The Level 9 Paradigm

Collision avoidance requires a holistic approach.

By Jesse Morton, Technical Writer

State of the art collision avoidance systems (CASs) are often presented as turnkey solutions or as a stepping stone on the path to autonomous haulage. The picture conveyed in pressers and industry literature is the hardware is ruggedized, miniaturized and installs quickly; connects readily to a network; delivers instant actionable information to operators; and transacts in near-real time with sophisticated dedicated software or the governing fleet management system.
Commonly used words to describe these systems include “advanced,” “intelligent” and “intuitive.” The benefits offered also invoke painted rhetoric.
But historically, those benefits are not always attained, because the CAS is only one part of an incident-reduction campaign, according to an expert with Australia’s Haultrax, which consults miners on troubleshooting the CAS integration and optimization decision tree.

Historically, in the industry, the main misconception on collision avoidance is “installation equals adoption,” said Michael Inglis, specialist, technology and productivity. That belief fuels others, such as “CAS will prevent collisions by itself,” and “training is a one-off” and is the final stage of “an health, safety and environment (HSE) project.”
What history has proven is that “sites that struggle with CAS implementation often approach it as a technology purchase rather than an operational system,” Inglis said. The site may be poorly prepared for the system, with “weak comms coverage, unclear traffic rules, inconsistent tagging and uncontrolled interactions.”

They deploy CAS “without first addressing lower Earth Moving Equipment Safety Roundtable (EMESRT) layers,” like “traffic management and separation controls,” he said. All the real stakeholders are not fully involved and engaged in the rollout. The CAS is deployed with and after only “limited engagement with operators and frontline supervisors,” he said. “Unclear ownership between operations, HSE, maintenance and projects” creates the proverbial tragedy of the commons. Training gaps emerge when there “is no structured onboarding for new starters and contractors, and inconsistent messaging across crews.”
The gaps and inconsistent messaging foster and fuel a “lack of clarity around how alerts should be interpreted and acted upon,” Inglis said.

That lack can be accompanied by the lack of an adequate data review process. “No one reviews interaction data and turns it into practical actions,” he said. Meanwhile, leadership harbors the expectation that “the technology should solve existing operational or traffic management issues.”
One net result is “operator frustration and loss of confidence in the system, which slows adoption and limits safety benefits,” he said. As a result of that, the industry is shifting to a more holistic view on collision avoidance. “Most customers engaging Haultrax today have already recognized that technology alone does not deliver safety outcomes,” Inglis said. “They understand that implementing a CAS requires aligning technology, operational processes and people.”

The understanding is built on a few basic truths. The first is “installation is the easy part. Behavior and procedure change and coaching is the work,” he said. Actual collision avoidance results from a trifecta of causes. “Outcomes depend on alarm quality, response discipline and supervision,” he said. “Sites are realizing success is driven by procedures, coaching, supervision and response discipline, and not the hardware alone.”
Initial training must be followed by reinforcement. “Real adoption needs onboarding, refreshers, supervisor coaching and new-starter pathways,” Inglis said.
And while HSE may be the instigator, operations is the operator. “It has to be an operations-led change with HSE support, not the other way around,” he said.
As the paradigm shifts, so shifts the expectations. Increasingly, the miner wants to be able to measure any success or lack thereof. “More sites want evidence: near-miss reduction, compliance and interaction rates, alarm quality, operator response metrics, and targeted improvement actions,” Inglis said. Sites also “expect fewer nuisance alarms, better configurability and faster time-to-value.”

Sites that successfully and smoothly adopt and deploy a CAS have a few things in common and take similar steps.
“What they have in common is they focus on operational integration, not just the install,” he said. They “are looking for independent expertise to ensure their CAS implementation delivers real operational value, not just a compliant installation.”
Each site differs in maturity level. “Some sites are at the early assessment stage, evaluating readiness and understanding the EMESRT layers before investing,” Inglis said. “Others already have CAS hardware installed but are struggling with false alerts, operator acceptance, or operational integration, and need support to optimize the system and embed it into daily operations.

The first step towards operational integration assesses readiness. “Miners should understand where their site sits across the EMESRT Vehicle Interaction control layers, and whether their operational environment supports effective CAS performance,” he said. “This includes traffic management, operating procedures, operator training and site design.” Haultrax assesses readiness by looking at the current controls and the operating environment, the objectives and expectations. It considers the “fleet mix, mine design and the contractor involvement,” Inglis said. It seeks to understand the goals, meaning the compliance, safety and operational efficiency objectives.
And it weighs the expectations, which can be driven by “whether the site is preparing for CAS implementation or trying to stabilize an existing deployment.”

Typically, Haultrax recommends “an independent operational readiness assessment,” he said. “This provides a clear view of what is working, what gaps exist, and a practical roadmap to implement CAS in a way that is operationally sustainable and accepted by crews.”
Successful sites treat adoption as an operational change program, Inglis said. “They usually have clear leadership support from both safety and operations teams, a defined vehicle interaction management strategy aligned with EMESRT guidance, early involvement of stakeholders and realistic expectations around tuning, testing and operational integration.
Ensuring stakeholder buy-in involves several moving parts. “Start with education on the ‘why,’” he said. “Set clear behavioral expectations.” Training enables right thinking, not robotic thinking. “Use scenario-based training,” Inglis said. “Follow with on- machine coaching.” Reinforce lessons learned and “build them into standard processes,” he said. “Run a stabilization phase.” It is only after operational integration that a CAS will fully deliver on safety and efficiency goals.
The top suppliers of CAS have upgraded their systems and the support they offer to expedite operational integration. These upgrades synch with updates that precede, enable or improve Level 9 capability.

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