Scenario Engineering for Autonomous Transportation: A New Stage in Open-Pit Mines

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel Scenario Engineering-based framework to enhance the robustness, trustworthiness, and efficiency of autonomous transportation systems in open-pit mines, validated through experiments in real mining environments.

Contribution

It introduces an integrated paradigm combining Scenario Engineering components with autonomous systems to address complex mining challenges.

Findings

Improved robustness and trustworthiness in autonomous mining transport.

Enhanced efficiency and scalability of autonomous systems.

Successful validation in real open-pit mine environments.

Abstract

In recent years, open-pit mining has seen significant advancement, the cooperative operation of various specialized machinery substantially enhancing the efficiency of mineral extraction. However, the harsh environment and complex conditions in open-pit mines present substantial challenges for the implementation of autonomous transportation systems. This research introduces a novel paradigm that integrates Scenario Engineering (SE) with autonomous transportation systems to significantly improve the trustworthiness, robustness, and efficiency in open-pit mines by incorporating the four key components of SE, including Scenario Feature Extractor, Intelligence and Index (I&I), Calibration and Certification (C&C), and Verification and Validation (V&V). This paradigm has been validated in two famous open-pit mines, the experiment results demonstrate marked improvements in robustness, trustworthiness, and efficiency. By enhancing the capacity, scalability, and diversity of autonomous transportation, this paradigm fosters the integration of SE and parallel driving and finally propels the achievement of the '6S' objectives.