A Machine Vision based Approach to

Onsite Rock Fragmentation Analysis in

Opencast Mines
Suryajyoti Nanda

Rock fragmentation is the process of breaking of solid in-situ rock mass into several
smaller pieces which are being excavated or moved by material handling equipment. It
is one of the major concern of any blasting operation. The efficiency of the downstream
mineral processing and comminution processes is greatly dependent on the post-blast
rock size distribution. Information regarding the degree and size distribution of frag-
ments within a blasted muck pile is essential for efficient loading, transport, crushing and
milling operations. Therefore, the ability to make accurate predictions of the fragment
size is essential. Sieving or screening, over size boulder count method and shovel loading
rate method are some of the conventional, manual as well as time consuming methods of
quantifying fragmentation.

Existing modern techniques include visual analysis method, photogrammetric method

and image analysis method. Many of these measurement techniques are used by min-
ing industry/researchers but most of the methods are time consuming, inconvenient and
not precise. Apart from the afore-mentioned methods several empirical models have also
been proposed in the literature such as KUZ-RAM model, Larssons equation, SveDeFo
formula etc. The image processing methods have been used effectively for fragmenta-
tion analysis by several existing software packages like WipFrag, SPLIT, FRAGSCAN,
Fragalyst, GoldSize etc. These software packages conduct 2-D post-processing of image
data i.e. images are acquired from the blast site and the analysis is carried out in the
laboratory. With the advancement of real-time machine vision techniques this drawback
of post-fragmentation analysis softwares can be resolved.

Considering the shortcomings of the post-processing techniques, machine vision based

approaches provide the additional edge of onsite analysis as well as flexibility in terms
of increasing accuracy. This can be achieved through better training sets and improved
algorithms. The machine vision approaches involve utility of smart camera modules
(camera modules with embedded processors for advanced computing). OpenMV M7,
Intel RealSense camera modules are some of the examples of agile real-time machine vi-
sion platforms which can be leveraged to conduct onsite machine vision based processing.
Since, the primary purpose is measurement of rock size distribution and camera modules
provide output in terms of pixel count, there is a need of scaling in this procedure. This
is carried out by following the conventional method of using a reference object. The size
of this object is pre-measured and related to that of pixel count, thus providing the final
output in terms of scaled particle size. The machine vision method involves six key steps:
training, creating a model, quantization of the model, importing the quantized model,
inferencing/classification and validation. The training step requires a large dataset of
images and desired output from those images. Using TensorFlow framework, the training
process can be conducted to generate a model file. This file goes through a quantization
process where weights and activation tensors are compressed from their 32 bit floating
representations to 8-bit integer ones to carry out inferencing. At the final step, results are
to be compared with the testing set to determine the error. This method stated above is
common to most of the machine vision applications, but for the proposed fragmentation
analysis several other key steps are necessary. Rock fragmentation analysis using machine
vision has a similarity to the method of cell segmentation and counting. According to this
methodology, images of cells (especially RBCs and WBCs) are segmented, counted and
classified based on their pixel count and other relevant characteristics. Taking inspiration
from this, the onsite images of blasted muck pile on the smart camera modules can be
analyzed using segmentation. A pre-enhancement process is necessary for these images
which can be done using median/mean filter. The output in turn has to be converted to
binary threshold images and segmentation process can be carried out. Then, based on the
model of pre-trained data, it carries out the inferencing process. This methodology can
be applied on a laboratory sample first to modify and polish the algorithm to maximum
levels of attainable accuracy. Sieved laboratory samples consisting of rocks of different
sizes can be analyzed in real-time and the results can be compared to the sieving based
analysis, empirical analysis and software based post-processing outputs. This will provide
a pragmatic understanding about the relative accuracy of each methodology.

Finally, this has to be scaled for real-time measurement campaigns in an actual mine
site. For the at-scale development of this approach, higher resolution cameras integrated
with a high performance single board computer (Raspberry Pi, Nvidia Jetson Nano etc.)
with specifications good enough to run deep learning based models, serve the purpose.

Since, the mining industry plays a vital role in Indian economy, the cost optimization
in this industry directly gives a positive impact on the economy of the nation. Rock
fragmentation analysis through this proposed approach will not only be time saving but
also optimize the Research and Development (R&D) cost of a particular mine by onsite
analysis. Earlier, mining firms primarily depended upon industrial and R&D consulting
for fragmentation analysis. With the proposed framework of a ’plug and play’ onsite
fragmentation analysis, it can be conducted by any mining professional at the blast site.