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Expert System with Maintenance-on-Demand Capabilities for Mine Safety: A Bayesian Network Model Approach
Mälardalen University, School of Business, Society and Engineering. (FEC)ORCID iD: 0000-0002-7061-5874
2025 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

Mining, one of the world's oldest industries, has historically played a significant role in social and economic development. However, as near-surface mineral deposits are progressively depleted, the industry faces the challenge of exploring and extracting resources at increasingly greater depths. In recent years, automation has emerged as a key trend in mining. Much like the development of self-driving cars, robotic lawnmowers, and other technologies designed to perform tasks deemed too hazardous or monotonous for humans, the mining industry is advancing toward greater automation. Some companies envision a future in which no human workers are required underground, thus marking the beginning of a transition to fully autonomous mining operations. This vision includes fully automated mines with processes monitored and optimized to achieve productivity and safety objectives. Significant progress has already been made, such as the Aitik mine operated by Boliden became the first in Europe to introduce self-driving trucks equipped with a variety of sensors to operate safely and avoid harming people or animals. An important concern in mining is the safety of humans and equipment in the mine operation to maintain productivity. The major safety concerns constitute fires and leakage of gases. Despite the advancements, fires remain a persistent issue in mining operations, occurring approximately once a week in Swedish mines, with similar frequencies reported globally. Notably, 80 % of these fires originate from mining vehicles and 80 % of those fires is caused by hydraulic oil leakage. Smoke from fires poses severe risks, including potential injuries, fatalities, and costly production halts. Additionally, explosive and toxic gases can delay operations. The current "fire alarm" in underground mines often relies on manual detection by miners. Developing reliable fire detection systems is a critical step toward realizing the vision of autonomous mining. Early detection of faulty equipment such as overheated cables or motors, is essential to prevent fires from escalating. Similarly, identifying oil leaks in motors or hydraulic systems can mitigate fire risks. 

Various sensors, particularly gas sensors, for early detection of gases are proposed for installation on mining machines based on the results of rigorous on-site and offsite experiments. Among the sensor technologies the photoionization detector (PID) technique, based on Albert Einstein’s Nobel Prize-winning work in Physics (1921), stood out.  In PID sensors, organic molecules are excited by ultraviolet (UV) light. These molecules then pass through an electric field, generating an electrical pulse upon striking an electrode, which allows for quantification. Various PID sensors with sensitivities ranging from parts per million (ppm) to parts per billion (ppb) have been tested. Notably, the ppb-sensitive sensors demonstrated promising results in detecting gases emitted at early stages, such as from overheated cables. 

Mounting gas sensors on mining machines offer several advantages, such as proximity to fire sources, adaptability to changes in mining areas, simplified maintenance and calibration, and integrated data logging that facilitates correlation with machine data. 

To summarize, this thesis proposes a comprehensive framework utilizing Bayesian Network creating an expert system architecture with maintenance-on-demand capabilities. This approach aims to enable predictive maintenance and enhance safety by identifying potential hazards before they escalate.

In addition, other tools were experimented with, for instance drones providing visual feedback when miners are no longer working underground, or for measuring gases. Furthermore, new technologies such as augmented reality (AR) were experimented with, and the conclusion is that AR can play a role in improving human interaction in the troubleshooting process when support is needed to solve a problem and thus contributes to achieving the net goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Västerås: Mälardalens universitet, 2025.
Series
Mälardalen University Press Dissertations, ISSN 1651-4238 ; 429
Keywords [en]
Mining, Fire
National Category
Engineering and Technology
Research subject
Energy- and Environmental Engineering
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-70275ISBN: 978-91-7485-703-0 (print)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:mdh-70275DiVA, id: diva2:1940204
Public defence
2025-04-03, Delta, Mälardalens universitet, Västerås, 09:00 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
Projects
N/AAvailable from: 2025-02-28 Created: 2025-02-25 Last updated: 2025-03-13Bibliographically approved
List of papers
1. Positive climate effects when AR customer support simultaneous trains AI experts for the smart industries of the future
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Positive climate effects when AR customer support simultaneous trains AI experts for the smart industries of the future
Show others...
2023 (English)In: Applied Energy, ISSN 0306-2619, E-ISSN 1872-9118, Vol. 339, article id 120988Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Initially, Artificial Intelligence (AI) focused on diagnostics during the 70s and 80s. Unfortunately, it did not gain trust and few industries embraced it, mostly due to the extensive manual programming effort that AI required for interpreting data and act. In addition, the computer capacity, for handling the amounts of data necessary to train AI, was lacking the disc dimensions we are used to today, which made it go slowly. Not until the 2000 s con-fidence in AI was established in parallel with the introduction of new tools that was paving the way for PLS, PCA, ANN and soft sensors. Year 2011, IBM Watson (an AI application) was developed and won over the jeopardy champion. Today's machine learning (ML) such as "deep learning" and artificial neural networks (ANN) have created interesting use cases. AI has therefore regained confidence and industries are beginning to embrace where they see appropriate uses. Simultaneously, Internet of Things (IoT) tools have been introduced and made it possible to develop new capabilities such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR) and extended reality (XR). These technologies are maturing and could be used in several application areas for the industries and form part of their digitalization journey. Furthermore, it is not only the industries that could benefit from introducing these technologies. Studies also show several areas and use cases where augmented reality has a positive impact, such as on students' learning ability. Yet few teachers know or use this technology. This paper evaluates and analyze AR, remote assistance tool for industrial purposes. The potential of the tool is discussed for frequent maintenance cases in the mining industry. Further on, if we look into the future, it is not surprising if we will be able to see that today's concepts of reality tools have evolved to become smarter by being trained by multimedia recognition and from people who have thus created an AI expert. Where the AI expert will support customers and be able to solve simple errors but also those that occur rarely and thus be a natural part of the solution for future completely autonomous processes for the industry. The article demonstrates a framework for creating smarter tools by combining AR, ML and AI and forms part of the basis creating the smarter industry of the future. Natural Language Processing (NLP) toolbox has been utilized to train and test an AI expert to give suitable resolutions to a specific maintenance request. The motivation for AR is the possible energy savings and reduction of CO2 emissions in the maintenance field for all business trips that can be avoided. At the same time saving money for the industries and expert manhours that are spent on traveling and finally enhancing the productivity for the industries. Tests cases have verified that with AR, the resolution time could be significantly reduced, minimizing production stoppages by more than 50% of the time, which ultimately has a positive effect on a country's GDP. How much energy can be saved is predicted by the fact that 50% of all the world's business flights are replaced by one of the reality concepts and are estimated to amount to at least 50 Mton CO2 per year. This figure is probably slightly higher as business trips also take place by other means of transport such as trains, buses, and cars. With today's volatile employees changing jobs more frequently, industry experts are becoming fewer and fewer. Since new employee stays for a maximum of 3-5 years per workplace, they will not stay long enough to become experts. Introducing an AI expert trained by today's experts, there is a chance that this knowledge can be maintained.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
ELSEVIER SCI LTD, 2023
Keywords
Intelligent systems, Augmented reality (AR), CO 2 emissions, Digitalization, Internet of things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence
National Category
Computer Sciences
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-62686 (URN)10.1016/j.apenergy.2023.120988 (DOI)000982738400001 ()2-s2.0-85151040196 (Scopus ID)
Available from: 2023-05-31 Created: 2023-05-31 Last updated: 2025-02-25Bibliographically approved
2. Decision tree for enhancing maintenance activities with drones in the mining business
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Decision tree for enhancing maintenance activities with drones in the mining business
2021 (English)Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

A drone (UAV, unmanned aerial vehicle) is no longer atoy, it is gaining bigger and bigger terrain in the industryas an everyday working tool. Equipped with sensors,thermal cameras, components and system software itmost likely will be part of the solutions that continuesstreamlining the mining operations in the future. Datagathering of signals from sensors mounted on dronesand other mining equipment such as mining vehiclescreates conditions for monitoring, analysis and warningof possible risks and suggests how these can be avoidedin due time. The experimental drone study conducted atan open pit mine Aitik, Boliden (Figure 1) inSweden will be presented in this paper. Aitik is todaythe world's most efficient copper (Cu) open pit mine.The authors propose decision trees to support and enablethe transformation into a completely autonomousmining operation. In combination with deep learning(DL), pattern recognition and artificial intelligence (AI)applications, creates the puzzle pieces to support miningoperations to further increase their productivity andsafety.

Series
Linköping Electronic Conference Proceedings, ISSN 1650-3686, E-ISSN 1650-3740
Keywords
maintenance, inspections, drones, mining operations, decision tree, artificial neuron
National Category
Other Civil Engineering
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-69359 (URN)10.3384/ecp20176272 (DOI)
Conference
SIMS Conference on Simulation and Modelling SIMS 2020, September 22-24, Virtual Conference, Finland
Available from: 2024-12-09 Created: 2024-12-09 Last updated: 2025-02-25Bibliographically approved
3. Energy and Safety Diagnostic in Underground Facilities
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Energy and Safety Diagnostic in Underground Facilities
2020 (English)In: Proceedings from the Ninth International Symposium on Tunnel Safety and Security, Munich, Germany, March 11-13, 2020 / [ed] Lönnermark, A.; Ingason, H., Borås: RISE Research Institutes of Sweden AB , 2020, p. 553-568Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

A key role for which some sensors have been developed is to be used in many applications that can belife-critical such as with fire. This article is about a number of experimental studies aimed at exploringand identifying sensors opportunities to detect gases emitting on a mining vehicle prior a fire is a fact.The conducted tests showed that some sensors have the potential to detect e.g. oil mist caused bybroken hydraulic oil hoses and other hydrocarbons emitting on a mining vehicle before a fire is a fact.Though with some challenges relating to the distance between the sensor and emitting source.Another challenges has to do with data gathering. Digitization and online monitoring of data beinggathered 24/7 has given rise to several opportunities for the mining industry as for example onlinesupervision of the daily production but also challenges like increased number of networked users anddemand for real-time communication and requirements on minimal latency. Minimal latency is also aprerequisite succeeding with switching to a fully autonomous operation. The mining operations can bedescribed as a hazard and dirty environment with a deep mining shaft that makes wirelesscommunication difficult. With a fully autonomous mining operation exceptional signals and datacollection for planning, monitoring and controlling requires new ideas in order to minimize the risksin such operation. Part of that solution may be to gather data from several different types of sensorsplaced in the mining processes. Sending the sensor data to an overall system with predefined warningand alarm setpoints enables the possibilities with early alarms that allow production personnel to reactbefore it becomes too late. The article concludes by discussing possible diagnostics and decision-making solutions to supports rescue efforts depending on the scenarios that may arise to be includedin an artificial application.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Borås: RISE Research Institutes of Sweden AB, 2020
Series
RISE Rapport ; 2020:09
Keywords
fire, gases, underground facilities, sensors, safety, early diagnoses
National Category
Other Civil Engineering
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-69391 (URN)9789189049895 (ISBN)
Conference
Ninth International Symposium on Tunnel Safety and Security, Munich, Germany, March 11-13, 2020
Available from: 2024-12-10 Created: 2024-12-10 Last updated: 2025-03-21Bibliographically approved
4. Gas Sensors for Early Detection of Fire Hazards Caused by Vehicles in Underground Mines
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Gas Sensors for Early Detection of Fire Hazards Caused by Vehicles in Underground Mines
2020 (English)In: Proceedings of SIMS 2019, 2020Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Sensors play a key role today and have been developedto be used in many applications that can be life critical aswith e.g. fire alarms. When mines now start investingin information systems and information technologyinfrastructure, they have taken one step closer to digitiza-tion. This in turn creates opportunities for the mines tobecome completely autonomous in the future.Controlling, monitoring and planning such productionrequires new digitized solutions. Part of such a solutioncould for example be to mount different types of sensors inthe mining process. Data gathering from sensors withdiagnostics supported by predefined set-points enables earlyalarms allowing production personnel to react before a fireis a fact. This paper describes the conducted experimentalstudy aiming at identifying risk for fire caused by miningvehicles in underground mines. The test result shows thatsome types of sensors have potential to early detect firehazards.

Series
Linköping Electronic Conference Proceedings, ISSN 1650-3686, E-ISSN 1650-3740
Keywords
fire, underground mines, early diagnose, gas sensors, overheating, ventilation
National Category
Other Civil Engineering
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-69360 (URN)10.3384/ecp2017085 (DOI)
Conference
SIMS 2019 Västerås, Sweden, 13-16 August, 2019
Available from: 2024-12-09 Created: 2024-12-09 Last updated: 2025-02-25Bibliographically approved
5. Holistic Approach Promotes Failure Prevention of Smart Mining Machines Based on Bayesian Networks
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Holistic Approach Promotes Failure Prevention of Smart Mining Machines Based on Bayesian Networks
2023 (English)In: Machines, E-ISSN 2075-1702, Vol. 11, no 10, article id 940Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

In the forthcoming era of fully autonomous mining, spanning from drilling operations to port logistics, novel approaches will be essential to pre-empt hazardous situations in the absence of human intervention. The progression towards complete autonomy in mining operations must have meticulous approaches and uncompromised security. By ensuring a secure transition, the mining industry can navigate the transformative shift towards autonomy while upholding the highest standards of safety and operational reliability. Experiments involving autonomous pathways for mining machinery that utilize AI for route optimization demonstrate a higher speed capacity than manually operated approaches; this translates to enhanced productivity, subsequently fostering increased production capacity to meet the rising demand for metals. Nonetheless, accelerated wear on crucial elements like tires, brakes, and bearings on mining machines has been observed. Autonomous mining processes will require smarter machines without humans that guide and support actions prior to a hazardous situation occurring. This paper will delve into a comprehensive perspective on the safety of autonomous mining machines by using Bayesian networks (BN) to detect possible hazard fires. The BN is tuned with a combination of empirical field data and laboratory data. Various faults have been recognized, and their correlation with the measurements has been established.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI), 2023
Keywords
artificial intelligence, autonomous, bayesian networks, machine learning, mining machines, predictive maintenance, safety, smart sensing
National Category
Computer and Information Sciences
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-64701 (URN)10.3390/machines11100940 (DOI)001093749100001 ()2-s2.0-85175038225 (Scopus ID)
Available from: 2023-11-09 Created: 2023-11-09 Last updated: 2025-02-25Bibliographically approved

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