Open HSME menu
Subscribe Login

Home / Articles and Press Releases / Press Release / Unearthing the Potential of Autonomous Mining With ISO 17757

CATEGORIES

  • Latest Issue
  • Above The Neck Protection
  • Chemical Protection
  • Confined Space
  • Construction
  • Emergency Procedures
  • Energy, Oil, and Mining Industries
  • Eye Protection
  • Fall Protection
  • Gas Detection
  • Hand Protection
  • Hazardous and Explosive Atmospheres
  • Health and Safety Awareness
  • Hearing Protection
  • Heat
  • Lighting and ATEX
  • Noise Monitoring
  • Personal Protective Equipment
  • Respiratory Protection
  • Safety Footwear
  • Safety Technology
  • Safety Training
  • Slips, Trips, and Falls
  • Wellbeing at work
  • Working at Height
  • Working rights

MORE

  • Press Release
  • Events
  • Videos
  • Webinars
  • Magazines

COMPANY

  • About
  • Advertising
  • Newsletter
  • Contact
Open HSME menu
Subscribe

Home / Articles and Press Releases / Press Release / Unearthing the Potential of Autonomous Mining With ISO 17757

CATEGORIES

  • Latest Issue
  • Above The Neck Protection
  • Chemical Protection
  • Confined Space
  • Construction
  • Emergency Procedures
  • Energy, Oil, and Mining Industries
  • Eye Protection
  • Fall Protection
  • Gas Detection
  • Hand Protection
  • Hazardous and Explosive Atmospheres
  • Health and Safety Awareness
  • Hearing Protection
  • Heat
  • Lighting and ATEX
  • Noise Monitoring
  • Personal Protective Equipment
  • Respiratory Protection
  • Safety Footwear
  • Safety Technology
  • Safety Training
  • Slips, Trips, and Falls
  • Wellbeing at work
  • Working at Height
  • Working rights

MORE

  • Press Release
  • Events
  • Videos
  • Webinars
  • Magazines

COMPANY

  • About
  • Advertising
  • Newsletter
  • Contact

CATEGORIES

  • Safety Signage
  • Heat and Flame
  • Article
  • Press Release
  • Air Pollution
  • Above The Neck Protection
  • Chemical Protection
  • Confined Space
  • Construction
  • Emergency Procedures
  • Energy, Oil, and Mining Industries
  • Eye Protection
  • Fall Protection
  • Gas Detection
  • Hand Protection
  • Hazardous and Explosive Atmospheres
  • Health and Safety Awareness
  • Hearing Protection
  • Heat
  • Lighting and ATEX
  • Noise Monitoring
  • Offshore Platform Safety
  • Personal Protective Equipment
  • Regulations & Legislations
  • Respiratory Protection
  • Safety Footwear
  • Safety Technology
  • Safety Training
  • Slips, Trips, and Falls
  • Wellbeing at work
  • Working at Height
  • Working rights

Press Release

Unearthing the Potential of Autonomous Mining With ISO 17757

By International Organisation of Standardisation

| Read Bio

Published: November 15th, 2017

Share this article

Every year, well over a million people are killed in road traffic accidents. In almost all cases, these deaths occur due to crashes where human error was a significant factor. And while technology has improved the safety of vehicles themselves, the sheer number of people on the roads today means that conventional approaches are being re-examined. How can autonomous vehicle technology help remove human mistakes from the equation?

The benefits of autonomous vehicle technology potentially reach far beyond public roads, to mine sites for example. These are places that few have ever seen, but all of us rely on. To find out more, I spoke to Dan Roley, the past Chair for the ISO technical committee on earth-moving machinery (ISO/TC 127). Benefitting from his many years of experience in both mining machinery and standardization work, I asked him about the specific challenges mine operators face when it comes to safety. “Mines tend to be in remote areas with difficult environments, so operating machines is challenging,” he explained. “With the general mining goal of zero injuries, safety is a number one concern for mine operators.” Long distances from hospitals and working in shafts that are deep underground can exacerbate the severity of accidents, so, as always, the best approach to safety is avoidance, and that’s where the recently published ISO 17757, Earth-moving machinery and mining — Autonomous and semi-autonomous machine system safety, comes in.

The purpose of ISO 17757 is to provide safety requirements for autonomous machines and semi-autonomous machines used in earth-moving and mining operations, and their autonomous or semi-autonomous machine systems (ASAMS). It specifies safety criteria both for the machines and their associated systems and infrastructure, including hardware and software, and provides guidance on safe use in their defined functional environments during the machine and system life cycle. It also defines terms and definitions related to ASAMS.

It is applicable to autonomous and semi-autonomous versions of the earth-moving machinery (EMM) defined in ISO 6165 and of mobile mining machines used in either surface or underground applications. Its principles and many of its provisions can be applied to other types of autonomous or semi‑autonomous machines used on the worksites.

Safety requirements for general mobile EMM and mining machines, as well as operators, trainers or passengers on the machine, are given by other International Standards (e.g. ISO 20474 and the future ISO 19296). ISO 17757 addresses additional hazards specific and relevant to ASAMS when used as intended.

While most of us will never visit a mine, we can only try to imagine the scale. Think of the biggest building project you’ve ever seen – airport, highway or skyscraper – and multiply it up, by a lot. The sheer size of everything is astounding and that means that the consequences of accidents could be supersized. A loaded dumper truck weighs as much as three hundred cars. It’s also two storeys high and costs over one million dollars. To get maximum value out of these amazing machines, they usually operate round the clock. That means a team of drivers who take shifts, but even so it’s demanding, tiring work in changeable conditions – the possibilities for human error are high.

Even when error doesn’t end in accident, operator ability can have a major impact on machine longevity and productivity. With wear parts such as tyres and brakes costing many times more than their regular roadgoing counterparts, and potentially lower use of fuel and oil, there is an economic argument for autonomy to be made alongside the case for safety. In helping to protect the machine from different styles and abilities of operator, in using detailed feedback from sensors in place of gut feeling, maintenance can be scheduled more predictably with less frequent replacement of parts. When these time and parts savings are combined with those of running round the clock with minimal intervention, the advantages of the autonomous mine are clear.

In many cases, the technology is used to adapt existing vehicles, although some models are planned and built as autonomous versions. In fact, mines in both Australia and Chile have been using degrees of automation for more than a decade. And although it is the big-ticket items performing repetitive work, such as dumper trucks, that are first in line for automation, it’s likely that the technology will filter down to cover other machines, as Dan Roley points out. “What we’ll probably see in the future is the technology being more widely used for equipment such as dozers and loaders. It has the potential for us to change the way we think, as earth-moving and mining machines become safer and more efficient.”

ISO 17757 plays a major part in advancing that goal. By setting a common foundation for all manufacturers to follow, the risk of going-it-alone is ditched in favour of a shared solution. The market for heavy equipment benefits from highly specialized manufacturers. But mines are serviced by machinery from drill to smaller construction-sized machines that are manufactured by a dozen different companies. “To realize the advantages of an integrated, autonomous system, all of these products, designed and produced in different countries, have to be able to work together safely,” explains Roley.

In an environment where margins can be thin and safety is paramount, the mining industry has been quick to catch on to the benefits of automation. So while it may yet be years before public confidence and technology have sufficiently progressed to make autonomous vehicles a regular sight on our roads, the mining industry is already unearthing new benefits, thanks to nuggets like ISO 17757.

Share this article

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

International Organisation of Standardisation

SO is an independent, non-governmental international organization with a membership of 163 national standards bodies.

Through its members, it brings together experts to share knowledge and develop voluntary, consensus-based, market relevant International Standards that support innovation and provide solutions to global challenges.

Connect with International Organisation of Standardisation

Visit Website

POPULAR POSTS BY International Organisation of Standardisation

Press Release

Vote starts on final draft of ISO 45001

Press Release

Unearthing the Potential of Autonomous Mining With ISO 17757

Press Release

New International Standard to Reduce Mining Accidents

Get email updates

Sign up for the HSME newsletter

Keep up-to-date through the power of email with the region's only industrial health and safety magazine - delivering the latest news and products to satisfy all your occupational safety needs.
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

FEATURED ARTICLES

Advertisement

SOCIAL MEDIA

HSME on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/HSMEMagazine/

Advertisement

SOCIAL MEDIA

HSME on Twitter

hsmemagazine HSME Magazine @hsmemagazine ·
1 Feb

isafe MOBILE announces the immediate availability of the world’s first 5G smartphone for ATEX and IECEx zone 1/21.

The IS540.1 is available immediately, find out more today: https://www.hsmemagazine.com/press-release/is540-1-available-now/

#hsmemagazine #isafeMOBILE #ATEX #IECEx

Reply on Twitter 1620747838971088898 Retweet on Twitter 1620747838971088898 Like on Twitter 1620747838971088898 2 Twitter 1620747838971088898

Advertisement

SUBSCRIBE

Stay up to date with our newsletter

Keep up-to-date through the power of email with the region’s only industrial health and safety magazine – delivering the latest news and products to satisfy all your occupational safety needs.

 

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Subscribe

SUBSCRIBE TO HSME MAGAZINE

5 reasons to subscribe to our digital and print package

  • Stay up to date from anywhere in the world, with instant access to the latest issue straight from your phone, tablet or laptop.
  • Trust that you’re getting the best content from our range of internationally accredited authors.
  • Get full access to our archives and see how occupational safety has evolved with us over the years.
  • Enjoy our monthly newsletter curated with up-to-the-minute news and a selection of editor’s top picks.
  • Hot off the press and straight to your door – look forward to your own glossy copy of HSME, delivered five times a year
Subscribe View Subscription levels

STAY SAFE & INFORMED

Subscribe to the best health & safety articles, news, products and regulations

Find out more

Stay up to date with our newsletter

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

ABOUT

  • About HSME
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us

YOUR ACCOUNT

Sign In Register Account Subscribe to HSME

RESOURCES

Request Media Pack

CONNECT

ACCREDITATIONS

Copyright Bay Publishing 2023. All Rights reserved.

Designed & Built by:
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
Cookie settingsACCEPT
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
CookieDurationDescription
cookielawinfo-checbox-analytics11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checbox-functional11 monthsThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checbox-others11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy11 monthsThe cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
SAVE & ACCEPT