Caterpillar Inc. helps web site security with know-how to see, mitigate and handle fatigue and distraction on web site. The Cat® MineStar™ Driver Safety System (DSS) comes beneath the worldwide OEM’s MineStar Detect suite of options and makes use of a high-tech digicam to observe eye-closure period and head pose, then immediately alerts operators by way of seat vibration and an audio alarm alert the second fatigue or distraction is recognized.
MineStar DSS is the one of many main fatigue detection programs globally. Sean McGinnis, Vice President and General Manager of Technology and Global Sales Support at Caterpillar instructed IM Editorial Director, Paul Moore: “The market has been growing faster in the past few years as mines focus ever more closely on safety. Since 2021, Caterpillar fatigue management system units running globally have increased 80%. This includes use in both mining fleets and support equipment such as light vehicles, mobile maintenance vehicles and buses that are also being used on mine properties. And this support equipment part of the market is really a big focus now. Support equipment vehicles are equipped with a similar solution from the MineStar Detect portfolio for light vehicle applications called Guardian 2 which was initially designed for fatigue and distraction monitoring in off-highway vehicles.”
Sean McGinnis, Vice President and General Manager of Technology and Global Sales Support at Caterpillar
So the MineStar DSS footprint continues to develop. But the answer will not be standing nonetheless – McGinnis instructed IM: “Today’s offering, what we call DSS 5.0, which is deploying in the market now, has some fairly significant upgrades to the underlying algorithms that relate to head position tracking, eye closure tracking and facial recognition. This is backed up by an improved camera that has enhanced granularity particularly in relation to the eye tracking.”
McGinnis additionally gave some perception into how significantly better and smarter the digicam programs have gotten. “Today we can detect if an eye closure is just due to dryness or itching for example, as opposed to an unplanned or uncontrolled eye closure related to fatigue.”
He provides in the marketplace itself: “A lot of the focus now is not just on support equipment but also the mid-tier miners – including industrial minerals operations and quarries with smaller fleets and smaller classes of machines. Their operators still get tired – it is just that the first wave of fatigue management system deployment – not just from us but from other players – was in the large mines, most of which now have some kind of system installed, whether predictive or reactive or both.”
What in regards to the argument that there’s a lot of resistance in some mining areas to having a camera-based system? “The response is often initially cautious with some pushback, just as it is with technologies like collision avoidance and autonomy but it comes down to proper change management. There is a fear that operators are constantly being watched or that the way they drive is being controlled. But once they get experience with the technology, particularly when there is a fatigue event and need to keep the operator safe, operators soon realise how crucial it is. Also, fatigue has been such a huge issue for mining for so long, for many it is also a relief to get a solution in place.”
He provides: “They soon understand that there isn’t a constant video feed where someone can sit and watch operators drive the entire time. Short video clips get transmitted to the Cat DSS Monitoring Center just for the analysis to confirm if the operator is awake or fatigued, and if they are distracted or not. Once operators realise supervisors can’t log in and watch them drive at any time, and that the system is 100% there for their safety and wellbeing, opposition including from unions quickly fades away. MineStar DSS is not intended to be used to discipline or punish an operator.”
What are McGinnis’ views on predictive versus reactive? “We have no issue with mines using both predictive and reactive technologies. One is not necessarily better than the other, as they are doing different things and give you different kinds of information. For us, predictive data has always been more of an assessment tool rather than a commercial offering. It gives us some insight into the customer’s higher risk points but the issue is that it is very hard to gauge accurately the eventual outcome of the predictive data as there are just so many factors in play. MineStar DSS may be a reactive system, but it doesn’t care when you are tired or why you are tired – it’s always there. Also, the predictive systems mainly involve a wearable – a physical interaction with the operator – with MineStar DSS you just get in the truck and drive. We feel the future for predictive analysis also must look at the machine behaviour – the types of steering wheel adjustments you are making, how hard you are braking, etc – and combine that with the operator’s tiredness data as well as the MineStar DSS for a comprehensive solution.”
Ultimately, McGinnis sees the potential for a complete and built-in resolution that can mix predictive and reactive fatigue evaluation together with machine knowledge and driving behaviour knowledge from the broader MineStar Detect suite in addition to collision avoidance know-how that might finally all feed into and be hosted on the general MineStar Fleet Management System – a tab that could possibly be managed on each the MineStar Fleet and MineStar Edge variations. That would then be used for dispatchers to make choices about breaks and shifts for operators with out having to depend on subjective info. If you depend on the operator appearing on a fatigue rating – if they’re already drained they aren’t essentially going to make nice choices.
So how does a typical MineStar DSS rollout look when it comes to phasing? “Typically we start with where the perceived highest risk is, and that tends to be the big mining trucks and other associated machines. If it’s a new user we might have done a Fatigue Risk Assessment – this is an initial offering for mine sites that are considering MineStar DSS deployment – but if it is a mining group that has MineStar DSS running at other sites they often just opt to get it deployed as soon as possible to get the instant safety benefit. Then the deployment will filter down to other fleet vehicles like water trucks and service trucks, and then the light vehicles and worker buses. However, we have had some cases where due to a fatigue related event on a worker bus previously, they want the system deployed there even before the mining trucks.”
What about machines like graders the place the operator will not be wanting forward on a regular basis – this has usually been given as a limitation of digicam programs. McGinnis: “We have MineStar DSS on quite a few graders and the first thing we usually do is change or even turn off the distraction setting. Obviously, there is still a limitation if they aren’t looking towards the camera – but eventually we may move towards having several cameras in machines of this type to take account of all the main operator positions.”
McGinnis added that the MineStar DSS cameras are additionally getting significantly better at extrapolation. To give an instance, even earlier than the COVID-19 pandemic, Caterpillar was already engaged on the system having the ability to analyse operator fatigue in the event that they had been carrying a scarf or masks – the system is able to taking knowledge from one eye and extrapolating from that – this has been built-in now in MineStar DSS so can also be an enormous plus when it comes to coping with graders and different help machines the place the operator focus is extra different.
MineStar DSS has additionally had success underground. “Today we have four underground mining fleets utilising MineStar DSS in Australia, Africa and North America. The system works in the cab essentially in the same way – the primary difference being of course there is no GPS, so we use other inputs for the speed and location depending on what the network infrastructure is like underground.”
Why has underground mining been so sluggish on the uptake on fatigue administration know-how? McGinnis: “There are fewer underground mines for a start, but with a handful of exceptions, also the fleet sizes are smaller than in larger surface mines.” An fascinating extra utility for MineStar DSS in underground mining is for locomotive drivers working underground ore trains which has seen very constructive outcomes.
Concluding, McGinnis reiterated that within the huge mines, the fatigue monitoring market is now fairly mature, when you think about MineStar DSS together with the opposite gamers. “Major miners either have it, or they have decided they don’t want it for various reasons.”
IM has beforehand indicated that Newmont has successfully standardised on MineStar DSS throughout its operations – are extra main miners opting to make use of it throughout a number of websites or is it nonetheless very a lot a site-by-site resolution? “Two more of the world’s largest miners have also effectively standardised on MineStar DSS across their operations apart from only a few sites where they decided to keep in place another technology they had already been using. What we are seeing as mentioned before is a lot of the big mines filtering DSS down into their ancillary and support machine fleets beyond the haulage fleet.”
Finally, because the MineStar DSS inhabitants has grown, so has the monitoring centre in Peoria, whose security advisors now take care of a whole bunch of mine websites 24/7. The Cat DSS Monitoring Center classifies occasions from all of the mines the place MineStar DSS is working and linked and intervenes when needed to make sure operator and mine web site security. From 5 security advisors in complete firstly of the MineStar DSS journey, in the present day there are 5 on each eight-hour shift.
Growth areas past the normal mining markets in recent years have included international locations like Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, but additionally in Europe the place a variety of industrial minerals and mixture operations are actually trying to deploy fatigue monitoring know-how. And many of those websites are in a position to make use of the lighter MineStar Guardian 2 choice – the MineStar DSS mining unit is greater cost as was designed for giant mining vehicles and to be immune to cold and warm local weather extremes in addition to mud and vibration, plus being ruggedised for instance with heavier connectors. But these smaller mines, working smaller mining vehicles and infrequently Articulated Dump Trucks (ADTs), and infrequently not working 24/7, can use the lighter model which additionally has a lower cost level.
