Tag Archives: MobileTronics

Driverless tunnel boring machine transport just the start for MobileTronics and VirtuRail

Automation, Mine ventilation, Mining equipment, Mining safety, Mining services, Power supply for mines, , , , ,

Building on a world first demonstration of fully autonomous transportation of a tunnel boring machine (TBM) using trackless VirtuRail® trains at the Brenner Base Tunnel project, in Austria, in December, MobileTronics is setting new goals.

The demonstration took place on the construction site ‘Ahrental’ of the STRABAG and Salini Impregilo-owned project, near Innsbruck, with the supply of the TBM realised by trackless trains. These rubber-tyred, about 60-m long trains consist of five single cars and enable continuous transport from the loading area to the TBM, via a 2.5-km long access tunnel set at a decline of close to 12%.

MobileTronics’ VirtuRail System steers all 18 axles electronically, allowing precision handling where all axles follow the first in line. An additional driver assistance system guides the first axle automatically in the tunnel and is also used for obstacle detection. This system can guide the train around a 90°curve on 30 m radius at the end of the access tunnel.

As MobileTronics’ Christoph Mueller and George Biro said, this autonomous operation did not take place in a closed special purpose area; all tests, as well as the showcase, took place in the regular working environment of the tunnelling construction site.

Mueller and Biro said: “Extending the existing application to a fully autonomous system working safely in the tunnelling environment, from the technical point of view, would not require more than three to four months.

“The main effort would be to install a central supervision workplace, which provides a central overview of the locations and status of the trains together with live video and the possibility for the remote operator to restart and manually manoeuvre in exceptional situations.”

For future autonomous operation, the availability of a mechanical vehicle originally intended for fully autonomous operation, “with an optimised technical reliability of the underlying mechanic and hydraulic systems would be required”, according to Mueller and Biro.

The company is also looking at completing a fully-electric operation as it looks to reduce emissions and boost environmental credentials. “This would also save significant cost for tunnel ventilation compared to diesel-operated machines,” the company said, adding that the electric vehicles were also likely to provide lower operating costs due to higher energy efficiency.

“In the following projects, MobileTronics already has gained extensive experience in integration of battery- and hybrid-powered electric vehicles as well as in integration and configuration of the high voltage electric components including motors and frequency converters,” Mueller and Biro said.

“The future VirtuRail trains, therefore, will be modular products made of reliable components designed for fully-autonomous operation, however with the option of manual operation from two cabins or only one driver cabin.”

The applications for VirtuRail are not limited to TBM supply operations, with the trains potentially being used in mining for raw material transport: “In underground mines, for example, the use of rubber-tyred trains has the potential to replace dedicated train transport levels which will speed up the mining operations as the separate transport level does not need to be excavated before mass mining starts,” Mueller and Biro said.

They continued: “Also in surface mining, VirtuRail trains have the potential to become an alternative to conveyor belt installations or traditional truck transport.”

MobileTronics trackless trains complete world first driverless TBM transport

Automation, Mine shafts and equipment, Mining equipment, Mining safety, Mining services, , , , , ,

MobileTronics, together with the joint venture partners STRABAG and Salini Impregilo, has successfully demonstrated the world’s first completely autonomous transportation of a tunnel boring machine (TBM) using trackless VirtuRail® trains.

The demonstration took place on the construction site ‘Ahrental’ of the Brenner Base Tunnel project, close to Innsbruck, Austria.

On this site, the supply of the TBM was realised by trackless trains. These rubber tyred, about 60-m long trains consist of five single cars and enable continuous transport from the loading area to the TBM, via a 2.5-km long access tunnel set at a decline of close to 12%.

MobileTronics says: “This innovative way of transport does not need the installation and maintenance of the steel rail network. At the same time, the roadways can be used for regular cars used by the underground staff.”

MobileTronics’ VirtuRail System steers all 18 axles electronically, allowing precision handling where all axles follow the first in line. An additional driver assistance system guides the first axle automatically in the tunnel and is also used for obstacle detection. This system can guide the train around a 90°curve on 30 m radius at the end of the access tunnel.

The docking of the train inside the TBM backup is also performed automatically; under regular operation, the driver only controls the speed.

Since May 2016, these trains have accumulated more than 200,000 km without a single significant issue, according to the company, adding that this technology played an important role in the TBM achieving an advance world record of 62 m over 24 hours on May 14, 2017.

To carry out the fully autonomous drive, the on-train electronics were supplemented by electronic ‘traffic signs’ in the tunnel. The train uses these to read its position and set the driving parameters for the next section.

Another successfully implemented challenge was the passing of oncoming traffic and the interaction with other vehicles driving in the access tunnel. This demonstration, prepared with STRABAG/Salini Impregilo, was carried out on December 3 and showed the full potential of autonomous operation in an environment not exclusively populated by autonomous vehicles, MobileTronics said. “Thereby, it has been proven that a fully driverless operation is possible using the VirtuRail technology.”

In the future, material logistics, especially on construction sites with several TBMs, can be remotely supervised from a central control room. “This makes VirtuRail an important future component to improve cost efficiency and safety of tunnelling operations,” MobileTronics said.

“Also, in mining, VirtuRail has the potential to improve underground transport: by performing the mass transport in a flexible way on the production level a separate transport level for rail bound mass transport may become obsolete.”

MobileTronics, together with its Polish sister company, MT-Silesia, in Wroclaw, specialise in electronic guidance and navigation of mobile equipment in safety critical environments.