferred. It is reasonable to expect that the RSQ measure would dier in magnitude from stopeto-stope. This is seen as a practical issue that would need to be addressed in a broader implementation, but is beyond the scope of this thesis.

4.4

The tramming route

Figure 4.6 shows a plan view of the LHD path along the tramming route at stope 58 Orange 57 at ODM used in September and October 2004. The draw-point is at the bottom and the ore-pass at the top. Curves in the road are designated by the areas in-between the dotted lines. The reference co-ordinate frame is arbitrarily chosen by DAS when setting Autotram up for a new stope, and since the RSQ receives position information from Autotram in this reference frame, it is used in the data 57

4.4. THE TRAMMING ROUTE analysis. This LHD tramming route will be used as reference in the exposition of RSQ data.

Figure 4.6: A plan view of the path the LHD takes along the 58 Orange 57 haul route (see Fig. 4.3 for a map of the route itself). O designates the coordinate origin and dotted horizontal lines designate sections of curved road. Figure 4.7(a) shows the y-coordinate and speed data over the length of the haul route for all 94 runs completed on the night shift of the 16th/17th of October 2004. Load-haul-dump vehicles operate at full throttle to maintain hydraulic pressure for bucket control and steering. Speed changes (as seen in the gure) correspond to gear changes which are activated by the Autotram system software. The timing of the gear changes is congured when Autotram is rst set up on a stope. As mentioned previously, and conrmed by Fig. 4.7(a), the result of this conguration is that the speed prole of the LHD as it passes over the road is the same for each run. As seen from this gure, there is minimal variation in speed between runs. For the empty-tram, the LHD travels from ore-pass to draw-point. This can be veried by looking at the change in y-coordinates in the Fig. 4.7(a). This plot can 58

4.4. THE TRAMMING ROUTE

(a) The LHD y-coordinate and speed vs sample number. All 94 runs are plotted on top of one another to show the lack of variation in speed from run-to-run.

(b) The LHD RSQ and speed vs sample number. Only one example run is plotted for clarity.

Figure 4.7: Data from the LHD during the empty-tram runs on the night-shift of the 16th/17th October 2004. Two separate y-axes are shown for each gure. Vertical lines represent important features. The solid lines represent the boundaries of the area of road that is used to obtain results, the dashed lines represent the zones where gear changes occur and the dotted lines represent the segments of curved road. 59

4.4. THE TRAMMING ROUTE be used to relate LHD position to sample number and sample number can be used as an index for looking at vehicle speed, RSQ and various other data. Read the y coordinate from the left y-axis, trace horizontally to the plotted y-coordinate data and down to the x-axis, noting that for most y values there is only one associated sample and for those y-values with two, it is straight-forward to establish which is of interest. As the LHD changes speed, for example at sample numbers 2000, 4350 and 14950, so does the resulting RSQ. This dependency on speed is the reason that constant traversing speed is a primary assumption underpinning the RSQ measure. Although the speed changes, the periods of acceleration and deceleration are transient and as discussed, gear changes occur at the same location in each run. The run can therefore be split piecewise into sections of constant speed, with the sections falling into two groups. These groups can be thought of as two dierent RSQ measures: rst gear RSQ (RSQ1) and second gear RSQ (RSQ2). These sections are not comparable to each other, but for any given section of road, the RSQ trend with increasing passes can be observed. Figure 4.7(b) shows the RSQ index, and the LHD speed (for convenience), as a function of the number of samples for an example run from the night shift of the 16th/17th of October 2004. This gure correlates the RSQ measure with the road layout and gear changes. This is important in ensuring that the RSQ index is representing the road surface rather than another phenomenon. From Fig. 4.7(b), the following conclusions are drawn:

1. The RSQ does not increase signicantly on gear (speed) changes, although study of more data than is presented here suggests that on down gear changes, a small, transient increase in the RSQ can be seen (see Fig. 4.7(b)). This is not denitive and it is not known if the third gear change (at sample number 14950) coincides with a segment of road of increased roughness. The collected 60

4.5. ROAD SURFACE QUALITY ALONG THE TRAMMING ROUTE data does not allow this issue to be resolved, but the phenomena has the potential to present more visibly on tramming routes requiring numerous gear changes. 2. The RSQ does not appear to be sensitive to gentle cornering, supported by the fact that the RSQ does not show increased magnitude around corners. The RSQ index has its highest value at a sample number of approximately 13300, corresponding to a y-coordinate value of 87m. This peak falls on a section of curved road (marked by the dotted lines), but it can be concluded that the road surface is the reason for the increase in RSQ rather than the tunnel geometry. There are two facts that form the basis for this conclusion: this peak occurs at the start of the curved road section, the gentlest part of the curve (refer to Fig. 4.6); and the RSQ begins increasing before the LHD enters the curved section. 3. The main section of the road (the straight - from approximately sample 5000 to 14500) provides the highest RSQ values. The LHD maintains constant speed (second gear) during this time, so the RSQ values are comparable within this region. This is the part of the road that degrades the fastest, as the LHD is travelling at top speed.

4.5

Road surface quality along the tramming route

Figure 4.8(a) shows the RSQ measure at the start of the night shift of the 16th/17th October 2004, averaged over the rst ve runs of the shift. Figure 4.8(b) shows the RSQ measure at the completion of this shift, averaged over the nal ve runs. Ninety runs separate the two plots. There is a clear increase in the RSQ measure with the number of runs. This can be attributed to road quality, as the LHD speed and vehicle dynamics do not change

61

4.5. ROAD SURFACE QUALITY ALONG THE TRAMMING ROUTE

(a) The RSQ at the start of the shift

(b) The RSQ at the end of the shift

Figure 4.8: A 3D realisation of the RSQ measure (from the night-shift of the 16th/17th October 2004) mapped against the haul route. The x and y-axes are the x and y haul route map coordinates respectively, and the z-axis is the RSQ corresponding to the x-y coordinate. 62

4.6. ROAD DEGRADATION WITH NUMBER OF RUNS over the course of the shift. Specically, the ride as shown by the RSQ becomes increasingly rough with the number of runs.

4.6

Road degradation with number of runs

The two waterfall plots in Fig. 4.9 show the variation in RSQ over the duration of the night shift of the 16th/17th October 2004 in two forms. Each plot in both the waterfall gures is an average of ve runs of RSQ information. These two forms are used to highlight dierent aspects of the data and present dierent results. The two forms are as follows:

Figure 4.9(a) shows the change in RSQ with number of runs in 2D form. The nature of this plot means that the magnitude of the RSQ is lost, but it allows the viewer to clearly see the reference sample number for any sections of interest so the location of the LHD can be determined. Figure 4.9(b) shows the same data as (a) but in 3D waterfall form. The data in this plot is limited to the main section of road (between the black vertical markers in (a)) because the RSQ outside this area prevents easy viewing of the data of interest. This plot allows the magnitude of the RSQ to be seen clearly.

Both gures clearly show that the RSQ increases with increasing number of passes. It is seen from Fig. 4.9(a) that the areas of consistently high RSQ are at approximately sample number 5800, 7900, 11800 and 13500, where the latter shows the highest magnitude values. These correspond (respectively) to y-coordinates of 5m, 25m, 75m and 90m. The fact that the areas of high RSQare consistently high and that the RSQ increases steadily suggests that these high RSQ values are due to road unevenness rather than spilt rock, potholes or other external sources.

63

4.6. ROAD DEGRADATION WITH NUMBER OF RUNS

(a) A 2D waterfall plot of the RSQ over the entire road

(b) A 3D waterfall plot for the main section of road (bounded by the black lines in (a))

Figure 4.9: Waterfall plots of the RSQ versus sample number with increasing runs for the entire night-shift on the 16th/17th of October 2004. Each plot is an average of ve runs; the rst plot represents runs 1 to 5 etc. Both plots are presented because they clearly show dierent aspects of the RSQ trend 64

4.6. ROAD DEGRADATION WITH NUMBER OF RUNS Figure 4.10 shows a 3D waterfall plot of the dierential RSQ. This allows the degradation of road surface quality with increasing runs to be seen more clearly. The dierential RSQ is found by subtracting the rst plot (the mean of runs 1 to 5) from the remaining plots.

Figure 4.10: A waterfall plot of the dierential RSQ (minus the initial RSQ) versus sample number for the main section of road (between the vertical solid black markers in Fig. 4.7) with increasing runs for the entire night-shift of the 16th/17th of October 2004. Each plot is an average of ve runs; the rst plot represents runs 1 to 5 etc. It is seen from Fig. 4.10 that the RSQ increases not just at the peaks, but over the whole road. However, it is apparent that the section of road that shows the most signicant growth is at approximately sample 13500, the part of the road producing the highest RSQ values, possibly due to the formation and propagation of corrugations in the road surface. It is also seen that the RSQ shows more rapid growth over the entire road in the rst 20 runs. After this, the RSQ continues to increase, but at a reduced rate.

65

4.7. THE RMS-RSQ: A BROAD MEASURE OF ROAD SURFACE QUALITY

4.7

The RMS-RSQ: A broad measure of road surface quality

The plots in the previous section are used to describe the localised RSQ. This is good for establishing the dierence in RSQ along the haul route, but it can also be useful to describe the haul road in its entirety. Figure 4.11 shows a broad-based measure of road surface quality, the RMS-RSQ, as a function of run number. The RMS-RSQ is calculated by nding the root-mean-square of the dierential RSQ (Figure 4.10) for each run.

Figure 4.11: The RMS of the RSQ vs run number for every run of the night-shift on the 16th/17th of October 2004. A moving average curve is plotted in red to help identify the trend in the data. The increasing trend in RSQ is clearly visible from this gure, as it is with the localised RSQ discussed in the previous section. The format of this plot makes it more convenient for identifying the form of the upward trend in the RSQ. It is clear 66

4.7. THE RMS-RSQ: A BROAD MEASURE OF ROAD SURFACE QUALITY that the RSQ rate of growth is not constant: it appears to have the approximate form A(1 eat ). There are two interpretations that can be used to explain this diminishing increase in RSQ:

1. The road continues to degrade but the rate at which it does so reduces with time. This is possibly due to a theoretical maximum roughness that the road can reach. 2. The road continues to degrade at the same rate, but the road is unable to impart the continually increasing vibrational energy on the LHD (due to the mass of the LHD). As the road continues to degrade, the LHD does not experience any increased vibration.

This point is made in passing. To identify the cause, further experiments would need to be conducted, including correlation of results with regular road surveys which is beyond the scope of this thesis. The RMS-RSQ could be used alongside the RSQ measure to aid road maintenance procedures. When the RMS-RSQ exceeds some threshold (established by more systematic correlation of the RSQ with actual road quality), the road would be agged as rough, and road maintenance personnel alerted. This is not a replacement of, rather a compliment to, the RSQ measure, as the RSQ measure would be used to identify localised events, consistent with say spilt rock or potholes. The RSQ measure would provide road maintenance personnel with additional, more detailed information.

67

4.8. CASE STUDIES IN THE USE OF THE RSQ INDEX

4.8

Case studies in the use of the RSQ index

This section presents three case studies providing specic analysis based on the RSQ measure.

4.8.1

Case study 1: Day-shift of October 4, 2004

Water is used to suppress dust at the draw point. On the day shift of October 4, 2004, water from draw point made its way to the 58 Orange 57 haul road causing it to become muddied. As a result, the road degraded rapidly, resulting in the road surface shown in Fig. 4.12.

Figure 4.12: The haul route road at the end of the day shift on the 4th of October 2004. The light source is displaced vertically downwards to allow road surface irregularities to present more clearly. Figure 4.13 shows the RSQ over the day shift of October 4, 2004. The magnitude of the RSQ is signicantly larger over this entire shift than that on any other shift seen during testing (e.g. Fig. 4.10). The portion of road worst aected by this accelerated 68

4.8. CASE STUDIES IN THE USE OF THE RSQ INDEX degradation is between samples 10000 and 14000. This corresponds to the section of road between the y-coordinates 100 and 50. This is the segment of the road travelled in second gear, closest to the draw-point. The photographs in Fig 4.12 and 4.1(b) depict the road surface of this badly aected area at the end of the shift and it is clear from these that corrugations were present on the road surface, as a repeating pattern is observed. It is well established that road corrugations form with a wavelength corresponding to the dynamic properties and speed of the vehicle repeatedly passing over it. They are the most likely cause of the increased RSQ measure.

Figure 4.13: A waterfall plot of the dierential RSQ over the entire day shift on the 4th of October 2004. Fig. 4.14 suggests the road surface was already badly degraded at the start of the shift and continued to degrade with increasing runs. In other shifts, the RMS-RSQ approached a maximum value of between 15 and 20. In this instance, however, 69

4.8. CASE STUDIES IN THE USE OF THE RSQ INDEX although the trend follows the same shape, the RMS-RSQ appears to approach approximately double the value seen in other shifts. Water on the roads is deduced to be the cause of these high RSQ values.

Figure 4.14: The RMS-RSQ for every run over the shift on October 4, 2004.

4.8.2

Case study 2: Day-shift of October 18, 2004

The case study deals with the putative appearance of what seems most likely to be spilt rock. Figure 4.15 shows a 2D waterfall plot of the RSQ with increasing passes. When compared to the same plot from the night-shift of the 16th/17th (Fig. 4.9(a)), taking into account the dierence in the number of runs, it can be seen that the data measured on the 18th shows some spikes of high RSQ that are non-existent in the data from the 16th/17th. An aspect of these spikes worth noting is that they are not consistent throughout the shift. Two spikes are present in the data. The rst occurs at sample number 7700 in the 70

4.8. CASE STUDIES IN THE USE OF THE RSQ INDEX

Figure 4.15: A 2D waterfall plot of the RSQ over the entire day shift on the 18th of October 2004. data obtained from run 6 to 40. This corresponds to a y-coordinate of 25m(refer to Fig. 4.7(a)). A second spike appears at sample 7000 (a y-coordinate of 15m) from sample 46 onwards. There are several plausible reasons for the spikes in the RSQ data, but the most likely is spilt rock on the tramming route. It was recorded that this shift had particularly bad quality ore. This would explain the appearance, disappearance, and change in location of the high RSQ spikes. The vertical acceleration of the rear part of the LHD during the time corresponding to the spike at sample 7000 during run 60 is shown in Fig. 4.16, suggesting an impulse input consistent with spilt rock. The LHD body clearly shows a sudden high magnitude downwards acceleration, followed by an even larger upwards acceleration. This is conjectured to be associated 71

4.8. CASE STUDIES IN THE USE OF THE RSQ INDEX

Figure 4.16: A plot of the rear accelerometer data (converted to g) from run 60 on the day shift of October 18, 2004 at the time of the large RSQ spike. with the LHDs front wheel passing over the rock on the road. The front section of the LHD moves vertically upwards, causing the rear section to pitch and the rear end of the LHD to accelerate vertically downwards. As the rear wheel passes over the rock, the rear accelerometer experiences even larger acceleration, this time in the positive z direction (vertically upwards). By looking at the RSQ data for individual runs (not presented here), it can be seen after which runs the RSQ rock(s) on the road appeared and disappeared. It can then be deduced that the rock causing the RSQ spike at sample 7700 was dropped from the bucket onto the road during the full-tram during run 4, remaining there until it was removed when the road was graded in-between runs 41 and 42 (it is clear that the road was graded during this time because the RSQ over the entire road shows a denite decrease in magnitude, see Fig. 4.15). Another rock was dropped,

72

4.8. CASE STUDIES IN THE USE OF THE RSQ INDEX or the same rock was knocked back, onto the LHD wheel-path on run 45 or 46 and continued to aect the RSQ until the end of the shift. The appearance of two rocks on the road during a single shift seems improbable, so it is more likely that the oending rock was displaced by the grader but then knocked back onto the road, possibly due to run-to-run wheel track variation by the Autotram LHD.

4.8.3

Case study 3: Day-shift of October 19, 2004

On the day-shift of October 19 2004, a sudden reduction in RSQ occurred as shown in the 2D waterfall plot in Fig. 4.17(a). The system was unattended for this shift and so the cause is not directly known. Each plot in this gure is an average of three runs, so it is not clear whether this reduction occurred instantly or over several runs. However, by looking at the RSQ for each of the rst 25 runs in Fig. 4.17(b), it is clear that the reduction in RSQ occurred between runs 16 and 17. This coincides with a break in the shift of one-and-a-half hours, so this reduction in RSQ is assumed to be associated with the road being graded. As expected, following the grading, the RSQ began to increase again, see Fig. 4.18. The RMS-RSQ seems to approach a nal value between 15 and 20, which matches the nal RMS-RSQ from the 16th, shown in Fig. 4.11. Additionally, as in the data from the 16th, it takes approximately 20 runs for the RMS-RSQ to increase to a value of 15. Grading of the haul road clearly improves road quality, but in this case it would appear that grading was carried out sooner than necessary because the RSQ was not yet near its highest value. After grading, the RSQ shows signicantly lower values over the entire road surface, with some minor exceptions. In particular, run 17 shows areas of high RSQ (in particular, at sample 10000) that are not visible in subsequent runs. This is most likely due to loose road surface after grading. The road quickly settles, however. 73

4.8. CASE STUDIES IN THE USE OF THE RSQ INDEX

(a) RSQ data plotted for the entire shift

(b) RSQ data plotted for the rst 25 runs of the shift

Figure 4.17: 2D waterfall plots of the RSQ data obtained on the 19th of October 2004.

74

4.9. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

Figure 4.18: The RMS-RSQ of the RSQ data obtained during the day shift of the 19th of October, 2004.

4.9

Summary and conclusions

From the data presented in this chapter, it is clear that an LHD retrotted with a single accelerometer on the rear of the vehicle can be used to identify the dierence between a smooth road and a rough road. Specically, an index is calculated to provide this information to Autotram operators. It has also been shown that the RSQ can be used to identify the road degradation trend and predict signicant road deterioration before the LHD accrues damage. The major caveat on the results presented is that actual road quality has not been systematically compared with the computed RSQ. Field trials planned to explore this issue did not yield the required data because of site equipment failures and

75

4.9. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS unacceptable digging conditions. Calibration of RSQ data with road quality observations is something that would help prove the usefulness of the RSQ index and is recommended for future work. The next chapter reveals some interesting outcomes associated with a specic equipment failure that occurred during trials. Chapter 6 then presents an outline of a research plan to address the unanswered questions arising from this chapter and the next.

76

Chapter 5

The RSQ monitor as a collision detection tool

This chapter explores the possibility of using the RSQ monitor to detect collisions between the Autotram LHD and its operating environment and to alert the Autotram system or remote operators to potentially signicant damage events. Such events were observed in eld trials during one of the data collection periods and resulted in LHD breakdown with signicant production loss.

5.1

Introduction

Consider the following scenario. A remote operator is using an Autotram LHD to clear large rock from the ore-pass with a scooping motion. The LHD bucket makes continued and regular contact with the exposed edge of the grizzly through which the ore must pass. These impacts are sucient to eventually cause a catastrophic failure of the drive transmission. Arguably, if the machine were being operated by an on-board operator, he/she would have sensed these impacts and taken action to avoid them (indeed it is not 77

5.2. OPERATOR FEEDBACK uncommon for operators to suer injury as a result of such events). The remote operator, however, remained blissfully unaware of the damage being inicted. This chapter examines the potential and limitations of the RSQ monitor for detecting such damage events for the purpose of raising an appropriate alarm to the operator.

5.2

Operator feedback

There are three major forms of sensory feedback relevant to collision detection inherent in on-board operation that are not provided to remote operators:

Vehicle vibration, impact (collision) and other motion. Full 360 degree view from the cabin. Directional sound. e.g. knowing from which direction the damage sound came.

Audio and video is fed to the Autotram control room as a partial solution to items two and three but there is no feedback to account for the lack of the most important of these three forms, the physical motion felt by the operator when sitting in the cabin. This has three important implications:

1. Reduced spatial awareness: Remote operators dont get the same feel for their surroundings as they do when they are operating on-board. With this reduced awareness, remote operators expose the Autotram to collisions of increased frequency and intensity. Anecdotal evidence is that this is more signicant for inexperienced remote operators, such as operators in training, but also remains an issue for more experienced operators. In the case discussed in this chapter, the collision occurs between the tip of the bucket and the grizzly lip.

78

5.3. LHD UL038 - 15/16TH OF JUNE, 2005 2. Diculty determining whether a collision has occurred: An LHDs brakes are often applied at the last minute to avoid a collision. Following such an incident it is dicult for remote operators to know whether the brakes were applied in time, or whether the LHD made contact with the obstacle. As a result, operators are unable to make the necessary corrections to their technique or know whether possible LHD damage has occurred. It is common for operators to repeatedly and unknowingly damage Autotram because they no longer feel the damage occurring. 3. Diculty determining whether a collision has resulted in LHD damage: An on-board operator can readily assess collision intensity from the physical feedback of the machine - it is not uncommon for them to suer minor injury as a result of a collision. As discussed, one of the advantages of Autotram is that remote operators avoid injury, but this has an inherent disadvantage: remote operators no longer receive feedback of the intensity of a collision. Consequently, Autotram operators have no way of knowing whether damage has occurred to the LHD. Together, these eects lead to an increased number of LHD collisions and reduced knowledge of the severity of collision. The damage caused can result in signicant downtime and high maintenance costs associated with repairs and replacement parts. This chapter investigates whether the RSQ monitor can be used to provide information on LHD collisions with a view to avoiding LHD damage.

5.3

LHD UL038 - 15/16th of June, 2005

At 10:00 am on the 16th of June 2005, the RH2900 LHD UL038 was found to have sustained signicant damage. During the LHDs routine twice-daily service, the maintenance technician found the transmission cover plate had failed catastrophically (Fig. 5.1) along with the transmission mounts, allowing the transmission to 79

5.3. LHD UL038 - 15/16TH OF JUNE, 2005

Figure 5.1: Damage to transmission cover plate.

Figure 5.2: Damage to DAS remote control logic box and main steering hose.

80

5.3. LHD UL038 - 15/16TH OF JUNE, 2005 move approximately 20cm. The DAS remote control logic box (attached to the transmission) had collided with the main steering hose, damaging both (Fig. 5.2). This was determined to be a result of the LHD colliding with an obstacle whilst travelling forwards. Neither of the remote operators, nor the auto-mechanic who serviced the LHD at 1:30 am, nor the on-board operator who trammed the LHD to the workshop at 10:00 am, noticed anything wrong. Either the damage occurred between 1:30 and 10:00 am, or it occurred before this time and went unnoticed at the 1:30 am service. In either event, the damage could have occurred over an extended period of time (multiple collisions) or as a result of a single high-energy collision.

5.3.1

Background information

Ore that is too large to t through the grizzly is called oversize. Oversize needs to be broken to prevent blockage and so it can proceed through the system for processing. This is known as clearing (or cleaning) the ore-pass and is carried out using one of two methods: 1. A rockbreaker splits the oversize and feeds it through the grizzly while the LHD is bogging the next bucket. This way the LHD can continue uninterrupted, resulting in maximum productivity. 2. The LHD bucket is used to scrape along the ground in a scooping motion up to, and over the grizzly, picking up the oversize before raising the bucket and dropping it back onto the grizzly. This is repeated until the ore has been suciently fragmented to pass through for processing. It is a time consuming activity for LHD operators and productivity is adversely aected. On board operators are assigned a rockbreaker if there is sucient oversize in the ore to justify it. However, personnel (including rockbreaker operators) are not permitted 81

5.3. LHD UL038 - 15/16TH OF JUNE, 2005 in the Autotram area for health and safety reasons so remote-operators are forced to use the second method and clean the ore-pass themselves. A remotely operated rockbreaker has been used to overcome this problem at ODM in the past, but is no longer in operation.

Figure 5.3: Grizzly with rails to prevent LHD damage. Not only does the second method of clearing the pass lead to reduced productivity, but it can also lead to other problems. One such problem is the focus of this chapter. When a grizzly is initially installed, rails are also installed leading up to and terminating at its edge (see Fig. 5.3). When clearing the ore-pass, an Autotram operator lowers the bucket into a scooping position and moves forward, scraping the bucket along these rails and over the grizzly. The force between bucket and rail is often high so the heat generated due to friction can be intense. A aw in the old rail design has, in some cases, caused the rails to curl upwards under this intense heat, blocking access to the ore-pass. The warped section of rail is removed to allow production to continue and the rails are not replaced because 82

5.3. LHD UL038 - 15/16TH OF JUNE, 2005

83 Figure 5.4: LHD and grizzly. Detail shows how bucket tip collides with edge of Grizzly.

5.4. RESULTS over a week of downtime is required at substantial cost. Subsequently, the ground in front of the grizzly is no longer protected from wear and with time, the grizzly lip becomes exposed (see Fig. 5.4). This exposed edge is a hazard because the LHD bucket can make contact with it whilst clearing the ore-pass, experiencing excessive jarring forces, resulting in possible LHD damage. On the 15th and 16th of June, 2005 the Autotram operator noticed that the bucket tip was connecting the grizzly lip. He took steps to avoid it, but due to the limited capability to accurately position the bucket, the operator was unable to prevent the collisions occurring, as an on-board operator would. Limited feedback also meant that the operator did not realise the severity of the impacts and was possibly less careful than he would have been had he known of the damage caused. As a result of the damage, the LHD was out of operation for a week with production loss running to many hundreds of thousands of dollars.

5.4

Results

During the events that occurred on the 15th and 16th of June 2005 the RSQ monitor was able to measure the eect of the collisions on the LHD as they occurred. This was not a planned experiment, but the resulting data shows the RSQ monitors ability to provide feedback in addition to that relating to road roughness. When selecting the accelerometers for measuring road roughness, one tri-axial accelerometer was used in case the x and y (lateral and longitudinal) acceleration data contained useful information. During the incidents of the 15th and 16th of June, the y-direction (longitudinal) acceleration was logged and has since been found to contain information that is useful for determining the nature of the collisions. LHD collisions are seen as spikes in the y-direction accelerometer data and can therefore be identied simply by looking for large acceleration values. Any instantaneous acceleration of over 10g is unlikely to be caused by anything other than the 84

5.4. RESULTS sudden reduction in speed associated with a collision. Therefore the magnitude will be used as the sole criteria for detecting collisions. For information on the occurrence of said collisions to be of immediate use, it is important that this data is fed to the Autotram control room in realtime to inform the remote operator of the event. This can be done by attaching additional information to the RSQ data packets. Data logged on the 15th and 16th of June 2005 will be analysed to establish the RSQ monitors ability to accurately determine, for each collision:

1. the cause (Section 5.4.1); and 2. the intensity (Section 5.4.2).

With this additional information, the operator is not only alerted to potentially damaging collisions, but is supplied with information on the possible reason for these collisions and an estimate of the resulting damage. This allows the operator to make more informed decisions when taking evasive action. A log of this information including the total number of incidents and the time of occurrence for each is kept for analysis.

5.4.1

Identifying cause of collisions

It is useful to know the cause of each spike in the acceleration data, so this information can be passed onto the operator. In this specic case, reports given by the Autotram operators on shift identify the LHD damage as resulting from the bucket coming in contact with the grizzly lip. The question is, however, whether it is possible to see this from the data alone and whether it is possible to establish other causes for acceleration spikes.

85

5.4. RESULTS There are many aspects of the data that can be looked at when attempting to identify the reason for a collision, the most useful being: 1. LHD location; and 2. direction of travel. Once the LHD location and direction of travel are known, the LHDs activity (bogging, tramming, dumping, cleaning pass) at the time of the collision can be hypothesised. These aspects of the data will therefore be looked at in more detail in the following pages.

LHD Location The rst step towards determining the cause for an acceleration spike in the data is to look at the location of the LHD at the time of the incident. The location of the LHD when the large acceleration spikes occurred for the 15th and 16th of June is plotted against a map of the tramming route in Fig. 5.5, with the dump point shown in greater detail. All acceleration spikes occur at the ore-pass and the majority of these are due to the LHD colliding with the grizzly. The circle boundary in the gure corresponds to the estimated position of the LHD when this collision occurs (7.5m from the grizzly centre - based on the distance from the centre of the grizzly to the coordinate centre of the LHD as shown in Fig. 5.4). Any spikes occurring outside this central group are due to the LHD colliding with something other than the grizzly lip, possibly the wall at the back of the ore-pass or the side walls. These are marked with a cross. It can also be seen that although most of the points occur near this circular line, many do not occur on the line. There are several possible reasons for this: 1. Error in DAS positioning co-ordinates. (relatively insignicant - approximately 10cm maximum). 86

5.4. RESULTS

Figure 5.5: Longitudinal LHD acceleration vs time (hrs) for the 15th and 16th of June. Points of high acceleration are shown: green = > 10g, yellow = > 15g, red = > 20g, where 1g is approximately 9.81m/s2 . The X is the location of the grizzly center and the traced circular line has a radius equivalent to the distance from the LHDs coordinate centre to the grizzly when the LHD bucket is touching the grizzly edge. The acceleration spikes marked with a cross are spikes deemed to be a result of something other than grizzly collision. 87

5.4. RESULTS 2. When the LHD approaches the grizzly at an angle, the corner (rather than the centre) of the bucket can make contact with the grizzly edge, or the bucket can make contact with the corner of the grizzly. As a result, the LHD coordinate centre is further from the grizzly centre at the time of impact. 3. The bucket may have not been lowered completely, and angled towards the ground so the bucket teeth are at ground level. Consequently, the LHD appears closer to the grizzly centre at the time of collision. With this taken into account, the location of the LHD in the data remains suciently accurate to be a valid indicator of LHD location. It can therefore be determined whether the collision took place near the ore-pass, the stope or whilst tramming between. It can also be hypothesised whether an LHD collision at the ore-pass is with the grizzly or the surrounding walls. This information can be displayed on the Autotram graphical user interface (GUI) as feedback to the operator. In this case, it can be seen that the majority of data spikes are due to collisions with the grizzly lip.

Direction of Travel The LHDs direction of travel at the time of collision can be used to conrm these observations. It is more reliable to look at the sign of the acceleration spikes than the sign of the velocity data because, according to DAS, the raw speed data is inherently inaccurate and are more likely to be subject to delay, as they are received over the network. High acceleration represents a sudden change in LHD velocity and in this case, the accelerations are negative, so the sudden change in speed is due to the LHD stopping suddenly (decelerating). The sign convention used is as follows: a positive spike comes from the LHD stopping suddenly whilst travelling in reverse; and a negative spike comes from the LHD stopping suddenly whilst travelling forwards. It can be seen from Fig. 5.6 that all bar one of the acceleration spikes are negative, 88

89 5.4. RESULTS Figure 5.6: Longitudinal acceleration vs Time of UL038 over two days. Vertical dividers represent shift change and S represents a LHD service. Time is in 24 hour time in the format HH:MM.

5.4. RESULTS corresponding to the LHD stopping suddenly whilst travelling forwards. This supports the previous evidence indicating that the spikes are due to the LHD colliding with the grizzly lip. The positive acceleration spike is discussed in Sec. 5.4.2.

5.4.2

Estimating Collision Intensity

Excessive damage to the Autotram LHD caused by collisions was the motivation for this work. It would therefore be desirable to estimate the resulting LHD damage. Unfortunately, since a physical model of the #RH2900 LHD is unavailable, this is not possible. It is possible, however, to estimate the energy dissipated in, and the forces inicted on the LHD for each collision. This information can then be used as an indicator of the damage caused to the LHD. The mass of the LHD and the magnitude of the acceleration spike can be used to estimate the force experienced by the LHD at the time of collision. The bucket is empty when performing the scooping motion which leads to bucket/grizzly collision, so the LHD mass is assumed to be approximately 55000kg. For a worst-case scenario, we will look at the collision resulting in the largest acceleration spike, an acceleration of approximately 23.5g (or 230.5m/s2 ). With the force on the LHD is given by F = ma, the maximum force on the LHD is 12.677MN. Since the LHD is stopping almost instantaneously, and the sampling frequency is limited, aliasing becomes a problem. This can be seen by looking at one of the acceleration spikes in more detail. Fig. 5.7 depicts a time-scaled plot of y-acceleration vs time, showing one of the collisions in detail. It can be seen from this plot that the sampling rate is insucient to describe these high speed data spikes accurately. The initial acceleration is negative, and the acceleration oscillates towards zero, but the magnitude of the initial acceleration and the number of oscillations is uncertain. Fig. 5.8 shows a time-scaled view of the positive data spike mentioned previously. It would be easy to assume that this is due to a collision of the LHD whilst travelling 90

5.4. RESULTS in reverse, but on closer inspection, it is apparent that the initial collision occurred whilst travelling forwards and this spike is due to post-collision LHD body vibration. This is a prime example of the detrimental eect of aliasing on the measurement of collision data spikes. Of particular relevance is the resulting uncertainty associated with the magnitude of acceleration spikes. Without an accurate knowledge of magnitude, there is no way of determining LHD damage. As a result, it is not possible to estimate LHD damage with any accuracy unless the sampling frequency is increased to 500Hz or 1kHz. It is, however, still useful to know of the occurrence of said collisions. This should be carried out with caution, with limited faith placed in the accuracy of the magnitude of these acceleration spikes. The measured magnitudes of the acceleration spikes can therefore be considered conservative estimates of the acceleration felt by the LHD.

91

5.4. RESULTS

Figure 5.7: A time-scaled plot of y-acceleration Vs. time for one of the collisions. Sample points, represented by hollow circles, are 1/200sec apart. Time units are HH:MM:SS:SSSS in 24 hour time.

Figure 5.8: A time-scaled plot of y-acceleration Vs. time for the positive acceleration spike. Sample points, represented by hollow circles, are 1/200sec apart. Time units are HH:MM:SS:SSSS in 24 hour time. 92

5.5. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK

5.5

Conclusion and Future Work

It is proposed that a system be put in place to alert remote operators to longitudinal and lateral impacts of over 10g using a visually obvious graphical indicator on the Autotram main display. The RSQ monitor has the ability to provide this information, requiring only minor software alterations. Once operators have been alerted, they can take the necessary precautions to ensure that these collisions do not recur. The RSQ monitors sampling frequency could be increased to improve the ability to measure the amplitude of high frequency acceleration spikes, however this modication is unnecessary for two reasons: Firstly, the current sampling frequency of 200Hz is sucient for the RSQ monitors primary purpose, measuring vertical vibration; and secondly, it is unnecessary to accurately know the magnitude of the acceleration spikes so long as the number of spikes is known. The current system provides this.

93

Chapter 6

Conclusions and recommendations for future work

This chapter summarises the work completed and makes recommendations on a possible structure for eld trials that would allow for more complete correlation of the RSQ measure with actual road condition.

6.1

Summary

The main outcome from this thesis has been the demonstration that it is possible to monitor road condition from measurements of vertical acceleration on automated LHD vehicles. The thesis has exploited the controls that these automated vehicles provide, most importantly the control of speed to discrete levels corresponding to gear changes and the consistent timing of these gear changes. The next logical phase of the work is to undertake a systematic longitudinal study to establish the performance of the monitor and the associated RSQ measure. This will establish more precisely how the RSQ is aected by vehicle speed and payload, the ability of the RSQ to detect spilt rock, potholes and corrugations, and to better correlate changes in the RSQ with changing road condition. 94

6.1. SUMMARY Seven proposed aims of the eld trials are given and ve experiments are suggested to achieve these aims. The methodology for this is sketched out below.

6.1.1

Aims of eld trials

It is suggested that the systematic study be based on a series of well dened experiments with the following aims.

Aim 1: Establish how the road degrades with increasing number of passes The rst aim addresses a question raised by the data in this thesis, namely, why does the RSQ change rapidly at rst, but at a reducing rate as the road degrades, see Fig. 4.11. The suggested reasons are:(i) the road reaches a critical level of roughness and due to the mechanics of the LHD and the contact between the tyres and road it does not degrade any further; or (ii) the road continues to degrade, but the vertical acceleration of the LHD does not change dramatically because there is a limit to the vibrational energy the LHD can receive. The question is important because it directly asks the nature of the non-linear relationship between RSQ and road conditions. To resolve this question, surveys of the road throughout the shift need to be undertaken to determine whether the road degradation rate diminishes or continues to degrade at the same rate. This needs to be compared to RSQ data.

Aim 2: Establish how traversing speed aects LHD vertical acceleration/RSQ The literature, especially that relating to the development of the IRI (Sayers, Gillespie and Queiroz et. al. [8, 7, 1, 9, 3]), argues that the speed of a vehicle as it passes over a road is a major determining factor of the resulting road roughness 95

6.1. SUMMARY measurements as measured by a response-type instrument. However, these papers are interested only in light vehicles travelling mainly on highways. It is not clear to what extent the RSQ measure is aected by vehicle speed. This study diers from the bulk of those done in the literature in many ways, the most signicant dierences are: (i) lack of spring suspension; (ii) signicantly higher mass (approximately 50-75t); (iii) discrete operating speeds; (iv) dual chassis design; and (v) unsealed roads. It is possible that these dierences mean that traversing speed is less of inuence on the RSQ than it is on the road roughness measures in the literature. Specically, this aim seeks to develop a relationship between operating gear (as a proxy for vehicle speed) and the resulting RSQ to allow direct comparison while travelling in dierent gears.

Aim 3: Establish how traversing speed aects road degradation rate This aim is related to Aim 2, but looks more specically at the eect of traversing speed on road degradation rate, rather than vehicle response. This aim also stems from the dierences between this experimental situation and those studied in the literature. As discussed in Aim 2, there are many dierences, but the one of interest here is the dierence in the road surfaces studied. LHD vehicles operate on unsealed roads, whereas most studies looked at in the literature concentrate solely on sealed roads. Those that do look at unsealed roads, usually do so only in passing; the degradation rate of these roads is not studied at all. It is plausible that for higher traversing speeds, the road degrades more quickly. To test this hypothesis, it is necessary to operate the LHD at dierent speeds with similar initial road conditions and see how the road degrades with time.

96

6.1. SUMMARY Aim 4: Establish how payload aects LHD vertical acceleration/RSQ Payload is a contributing factor to the RSQ measure, as the dynamics of the LHD are aected by increased bucket mass. As part of its normal cycle, an LHD travels with the bucket full from draw-point to ore-pass and empty on the return trip. The LHD is 15t heavier when the bucket is full. Although there is a clear dierence in LHD mass between the full- and empty-tram, there are other variables that prevent these data sets being compared directly. To establish the eect payload has on the RSQ, the LHD must be driven over the same road with the bucket full and then empty, while travelling in the same direction at the same speed.

Aim 5: Investigate the possibility of detecting spilt rock or potholes using LHD vertical acceleration/RSQ Rock often spills from the bucket onto the haul route during the full-tram. Sometimes these rocks are over a tonne in mass and can cause the LHD to lose control or drop more rock onto the road. If the RSQ monitor could detect spilt rock on the road and alert the operator, he/she could remove this rock before continuing. To achieve this aim, it is necessary to intentionally place or spill rock onto the road, take note of its location and continue normal operation.

Aim 6: Establish the value of RSQ that requires a reduction in operating gear or road regrading This is perhaps the most important aim that can be achieved. As it stands, the RSQ has not been correlated with actual road proles. For the RSQ to be useful, it needs to be calibrated and a value of RSQ associated with predened critical levels of road roughness. When the road degrades to a certain point, manual operators decide 97

6.1. SUMMARY that the road is too rough and needs grading. The RSQ needs to be calibrated with operator knowledge, so Autotram operators can be supplied with this information and prevent unnecessary damage to the LHD.

6.1.2

Experiments addressing longitudinal study aims

Five experiments addressing the above aims are discussed below.

Experiment 1: Road degradation trend under normal operation conditions This proposed experiment addresses Aims 1, 5, and 6, based on the following methodology: 1. Grade roads. 2. Do twenty normal runs. 3. Stop Autotram operation. 4. Survey roads and take note of estimated road roughness and corrugation amplitudes. 5. Mark the following information on a map of the tramming route: a) an estimate of the quality of the road; b) location and estimated size of spilt rock; and c) location, amplitude and wavelength of corrugations. 6. Repeat steps 2-7 until road is too rough to pass. 7. When the Autotram operator believes that the roads have degraded to a level where it is unsafe to continue Autotram operation, he/she logs: (i) the current 98

6.1. SUMMARY time; (ii) the reason for this decision; (iii) the location on the track that is most dangerous; and (iv) the course of action taken.

This procedure would result in data showing roads going from smooth to rough, with manual observations of road surface throughout the shift for comparison. The road survey data would come in the form of a map of the tramming route, colour coded according to estimated road roughness, with the location and estimated size of spilt rock and corrugations marked. Photos of key sections of road would refer to markers on the map indicating the location and direction the photo was taken.

Experiment 2: The eect of limiting LHD speed This proposed experiment addresses Aims 1, 2, 3 (when combined with experiment 3), and 6, based on the following methodology:

1. Grade roads. 2. Do nine normal runs (to give an overall cycle of ten). 3. Limit maximum speed (this can be done easily using the Autotram GUI interface). 4. Do 1 run traversing both directions at the slower traversing speed. 5. Remove speed limit. 6. Repeat steps 2-5 until road is too rough to pass. 7. When the Autotram operator believes that the roads have degraded to a level where it is unsafe to continue Autotram operation, he/she logs: (i) the current time; (ii) the reason for this decision; (iii) the location on the track that is most dangerous; and (iv) the course of action taken.

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6.1. SUMMARY Experiment 3: The eect of increasing LHD speed This proposed experiment addresses Aims 1, 2, 3 (when combined with experiment 2), and 6, based on the following methodology (a complement of experiment 2):

1. Grade roads. 2. Limit maximum speed (this can be done easily using the Autotram GUI interface). 3. Do nine runs at reduced speed (so that each cycle consists of ten runs). 4. Remove speed limiting. 5. Do one normal run. 6. Repeat steps 2-5 uninterrupted until road is too rough to pass 7. When the Autotram operator believes that the roads have degraded to a level where it is unsafe to continue Autotram operation, he/she logs: (i) the current time; (ii) the reason for this decision; (iii) the location on the track that is most dangerous; and (iv) the course of action taken.

Experiment 4: The eect of varying LHD payload This proposed experiment addresses Aims 1 (in part), 4, and 6, based on the following methodology:

1. Grade roads. 2. Do nine normal runs. 3. Do one run without emptying payload at ore-pass. Travel to and from ore-pass with full bucket. 100

6.1. SUMMARY 4. Do one normal run (take full payload to ore-pass, empty it and return to stope). 5. Do one run without lling bucket at stope. Travel to ore-pass with empty bucket and return with empty bucket. 6. Do seven normal runs. 7. Repeat steps 3-6 uninterrupted until road is too rough to pass. 8. When the Autotram operator believes that the roads have degraded to a level where it is unsafe to continue Autotram operation, he/she logs: (i) the current time; (ii) the reason for this decision; (iii) the location on the track that is most dangerous; and (iv) the course of action taken.

Experiment 5: Spilt rock detection This proposed experiment addresses Aims 1(in part), 5, and 6, based on the following methodology: 1. Grade roads. 2. Do ve normal runs for a base data-set. 3. Stop Autotram. 4. Scatter oversize onto the road using LHD in manual mode. Dimensions of oversize should be determined according to operator experience. 5. Survey roads and take note of estimated road roughness and corrugation amplitudes. Take photos of key sections (spilt rock, corrugations, muddy areas, etc.) with a length reference in frame for size comparison. Mark the following information on a map of the tramming route (especially b)): a) Estimated quality of the road. 101

6.2. CONCLUDING REMARKS b) The location and estimated size of spilt rock. c) The location, amplitude and wavelength of corrugations. d) The location and direction of each photo taken. 6. Restart Autotram. 7. Do ten normal runs. 8. Repeat steps 3-7 until road is too rough to pass (only repeat 4 if the spilt rock is no longer aecting the LHD). 9. When the Autotram operator believes that the roads have degraded to a level where it is unsafe to continue Autotram operation, he/she logs: (i) the current time; (ii) the reason for this decision; (iii) the location on the track that is most dangerous; and (iv) the course of action taken.

6.2

Concluding remarks

The work planned for this thesis sought to address, inter alia, the aims for the suggested experimental program. Three trials were attempted to collect the required data. All were unsuccessful in meeting the requirements. In the rst trials, a sensor failure curtailed work. In the second, the transmission dropped out from under the Autotram LHD, see Chapter 5, and only limited data was collected. The third attempt yielded no data because the stope conditions were too extreme for eective Autotram use. Nevertheless, the basic material of this thesis provides a sound foundation on which these trials could proceed and from which a genuinely eective road condition monitor could be developed. This is an essential next step for this work.

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Bibliography

[1] M W Sayers, T D Gillespie, and W D O Paterson. Guidelines for conducting and calibrating road roughness measurements. Technical Paper WTP-46, World Bank, 1986. [2] V Rouillard, B Bruscella, and M Sek. Classication of road surface proles. Journal of Transportation Engineering, 126(1):4145, 2000. [3] M W Sayers. On the calcluation of international roughness index from longitudinal road prole. Transportation Research Record, 1501:112, 1995. [4] C J Dodds and J D Robson. The description of road surface roughness. Journal of Sound and Vibration, 31(2):175183, 1973. [5] B Bruscella, V Rouillard, and M Sek. Analysis of road surface proles. Journal of Transportation Engineering, 125(1):5559, 1999. [6] V Rouillard, M A Sek, and T Perry. Analysis and simulation of road proles. Journal of Transportation Engineering, 122(3):241245, 1996. [7] M W Sayers, T D Gillespie, and C A V Queiroz. The international road roughness experiment. Technical Paper WTP-45, World Bank, 1986. [8] M W Sayers, T D Gillespie, and C A V Queiroz. The international road roughness experiment: A basis for establishing a standard scale for road roughness measurements. Transportation Research Record, 1084:7685, 1986. 103

BIBLIOGRAPHY [9] M W Sayers. Two quarter-car models for dening road roughness: Iri and hri. Transportation Research Record, 1215:165172, 1989. [10] K M A Kamash and J D Robson. Implications of isotropy in random surfaces. Journal of Sound and Vibration, 54(1):131145, 1977. [11] W R Stevens, B Fenner, and A M Rudo. Unix Network Programming, volume 1. Addison-Wesley, Boston, MA, 3rd edition, 2004. [12] D E Newland. Random Vibrations, Spectral and Wavelet Analysis. Longman Scientic and Technical, Essex, England, 3rd edition, 1993. [13] J S Benadat and AG Piersol. Random Data: Analysis and Measurement Procedures. Wiley Interscience, New York, 2nd edition, 1985. [14] A N Heath. Application of the isotropic road roughness assumption. Journal of Sound and Vibration, 115(1):131144, 1987. [15] A N Heath. Modelling and simulation of road roughness. Vehicle System Dynamics, 18-Supp:275284, 1989. [16] W Jeong, K Yoshida, H Kobayashi, and K Oda. State estimation of road surface and vehicle system using a kalman lter. JSME International Journal Series III, 33(4):528534, 1990. [17] H Prem. A laser-based highway-speed road prole measuring system. Vehicle System Dynamics, 17-Supp:300304, 1988. [18] V Rouillard, M Sek, and B Bruscella. Simulation of road surface proles. Journal of Transportation Engineering, 127(3):247253, 2001. [19] M Waechter, F Riess, H Kantz, and J Peinke. Stochastic analysis of surface roughness. Europhysics Letters, 64(5):579585, 2003.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY [20] D M Xu, A M O Mohamed, R N Yong, and F Caporuscio. Development of a criterion for road surface roughness based on power spectral density function. Journal of Terramechanics, 29(4/5):477486, 1992.

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Appendix A

Data analysis methodology

Data gathered during trials was collected for post-processing to assist with the development of the RSQ monitor. The purpose of this post processing is to extract and summarise the relevant information in the data, including information relating to road degradation trends and the dierence between full/empty bucket data. To achieve this:

1. relevant data is extracted from the compressed text les; 2. this data is processed to isolate the useful information; and 3. the results are plotted.

This process has been thoroughly tested to ensure that the resulting plots are accurate and provide insight into the data gathered by the RSQ monitor. When loading the text les, only the variables of interest are extracted. These are: time of clock-tick; z direction raw accelerometer data from front and rear accelerometers; x and y coordinates, representing the location of the LHD; the LHD bearing angle (direction the LHD is facing); the speed of the LHD; and the RSQ. Bad data due to corruption (as discussed in Chapter 3) is replaced with data from 106

the measured accelerations immediately prior to the corruption to prevent the data glitches from aecting the RSQ signicantly. The RSQ is then recalculated using this patched accelerometer data. The processing step is used to isolate the desired information from the vast quantity of data stored by the RSQ monitor. In the previous step, data is loaded according to the day it was attained. This data is then sorted into shifts, as this is a more relevant time-frame to work in than a 24 hour day. A single shift is then selected for analysis (e.g. day shift on October 17th, 2004) and the shift is divided into a number of runs (the trip required to get one bucket of ore - from the ore-pass to draw-point and back again). Data is then removed if it meets any of the following conditions:

1. Shift is less than 30 minutes long: Shifts are only stopped short when there is a problem with operation. Road roughness trends cannot be established from such limited data. 2. Data measured while the LHD is stationary: This data is of little use when measuring road roughness. 3. Short runs: This means data collection has been interrupted, usually due to the Autotram system shutting down because of a wireless network fault. This means the LHD comes to a halt while the network connection is re-established and the system is restarted. As a result, the standard speed prole along the haul route is disturbed and the data is unreliable and therefore cannot be compared to other data. 4. Runs with unscheduled speed variations: Runs must all have the same velocity gradient for the results to be comparable. If this velocity gradient diers in certain runs, they must be removed so they do not aect the result.

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Runs are then individually divided into ore-pass to draw-point and draw-point to ore-pass datasets and collated. The relevant data is then used to create the plots seen in this thesis.

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