Traffic control of dump truck fleets at intersections for mining productivity improvement

Abstract

Recently, dump trucks working in mines are becoming unmanned in order to reduce labor costs and the risk of human injury. If we use multiple fleets of dump trucks, their coordination is necessary to avoid traffic jams. In this paper, we propose a new algorithm of controlling dump truck fleets so that mining productivity can be improved. First, we introduce an index, time margin, which is determined as a gap between the expected time to arrive at a loading area and the ideal arrival time at the loading area for zero idle time of the loading machine. Secondly, we propose an algorithm that optimizes the order in which dump trucks pass through intersections using the time margin. The algorithm calculates how much time the dump trucks lose by slowing down at intersections, and estimates how long it is delayed in arrival at the loading area using the time margin. The algorithm then determines the optimized order of the dump trucks that has the minimum total time of their arrival delay. Simulations show that the proposed method reduces delay in arrival at loading areas and improves the amount of production of the overall mine, due to appropriate prioritization of dump truck fleets.