RCT worked with SITECH and Roy Hill to develop and deploy the Geofence system for deployment around Roy Hill’s dozer stockpile area to safeguard operators and ensure machines could operate in the same area seamlessly without any risk of collision with the fixed stacker infrastructure on-site.

The virtual perimeter fence was interfaced with two Caterpillar D11 dozers and the radial stacker infrastructure including a maneuverable boom, in partnership with SITECH’s collision detection technology.

The dozers were fitted out with RCT’s ControlMaster Teleremote solution, which takes the operator off the machine and into an operator station fully equipped with vision from the area so the machine can be controlled from a safe environment.

Carrying out dozer functions by teleremote control also allows for multiple views from the dozer, can minimise machine damage and overall general wear and tear and aids productivity.

The five cameras already installed on the dozers were complemented with six pan-tilt-zoom cameras on the COS stacker, tertiary crusher infrastructure, and two mobile communications trailers, which give operators greater spatial awareness during operation.

SITECH’s software was custom-designed to provide the Geofence boundaries and monitor all interactions and also provide alerts within the boundaries so the RCT system could assume semi-autonomous control over the two dozers through the use of High Precision GNSS equipment, which measures and detects the proximity of the moving assets in the potentially hazardous stockpile.

RCT Custom project manager David Wright said the project was both challenging and rewarding, as a number of factors had to be considered throughout the duration of the project.

These included integrating Roy Hill’s technical architecture and communications system and designing and creating a number of engineering solutions to meet the requirements, and liaising with numerous departments at Roy Hill including, engineering, operations, mining, maintenance and IT communications teams.

Initially, vision was fed back to operators from PTZ and dozer cameras and the dozer pitch/roll machine dashboard information.

However, Roy Hill wanted bigger screens to watch the vision so two bigger 40-inch curve screens were installed.

A Roy Hill spokesperson said the vision package had to be installed within the planned process plant shut intervals, which made it challenging but the project exemplified what could be achieved through collaboration.

The spokesperson added that they established the dynamic boundaries for dozers, fixed stacker boom, cone of throw and COS through several risk assessments with key stakeholders’ engagement, and RCT was very collaborative throughout the process.