Visit to an open-pit mine at an altitude of 5,000 meters: Unmanned mining vehicles save 6 million yuan in costs each year.

It is expected that unmanned driving will become a regular operation in the first quarter of 2025.

When asked about the biggest challenge for the landing application of unmanned driving technology in the plateau open-pit mine, Chen Yinxu, Vice President of Huawei Oil and Gas Mining Division, replied that it is the “cloud-network-car” collaboration, which is also a core technology of the unmanned driving achievement of Yulong Copper Mine.

In order to solve the collaborative problems in high cold, high altitude, and extreme climates, in terms of ‘network’, the unmanned driving project team of Yulong Copper Mine, in conjunction with Tibet Mobile, has set up multiple 5G base stations to achieve full coverage of 5G signals. This enables the vehicle-mounted sensors to upload signals in real time, allowing the map data to be updated at a minute level, thereby optimizing efficiency and ensuring operational safety. In terms of ‘cloud’, based on the artificial intelligence computing power base of Huawei Cloud, it can achieve unmanned driving training and iteration, intelligent operation and supervision, high-precision map services, and path planning functions. In terms of ‘vehicle’, the mining trucks adopt multi-sensor fusion perception technology to ensure stable operation 24/7, reduce the failure rate by 5%, and maintain an online operating rate of over 99%. It should be pointed out that the real-time perception system of cloud-network-vehicle collaboration has built a three-dimensional safety protection system for production operations. For example, during night operations, the vehicles can still maintain stable operation; in the mining, transportation, and earthmoving processes, reducing human involvement also reduces on-site safety risks.

More importantly, Chen Yinxu revealed that the intelligent scheduling system of unmanned driving technology optimizes the operation process, reduces the frequency of road maintenance and vehicle maintenance, and reduces the consumption of fuel and tires. Compared with the traditional mode, two sets of 10 unmanned driving mining trucks can save about 6 million yuan in operating costs for the mine every year.

At present, the multi-group unmanned driving fleet of Yulong Copper Mine has been operating on mine roads that are thousands of meters long, with a minimum width of 20 meters and a maximum slope of 8%. The project team expects to achieve the normalization of unmanned driving operations in the first quarter of 2025, and ensure that the overall efficiency is on par with the manned driving mode.

Unmanned driving has become a new opportunity for the transformation and upgrading of the mining industry.

“Unmanned driving technology is a new opportunity for the mining industry given by science and technology, and it is also a key step to promote the transformation and upgrading of the traditional mining industry and move towards intelligent and modern mines under the guidance of the new quality productivity strategy.” Li Huawei, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of the 19th Bureau of China Railway, said.

Zhang Yong, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of Western Mining, pointed out that the successful delivery of the unmanned driving project will comprehensively improve the operational efficiency and operational safety of the plateau open-pit mine. In the future, “the Yulong Copper Mine will be used as a demonstration base to further expand the application scenarios of unmanned driving technology and create a safer, more efficient and green modern intelligent mine”.

Regarding the specific division of labor in the construction project of unmanned driving technology, it was learned by reporters that Western Mining provides business scenario support. Western Mining is a Fortune 500 company in China, with reserves of non-ferrous metal resources reaching 11.2818 million tons and reserves of ferrous metal reaching 295 million tons. In recent years, the company has continuously strengthened its digital transformation by continuously improving its intelligence level through ‘mechanization instead of human labor, automation to reduce labor, and intelligence to require fewer workers.’ China Railway 19th Bureau provides strong support for engineering operation capabilities. China Railway 19th Bureau is a core member of the Fortune Global 500 under China Railway Construction. Its subsidiary, the Mining Investment Limited Company, was established in 2010. It is a specialized engineering company in the China Railway Construction system with mine construction as its main business. It is currently the leading enterprise in domestic open-pit mine construction, with business covering the entire field of mine construction. Huawei empowers smart mines with unmanned driving technology and has been building the ‘Huawei Oil and Gas Mine Legion’ since 2021 to promote industry intelligence. Against the backdrop of the three-party team cooperation, the Yulong Copper Mine unmanned driving project was completed and delivered in just 3 months.

“With the continuous optimization of technology, unmanned driving will play a greater role in all aspects of mine production, and we will continue to work hard to build Yulong Copper Mine into a 5A-level smart mine in the (Tibet) Autonomous Region and a demonstration case in the industry.” Chen Yinxu said.

(Article Source: China Business News)

Source: East Money

Author: China Business News