ScienceDirect IFAC-PapersOnLine 48-17 (2015) 054–059 Available online at www.sciencedirect.com 2405-8963 © 2015, IFAC (International Federation of Automatic Control) Hosting by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Peer review under responsibility of International Federation of Automatic Control. 10.1016/j.ifacol.2015.10.077 © 2015, IFAC (International Federation of Automatic Control) Hosting by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. INTRODUCTION The mining industry has since the early 2000’s tried to exploit recent advances in ultra-high-frequency (UHF) technology, especially cellular phones, wireless local area network (WLAN), UWB and radio frequency identification (RFID) (Forooshani et al. 2013). This trend is driven by needs for improved safety and efficiency. For example, in the United States with a total of 14,885 mines in operation (2006), the Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act of 2006 (MINER Act) stipulates that by July 2009 underground mine operators must install wireless two- way communications and tracking systems that will link surface rescuers with underground workers (MMWR 2009). In Sweden, Boliden Group has in their underground and open-pit mines deployed IEEE 802.11ac wireless networks for communications as well as real-time localization of both workers and machinery (Nilsson 2014). In addition to better safety these networks facilitate effective voice communications as well as remote controlled and monitored machinery. This paper presents key challenges in advanced remote control and monitoring of such machinery, and presents a generic communications solution for industrial working machines. We reason about these challenges and communications solution in context of underground short- cycle load, haul and dump operation with large-volume built wheel-loaders in Boliden underground mines. Remote controlled mobile machinery such as Load Haul and Dump machines (LHDs) has been used in industrial applications for more than ten years (Gustafson 2011). Such machines have early on been remote controlled and partly autonomous because of the harsh working environment in mines and to enable excavation at times when personnel cannot be present in the machine, e.g. directly after blasting and during ventilation. The productivity of remotely operated LHDs is however not in parity with on-board operation. One specific weakness is lower average payload of remote excavated buckets (Andersson 2013). The variation in the fragmentation of blasted material to be excavated in underground hard rock mines is significant higher compared to material is of granular type. The challenges for efficient remote controlled or autonomous excavation are therefore higher in underground hard rock mines (Filla. et al. 2014 and Marshall, et al. 2008). Autonomous loading of bulk material is considered to demand further work and research (Hemami and Hassani 2009). We consider operator assistance functions for remote control with skilled operators as a more viable approach than fully autonomous loading in the short to mid term, as well as an important step to collect experience to refine fully autonomous loading for improved productivity. Shortcomings of remote operated LHDs are relevant also for high-volume produced wheel-loaders such as construction machines, which in many cases are to perform similar work as for ore excavation in mines. In some cases, such wheel- loaders are even used for underground ore excavation when specialized machines are avoided for reasons such as extensive need for mobility and flexible manoeuvring. Keywords: Remote control, Communication networks, Human factors, Man/machine interaction, Decentralized control, Delay compensation, Manoeuvrability, Monitoring feedback, Network reliability, Teleoperation Abstract: High-capacity wireless IP networks with limited delays are nowadays being deployed in both underground and open-pit mines. This allows for advanced remote control of mining machinery with improved feedback to operators and extensive monitoring of machine status, wear and fatigue. Wireless connectivity varies however depending on channel impairments caused by obstacles, multi-path fading and other radio issues. Therefore remote control and monitoring should be capable of adapting their sending rates to handle variations in communications quality. This paper presents key challenges in advanced remote control and monitoring of working machines via high-capacity wireless IP networks in mining environments. We reason about these challenges in context of underground short-cycle load, haul and dump operation with large-volume built wheel-loaders and present a generic communication solution for an operator assistance concept capable of adapting to varying communication properties. *Luleå University of Technology, 97187 Luleå, Sweden (Tel: +46-920-49 10 00; e-mail: {ulf.bodin, ulf.andersson, siddharth.dadhich}@ltu.se). ** Volvo CE AB, Bolindervägen 100, 631 85 Eskilstuna, Sweden (Tel: +46-160-15 10 00; e-mail: erik.uhlin@volvo.com) † Boliden Mineral AB, Kontorsvägen 1, 936 81 Boliden, Sweden (Tel: +46-910-77 40 00; e-mail: ulf.n.marklund@boliden.com) †† Oryx Prototyping AB, Tvistevägen 48, 907 36 Umeå, Sweden (Tel: +46-90-348 49 00; e-mail: derny.haggstrom@oryx.se) Ulf Bodin*. Ulf Andersson.* Siddharth Dadhich*. Erik Uhlin **. Ulf Marklund †. Derny Häggström†† Remote controlled short-cycle loading of bulk material in mining applications