Sotreq recently delivered the first remote operation cabin to have been acquired by Brazilian iron ore mining major CSN Mineração. The equipment, capable of allowing the operator to control a crawler dozer in a mine located miles away, the dealer said is a milestone in the future of mining, mainly for safety. CSN installed the “on board” system on a Cat® D11T dozer, which is already operating at the mine.
“This project is part of the Autonomous Mine Program of CSN Mineração. It is directly linked to the company’s commitment to employee safety and health. The remote cabin will allow the operator to have an ergonomically more suitable environment, without vibration and noise, reducing the level of fatigue and exposure to risk,” said Ivan de Oliveira Júnior, Maintenance and Engineering Manager at CSN Mineração.
The manager added that, in addition to this primary function of technology, the cabin brings other benefits. “We have gained productivity with the reduction of shift change times and gains in the quality of the work, through the high precision dozing with the tractor”, says Júnior.
“The customer’s goal is to validate their safety and productivity indicators and then apply this technology to more equipment,” explains Bruno Peixoto, Manager of Mining Technology at Sotreq. He adds that, by removing the operator from the mine and putting them to work in a safe place, the remote operator’s station also solves a social issue, since operators who have physical limitations or problems with locomotion are no longer prevented from doing this type of work. This safe and remote way of working has already been seen by visitors to the Exposibram event last year. From the Sotreq stand, they were able take a “test drive” and operate a D11T crawler dozer that was in Tucson, Arizona, about 10,000 km away from Belo Horizonte.
The cabin delivered to CSN is the second to have been delivered by Sotreq in Brazil. Bruno Peixoto explains that the technology in question is part of an integrated system of technology products, MineStar, which together support the automation of equipment at the mining site, whether trucks, drills, or crawler dozers. The manager explains that, currently, the remote operation cabin is applicable to crawler dozers and drills. “These devices can be operated together with up to four devices per cabin. In this model, the equipment operates semi-autonomously and the operator of the cabin can easily choose which equipment to operate, leaving the others in operation following a work plan previously sent to the equipment.”
In addition to supporting CSN in remote cab operation, Sotreq also implemented Terrain for Grading. This system uses high precision GPS to assist the operator in positioning the equipment and carrying out work according to projects that are sent to the equipment. “We have an office team that develops the projects and sends them via wireless network to the equipment in question, or to the cabin. Sotreq has a support structure that works to assist the implementation of the technology and continually work together with the customer to help him achieve the best productivity with the technology,” says Peixoto.