Blast Fragmentation Measurement based on 3D Imaging

in sublevel caving drawpoints and

underground excavator buckets
at LKAB Kiruna
M.J.Thurley, M.Wimmer, A.Nordqvist

Matthew Thurley
Innovative Machine Vision Pty Ltd, Melbourne, Australia
Luleå University of Technology, Luleå, Sweden

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 Outline
 Vision for the future
 Why 3D data for fragmentation measurement?
 Automated PSD algorithms proven in other applications
 This paper : Expectations vs Outcome
 3D data in context
 Sizing results for Drawpoints and LHD buckets
 This paper : Expectations vs Outcome
 Discussion

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 Vision for the Future
 Automated, online measurements
systems providing...
 Consistent automated measurement
 Repeatable automated analysis
 Big data to make robust decisions
(statistically significant)
 Automatic control of mineral processes
 Integrated control strategies become
possible

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 Why 3D imaging for fragmentation assessment?
Automated high resolution 3D imaging and advanced algorithms
 Overcomes limitations of 2D imaging
 Avoids particle delineation errors due to color variation in the rocks
 Directly measure 3D dimension of the material therefore no scaling objects or
perspecive distortion errors
 Detect overlapped particles preventing error from mis-sizing as smaller particles
 Detect areas-of-fines preventing error from mis-sizing as large boulders
 These are opposing errors
 As a result can provides a stable measurement suitable for closed loop automatic
control

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 Automated PSD algorithms proven in real applications
 Commercial system for online measurement system on conveyor. 3D from laser
triangulation. Latest pub IMPC 2014
 Prototype system for measurement of moving LHD buckets. 3D from industrial laser
scanners. Publised Fragblast 2009
 Offline measurement of muckpiles in an open pit based on a Maptek laser scanners,
6 Blasts, 95 3D images during excavation, Published 2015 Transactions of the
IMMM, Section A Mining Technology

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Proven in real applications
 Online measurement system on conveyor. 3D
from laser triangulation.
 Swedish partner MBV-Systems is the product
owner and integrator
 As of this year; ABB is the global distributer
for the mining industry

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Boliden Tara Mine: between primary crusher and grinding mill (2011 ongoing)

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Finland: Close loop automatic control of agglomeration (2014 ongoing)

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Proven in real applications
Automated sizing in LHD buckets

• 3D data from cheap industrial

3D laser scanners
• Fully automated analysis
• Estimated the sieve size of the
visible fragments
• Published at Fragblast 2009

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 Automated sizing in LHD buckets

Image courtesy of LKAB

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 This Paper : Expectation
 Evaluation of fragmentation measurement in drawpoints and LHD
buckets using;
 3D imaging from ShapeMetriX3D stereo photogrammetry and
 automated PSD analysis algorithms by Thurley
 Expectation
 Sharp and accurate the 3D data and lots of it
 Detect small particles down to 20mm or less
 Detection of areas-of-fines (subject to some errors)
 Detection of overlapped/non-overlapped (subject to some errors)
 Relative size distribution comparison of measurements

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3D DATA EXAMPLES

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Conveyor
belt

Laser
triangulation

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Conveyor
belt

Laser
triangulation

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Muckpile

Maptek
laser
scanner

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 Mining Truck

Stereo 3D from AdamTech

Stereo 3D data has

missing data in areas of
highly uniform color such
as the truck body, and
edges of rocks

Images courtesy of AdamTech

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Drawpoint 03

”Densified”
Stereo 3D
data from
ShapeMetrix
3GSM

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Drawpoint 03

”Densified”
Stereo 3D
data from
ShapeMetrix
3GSM

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Bucket m5
”Densified”Stereo 3D data from ShapeMetrix 3GSM

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CAVE FRONTS

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01 purple

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02 blue

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04 pink

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03 green

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03

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03 non-overlapped

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03 areas-of-fines

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BUCKETS

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01 purple

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02 blue

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04 pink

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03 green

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03 green

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 This Paper : Expectation
 Expectation
 Sharp and accurate the 3D data and lots of it
 Detect small particles down to 20mm or less
 Detection of areas-of-fines (subject to some errors)
 Detection of overlapped/non-overlapped (subject to some errors)
 Relative size distribution comparison of measurements

innovative machine vision pty ltd matthew.thurley@imv.net.au

 This Paper : Outcome
 3D data is highly smoothed and does not show sharp rock edges
 Small particles down to approx 60mm detected
 3GSM applied a custom up-sampling to the raw data to produce the
desired high density 3D data set. But this had the side effect of
smoothing the data, removing small particles, degrading edges and
negatively affecting all of the analysis algorithms
 LHD data most affected as it was also smoothed from motion blur
 Can detect areas-of-fines, and overlapped, non-overlapped rocks but
more errors

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 Comments
 The size curves attempt to capture the reality of the visible rocks on the pile surface,
and are not be representative of the sieving result.
 Size curves trend in the right direction given the observed size of the material
 Size curves are very different between the cave front, the LHD bucket, and the
sieving results, which is expected as the measured material is different in all three
cases
 The stereo 3D data was overly smoothed which had significant negative effects on
fragmentation measurement algorithms
 Stereo 3D data is not ideal for measuring a fast moving scene (such as LHD buckets
in motion) as the data becomes more smoothed and less sharp
 Lessons learned for successful collaboration with remote partners

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 Future
 Build an automated online roof mounted system based on the 2009 prototype
(cheap industrial laser scanners) to measure LHD bucket loads, all day, every day.
 These data sets contain approx 50,000 points from an LMS400 scanner, compared to
the ShapeMetrix3D data sets with 2 million points
LMS400 LMS400

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 Future
 Build an automated online roof mounted system based on the 2009 prototype
(cheap industrial laser scanners) to measure LHD bucket loads, all day, every day.
 These data sets contain approx 50,000 points from an LMS400 scanner, compared to
the ShapeMetrix3D data sets with 2 million points
LMS400 ShapeMetrix3D

innovative machine vision pty ltd matthew.thurley@imv.net.au 38

 Final Comments on Stereo 3D
 Stereo 3D depends heavily on the reconstructions algorithms
 reconstruction time : seconds or minutes,
 accuracy vs speed trade-off
 Good for volume measurement
 Good for measuring high walls and relatively flat surfaces
 Not as good for fragmentation measurement
 3D can be overly smooth
 Has areas of missing data both at rock edges and on rock surfaces
complicating delineation
 Not necessarily suitable for fast moving scenes

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 Thank you

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