The Voice - 2 September 1998

Video System Helps Make Mining Safer

A 3-D video system created by Curtin's Centre for Maine Science and Technology (CMST) has been helping to improve safety at the Mt Isa Mines. The state-of-the-art stereoscopic video system, originally developed by the Centre for underwater exploration and currently used by Woodside Offshore Petroleum, was installed on a remote controlled front-end loader at the mine last year.

Andrew Woods from CMST said the system helps manoeuvre the loader in the process of removing 'slag', or waste, from underneath and around the furnaces at the mine's copper smelter. According to Woods, it is too dangerous for a human operator to be on the front-end loader near the operating furnaces because of the molten copper, heat and fumes they expel. "With a human operator on the vehicle, the furnaces must be cooled down before it is safe for the vehicle to perform the cleaning operation, which incurs significant cost as the furnace is not producing product," he said. "There is a significant cost benefit if the cleaning operation can be performed without powering down the furnace."

The remote controlled front-end loader at Mt Isa on which the 3-D stereoscopic system is mounted

The CMST-designed system, forming part of a remote control system which guides the front-end loader from an external cabin, allows cleaning to be safely performed while the furnace is still operating. The stereoscopic video system is made up of two cameras mounted side-by-side at the top of the front-end loader. The operator, sitting inside an air-conditioned cabin, drives the vehicle through the copper smelter while watching a 3-D video display.

According to Woods, making use of stereoscopic vision allows much greater depth perception and so permits greater driver accuracy than regular 2-D video. "The problem with removing the human operator from the vehicle is that you have to reproduce the high-quality images which would otherwise be perceived by the operator's own eyes," he said. "A regular 2-D video camera and television severely limit the sensory information available to the operator. In contrast, the stereoscopic 3-D video system increases the amount of information available and so the operator finds it easier to drive the loader around the confined environment of the copper smelter." The clearer vision created by the 3-D system also allows the loader to manoeuvre better and therefore reduces costly damage caused by driving into obstacles.

Woods said the stereoscopic system could have significant impact in the Western Australian underground mining industry where partially remote systems are widely used. Earlier this year an operator was killed, the third fatality in five months, in a remote loader accident near Leinster. "The problem with partial remote control is that the operator stands behind the vehicle that they are operating," he said. "The operator still stands very close to the vehicle and there is still the risk of operator error and equipment failure. The stereoscopic system facilitates full remote control - allowing the human operator to be removed entirely from the vacinity of the vehicle." Woods said experiments have been conducted which show that the stereoscopic system could be sucessfully implemented in underground mines.

Flashback:
"Remote-controlled equipment banned from WA mines"
4 May 1998

The use of remote-controlled mobile equipment in underground mines in Western Australia has been suspended pending safety inspections on all sites.

WA mining engineer, Jim Torlach, made the order this afternoon following WA's fourth mine death this year and the third fatality in five months where remote bogging equipment was in use.

Mine managers at underground sites have been asked to ensure that remote control systems are sound, are not affected by other remote signals and that operators are trained.

They have also been asked to check that specific sites are allowing the operator to work from a safe position at all times.

In the latest fatality yesterday afternoon, a 34-year-old operator was killed when he was pinned against the wall of an underground access road at the Bronzewing gold mine, north of Leinster.