Inco Limited

Eric Herbert Hinton

Peter Saturley

Donald Ray Murray

Mario Paventi

Rodney David Hale

George K I Mann

Leif Alan Bloomquist

A rock fragmentation analysis system is provided for analyzing blasted rock (or other fragmented particles) to assess quality of a blast for efficient processing of subsequent operations in a mine, a quarry, etc. The system includes a hardware system and an image processing system. The hardware system includes a camera and a lighting system. The lighting system illuminates an area of the mine, quarry, etc. where a load haul dump (LHD) vehicle passes through. Once the LHD vehicle passes through the illuminated area, the camera provides video signals of scoop-top view images of the LHD vehicle to the image processing system via known communication means, such as hard-wired and wireless. The image processing system receives the video signals, captures the scoop-top view images, evaluates the images for subsequent fragmentation analysis, and performs the rock fragmentation analysis. The image processing system performs these functions using several software modules. Two such software modules are the Fragmentation Scanning (FragScan&#x2122;) and the Fragmentation Analysis (FragAnalysis&#x2122;) software modules. The FragScan software module scans the video signals until it captures a valid image for analysis by the FragAnalysis software module. Once the FragScan triggers on the image, a raw image and other details corresponding to the captured image are buffered for subsequent rock fragmentation analysis by the FragAnalysis software module. The rock fragmentation analysis is designed to estimate the major diameter of each rock visible in the image. The overall size distribution of the rocks in the image is output by the FragAnalysis software module, and the corresponding input image and the binary blob image, i.e., the processed image, are stored by the image processing system.

Rock fragmentation analysis system

A self-contained mapping and positioning system for underground mining is provided that is capable of mapping the topography of a region, such as a mine tunnel, and further being able to use the mapped data to determine the position of an object, such as a mining vehicle, within the mine tunnel. The system includes an inertial navigation system, a central processing unit, a three-dimensional database, a three-dimensional camera system, an operator console and a survey system having a three-dimensional laser scanner. The survey system using the three-dimensional laser scanner produces point cloud data, i.e., a set of data points representing the topography of the region. The point cloud data is stored within a storage device until the entire region is mapped and then transmitted to the operator console to be post processed. After post processing, the data is exported to the three-dimensional database and the indexed for ease of use by the central processing unit. To determine the position of the object within the region, the system of the instant invention initializes the object in its current position. The object is then either remotely or directly guided to another position from the current position where it is brought to an estimated position by the inertial navigation system or is remotely controlled for performing work, e.g., drilling a mine heading. After a predetermined time of moving the object, there is an error in the position of the object and the operator console makes a call to the central processing unit on board the object to automatically calculate the true position based on the point cloud data stored within the database to update the position of the object. This is done by approximating a search range for the database according to the estimated position. A subset of data corresponding to the search range is removed from the database. The three-dimensional camera system then scans images of the surface in proximity to the object and converts the images to a patch of point cloud data. The patch of point cloud data is then matched against the subset of data corresponding to the search range of point cloud data removed from the three-dimensional database until there is less than a predetermined minimum error distance. At that point, the true position of the object is known. This new position is then put back into the inertial navigation system and the positional data of the object is updated with the correct positional data.

Self-contained mapping and positioning system utilizing point cloud data

A system guides self-propelled equipment through passageways, such as underground mine corridors. The vehicle contains a signal generator for bouncing signals off the walls of the passageways. A receiver collects the signals bounced off of the passageways to determine the distance to side walls of the passageways. A storage device contains a set of interlinking nodes that represent at least one path through the passageways. Each of the nodes contains steering information. A processor finds the distance to the side walls of the passageways in order to steer the vehicle through the passageways. The system's operational state and method of steering changes depending upon the location of the equipment in the interlinking nodes.

Growing community of inventors

Lively, Canada

Eric Herbert Hinton