Design and development of intelligent unmanned construction system for open-pit mine

Abstract China’s huge mineral outputs support the national economy and people’s livelihood. However, the mining operation is rough and the safety accident happens frequently. Consequently, the demand for unmanned mining operations is urgent, which is of great significance to safe production. Facing the complex operation scenarios of open-pit mines, an unmanned construction system framework is proposed based on intelligent construction machinery. On this basis, an unmanned excavation subsystem is designed and developed based on the hydraulic excavator, and an unmanned transportation subsystem is designed and developed based on the mining truck. Equipped with advanced sensors and controllers, the unmanned excavation subsystem and the unmanned transportation subsystem possess sensing, decision-making, and control abilities by using AI algorithms. The experiment of the unmanned construction systems is successfully conducted on the open-pit mine test site. This study provides equipment and technical support for improving the intelligent level of mine construction and ensuring safe production for the open-pit mine.