Autonomous vehicles and drillers

While many of us have been focused on the progress Uber, Google and Tesla have made with autonomous vehicles many people don’t realize that Rio Tinto (one of the worlds largest metals and mining corporations) has already been using autonomous haul trucks that can carry 350 tons and operate totally independently since 2008. These trucks have been so effective that they’ve reduced fuel use by 13 percent and are also much safer to operate.

Safety

AI can help Machine Learning in Mining engineers and workers prevent accidents and injuries on the job. If enough high-quality data can be collected, we can predict failures that can not only affect production but also be harmful or fatal to any workers nearby.

In addition to predicting failures, we can also use Ai to predict other potential hazards by analyzing patterns in events. This is really useful because the environment in mining can affect the operation and lifespan of equipment, varies greatly depending on the location.

But we can also do more than just predict when equipment might fail or which hazards can present themselves using AI. We can also constantly survey the health and performance of equipment which is important in eliminating surprise failures and dangers to workers.