Caterpillar, Thiess, and WesTrac achieve autonomous drilling milestone

Global mining services provider, Thiess, surpassed 1 million m autonomously drilled using Cat® MineStar™ technologies installed on a Cat MD6250 and two Cat MD6310 drills.

Currently with Thiess at its mining operations at Mt. Arthur South mine in NSW, the three fully autonomous drills are managed by a single operator sitting in a remote operating station (ROS) using Cat MineStar Command for drilling. However, the journey towards autonomous drilling at the mine did not happen overnight.

A multistep evolution toward automation saw the three companies implementing a building block approach beginning with the MD6250 drill. This required close collaboration between Thiess, WesTrac, and Caterpillar, not only to implement technology but also to develop processes specific to autonomous operations, work through change management and develop new training programmes for site personnel. These processes helped Thiess move from staffed to autonomous owning and operating procedures for the drills, including safe work procedures.

“Thiess’s commitment to this project and openness for deep collaboration has been a driving force behind its success,” commented Sean McGinnis, Vice President and General Manager of Technology and Global Sales Support for Cat MineStar Solutions. “We worked closely with Thiess and WesTrac to ensure our autonomous solution would meet their key performance indicator goals along the way.”

Thiess’s Head of Autonomy and Operations Technology, Trent Smith, added: “At Thiess, we are proud to be a leader in automation and autonomy for mining services. WesTrac did an outstanding job managing the project and providing onsite support to assist us with technology implementation, training and navigating the hurdles – including those posed by the global pandemic – encountered along the way.”

As the three companies worked together to evolve operations toward autonomous drilling, the results reported by Thiess were as follows:

• 20% improvement in drilling performance.
• More than 23 hours per day drill utilisation.
• Zero redrilled holes using autonomous operation.
• Improvement in safety and reduction in fatigue by removing the operator away from the drill, noise, vibration, and dust.

Thiess’s path toward this major drilling milestone at Mt. Arthur South began in the fall of 2021 with the MD6250, a vision, and entry level assist technology. “The phased approach progressed through three stages of drill automation,” explained Nakia Brewer, Technology and Solutions Manager for WesTrac, “operator machine assist (OMA), semi-autonomous drilling, and full autonomous drilling with collision avoidance.”

Caterpillar offers diverse levels of autonomy as a building block approach to autonomous drilling. Cat drills, with on-board and expanded Cat MineStar technologies, provide a range of capabilities that enable drilling systems to be configured to meet budgetary and site needs.

The journey into autonomous drilling begins with onboard Drill Assist automated functionality, which is broken into three major machine functions:

• Auto Level – provides machine levelling and monitors conditions to ensure it can adjust or lock out if there is an issue.
• Auto Mast – the drill independently raises the mast to the ideal angle for the drill pattern.
• Auto Drill – eliminates over- or under-drilling by enabling configurations for site- and ground-specific parameters like hole diameter, depth, and drilling method.

McGinnis explains Auto Drill assumes a greater level of complexity and is available for both rotary and down-the-hole (DTH) drilling modes, and in single- or multi-pass applications. “Under most geological conditions, Auto Drill technology enables drilling without operator intervention and monitors and reacts to complications like clearing a hole that has elevated fall back,” he said. “Due to variations in cutting tools used and ground conditions, our drills use onboard drilling algorithms to adapt to and work through complicated ground conditions without operator input.”

Read the article online at: https://www.globalminingreview.com/technology-digitalisation/28062024/caterpillar-thiess-and-westrac-achieve-autonomous-drilling-milestone/