The document summarizes an underground trial of a collision avoidance system on a shuttle car at Centennial Coal's Myuna Colliery mine in Australia. Key details include: - The trial tested a Mine Site Technology/Strata Worldwide proximity detection system to alert operators if they entered the warning or danger zones around the shuttle car. - Data from the system showed numerous instances where operators' helmet lights were detected in the warning and danger zones over the course of a shift, with 25 recorded hazard intrusions. - The trial helped identify areas for improvement in the equipment certification process and need for adjustments to magnetic fields during commissioning. Overall it provided safety benefits by alerting operators if they got too close to

1. www.centennialcoal.com.au
Underground Shuttle Car Collision Avoidance Trial
File Name:
Peter Nelson
Engineering Manager – Myuna Colliery

2. Background
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The interaction of people with “Shuttle Cars” in the underground mining environment presents an element of risk which is found in all “Coal Mines”
•
Although a number of surface trials have been undertaken, there has not been any significant underground trials of proximity detection/collision warning systems on development equipment to date.
•
Centennial Coal accepted the challenge of undertaking an underground trial of the Mine Site Technology / Strata Worldwide equipment on a Joy 10SC32 Shuttle car
•
A Shuttle Car was chosen due to the amount of machine – person interactions each working shift
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3. Centennial Coal - Myuna Colliery
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4. Site Details
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Myuna Colliery is an underground coal mine located in Wangi Wangi, on the western side of Lake Macquarie, in the lower Hunter Valley.
•
Myuna was identified by Centennial Coal management as being an ideal candidate for this trial of the MST / Strata Proximity Awareness solution.
•
Myuna employs around 264 people and is a first workings mine that uses “place change” with some “partial extraction” mining methods in up to three coal seams primarily under Lake Macquarie.
•
Myuna now has five operating units after an extra district was added recently.
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5. Site Details (Cont)
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A typical operating District has 1 x Continuous Miner; 3 x Shuttle Cars; 2 x Multi Bolters; 1 x Feeder Breaker, all operating in 7 to 9 headings, where machine flitting occurs several times a shift.
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Myuna has a coal sizing plant on the surface and supplies thermal coal directly to Eraring Power Station, via an overland conveyor system.
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During these trials at the mine, we have recognised that our underground operation would have an increased level of safety awareness with the deployment of a system like the MST / Strata Proximity solution.
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6. Trial Scope
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When Centennial Myuna took on this project we Risk Reviewed the process and identified early on that we were comfortable to have the Shuttle Car alarm both visually and audibly in the Warning and Danger Zones, but we did not intend to take this trial to “machine interaction” where the car braking or traction systems would come into play, due to operational concerns.
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The audible and visual alarms are easily identified, where both the Shuttle Car driver and interacting operator are alerted effectively.
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We considered, for the trial purposes, that this was an adequate level of control to alert operators of their interaction with the Shuttle Car, and test the system.
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7. Equipment Used
The MST / Strata HazardAvert Proximity Awareness solution consists of number of key components, being:
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The MST ICCL cap lamp battery with embedded PAD (Personal Alarm Device) and LED flasher with audible buzzer fitted to the head piece.
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The Strata HazardAvert Proximity system which includes 4 x field generators, display pod and an FLP control enclosure.
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Audible and visual alarms in the Shuttle Car drivers cabin.
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8. ICCL (Integrated Communications Cap Lamp) 8
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The ICCL with HazardAvert PAD is the Integrated Communications Caplamp incorporating a HazardAvert PAD sleeve. This sleeve slides over and connects to the existing Myuna Mine ICCL caplamp battery.
•
The HazardAvert PAD contains a receiver which measures the magnetic field produced by the HazardAvert Proximity Detection System on the Shuttle Car and transmits a high frequency signal back to the generator.

9. System Components
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Generator x 4
Control enclosure
J Box
ICCL Cap Lamp and PAD with LED flasher and alarm tone head piece
Flasher and audible alarm unit
Display Pod

10. ICCL Caplamp – with flashing LED and audible warning
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Flashing Red LED which reflects through the helmet rim magnified “eye”
Audible warning alarm in head piece

11. HazardAvert Generators/Control Unit installed on the Shuttle Car
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13. Shuttle Car Boom Generator
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Proximity Generator
Junction box enclosure

14. Shuttle Car Hopper End Generator
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Generator protected behind non- metalic guard [Garlite]
Junction Box enclosure

15. Shuttle Car Proximity controller and alarm module
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MST Proximity system controller
Audible and visual alarm module in front of the drivers cabin

16. System Operation – (The Peanut Project)
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Danger Zone: Strobe will show RED flashing LED’s and the siren will sound
Warning Zone:
Strobe will show Yellow Flashing LED’s
Silent Zone: in the drivers cabin

17. Trial Stages of system Implementation
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Surface – equipment installation and commissioning – 6 weeks
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Communications to the workforce on the Trial – 2 days
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Training of the district crews on the system and what they would be experiencing during the trial – 2 days
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Commissioning the machine in the operating district – 1 week
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Downloading and verifying data – several weeks/months
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Commissioning the flashing cap lamp with audible buzzer – 1 week
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Commissioning the flashing beacon and audible warning – 2 days 17

18. Production District – Operator Response Plan
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Trigger Action Response Plan
TARP
Title:
Shuttle Car operating with Proximity Detection System fitted
No:
TARP_
Position
Normal
Level 1 Trigger
Level 2 Trigger
Shuttle Car Operator
1. Shuttle Car Visual / Audible alarm not in alarm condition
•Operate shuttle car as per normal operations
1. Shuttle Car Yellow Alarm LED’s flashing
•Slow vehicle down until operator in warning zone can be seen and proceed with caution
2. Shuttle Car Red Alarm LED’s flashing and siren sounding
•Bring vehicle to complete stop until operator is clear of the Hazard Zone AND
•If operator is unable to reposition out of Hazard Zone communications to be established between operators and proceed with caution
Miner Drivers
and Pedestrians
1. Cap Lamp Alarm unit not in alarm condition
•Continue operations as normal OR 2. Shuttle car Visual / Audible alarm not in alarm
•Continue operations as normal
1. Cap Lamp Alarm Unit Slow Beep/Flash OR 2. Shuttle Car Yellow Alarm LED’s flashing
•Communicate to Shuttle car operator that you are in the Warning Zone.
•Be aware of the Shuttle car movements and consider repositioning out of the Warning Zone
1. Cap Lamp Alarm Unit continuous Beep/Flash OR 2. Shuttle Car Red Alarm LED’s flashing and siren sounding
•Communicate to Shuttle Car Operator to “STOP THE VEHICLE” and reposition yourself clear of the Hazard Zone AND
•If unable to reposition out of the Hazard Zone communications to be established between operators and proceed with caution

19. Trial Data – recorded from a machine download
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Date
Time
Lamp ID
Event
Name
Function
5/06/2014
7:45:23
656
Zone_Warn2
B Jones
Miner Driver
5/06/2014
7:50:27
656
Zone_Warn2
B Jones
Miner Driver
5/06/2014
7:57:49
656
Zone_Warn2
B Jones
Miner Driver
Shift Details
5/06/2014
7:58:09
656
Zone_HAZARD
B Jones
Miner Driver
Places Cut
Miner Driver
5/06/2014
7:58:19
656
Zone_Warn2
B Jones
Miner Driver
6 Up
B Jones
5/06/2014
8:03:34
656
Zone_Warn2
B Jones
Miner Driver
5 Up
B Jones
5/06/2014
8:12:32
656
Zone_Warn2
B Jones
Miner Driver
4 Up
B Jones
5/06/2014
8:13:49
656
Zone_Warn2
B Jones
Miner Driver
7 Right
K Sumner
5/06/2014
8:43:21
656
Zone_Warn2
B Jones
Miner Driver
5/06/2014
8:50:19
656
Zone_Warn2
B Jones
Miner Driver
Total cars
SC942 Cars
5/06/2014
8:55:51
656
Zone_Warn2
B Jones
Miner Driver
85
43
5/06/2014
9:04:19
656
Zone_Warn2
B Jones
Miner Driver
5/06/2014
9:10:50
656
Zone_Warn2
B Jones
Miner Driver
Total Hazard Intrusions
5/06/2014
9:15:44
656
Zone_Warn2
B Jones
Miner Driver
25
5/06/2014
9:21:40
656
Zone_Warn2
B Jones
Miner Driver
5/06/2014
9:27:00
656
Zone_Warn2
B Jones
Miner Driver
5/06/2014
9:34:32
656
Zone_Warn2
B Jones
Miner Driver
5/06/2014
9:44:20
656
Zone_Warn2
B Jones
Miner Driver
5/06/2014
9:50:29
656
Zone_Warn2
B Jones
Miner Driver
5/06/2014
9:56:22
656
Zone_Warn2
B Jones
Miner Driver
5/06/2014
10:20:47
656
Zone_Warn2
B Jones
Miner Driver
5/06/2014
10:22:27
656
Zone_Warn2
B Jones
Miner Driver
5/06/2014
10:28:26
656
Zone_Warn2
B Jones
Miner Driver
5/06/2014
10:32:36
656
Zone_Warn2
B Jones
Miner Driver
5/06/2014
11:19:01
656
Zone_Warn2
B Jones
Miner Driver
5/06/2014
11:20:52
656
Zone_HAZARD
B Jones
Miner Driver
5/06/2014
11:20:54
656
Zone_Warn2
B Jones
Miner Driver
5/06/2014
11:21:01
656
Zone_HAZARD
B Jones
Miner Driver
5/06/2014
11:21:04
656
Zone_Warn2
B Jones
Miner Driver
5/06/2014
11:24:33
656
Zone_Warn2
B Jones
Miner Driver
5/06/2014
11:31:11
656
Zone_Warn2
B Jones
Miner Driver
5/06/2014
11:37:16
656
Zone_Warn2
B Jones
Miner Driver
5/06/2014
11:41:52
656
Zone_Warn2
B Jones
Miner Driver
5/06/2014
11:48:53
656
Zone_Warn2
B Jones
Miner Driver
5/06/2014
12:03:40
656
Zone_Warn2
B Jones
Miner Driver
5/06/2014
12:03:57
656
Zone_Warn2
B Jones
Miner Driver
Operator entered Warning Zone - Yellow
Operator entered Danger Zone - Red

20. Trial Data – 1 shift of data download - sample
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21. System Operation
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The Shuttle Car cabin is set up as a “Silent Zone” to allow the operator to be within the confines of the cabin and not trigger the alarms.
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For the system to be in a healthy state it must always detect an ICCL cap lamp within the confines of the silent zone whenever the Park Brake is lifted
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The proximity system is only active while ever the Park Brake is lifted on the machine allowing machine movement. A system condition which was identified during the surface trials at Myuna.
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22. Video of surface Trial
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23. System trial learnings
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Equipment Certification – Strata HazardAvert equipment identified as non compliant during introduction to site process (cables / glands)
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System adjustments of the fields required “power on” and open access to the controller enclosure. Not suitable when in service U/G.
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Data collection for accurate reporting – initially this was a concern as the “time stamping” of data was not reliable and hard to decipher – this has been improved significantly during the trial time.
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Improved data report formats is being investigated further by MST / Strata.
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24. System Trial learnings
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The field zone edges are very repeatable and accurate to within centimeters
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The trial only utilised the systems capabilities within a limited scope, as there are other enhancements available, which we haven’t trailed at this stage. (i.e test function on Pads; Remote Stop ability on the Pads etc..)
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The equipment mounted to the Shuttle Car has proved to be physically robust following several months of trials.
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From the data collection we have realised that in “place change mining” it is very difficult for the miner driver to be clear of the Shuttle Car “Danger Zone” during certain cut sequences.
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25. System Trial learnings
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Also, if a second person or persons walk into the “Danger Zone” after the first identified person has set the alarms off, there is a risk the others would not be seen.
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We have noticed that the miner driver, while maintaining his correct standing position area away from the CM “No Go Zones”, will still overlap the S/C “Danger Zone” field on occasions
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We have also noticed that the operators have become “accepting of the alarms” over time – we believe that machine interaction may be “the next step”?
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26. System Trial learnings
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The operators involved with the trial at Myuna were very patient with the testing processes, and also very receptive to the potential safety improvements this system or others can offer their type of role.
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We installed the equipment onto the Shuttle Car in early January 2014, and it has taken until July/August for the system to be fully operational within our identified limits.
THANK YOU
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