Decoda’s technology solution BundAware is attracting plenty of interest from the Australian mining industry.
When Australian Mining last sat down with Decoda in March, its technology solution BundAware was being piloted at mine sites across Australia.
Now, just four months on, the company is ready to launch BundAware into the market. Decoda executive general manager George Spink discusses the latest updates.
Can you give us a refresher on BundAware?
Bund walls are a safety measure to ensure dump trucks stop at the correct place at the tip head before dumping where a fall hazard exists. But, like with any man-made object, there is a risk that these walls aren’t up to code; that is, they aren’t high enough to create a safe distance to prevent a truck from going over the tip head edge.
There’s also the human-error aspect, where operators might use the bund wall to stop, resulting in the wall giving way.
We have seen an increased number of incidents on mine sites where trucks have either been close to breaching, or have breached, the bund wall.
We developed BundAware to prevent such incidents from occurring.
How does BundAware work?
It’s important to note that with BundAware, we’ve developed a system that enhances safety without interfering with or over-riding the truck systems.
We provide critical alerts to the driver using sound and vision, similar to a car’s reverse camera. When an object is detected behind a car, the driver receives visual and auditory warnings, prompting them to stop without automatically stopping the vehicle. BundAware operates on a similar principle.
Connected to a sensor unit at the back of the truck, we’ve designed BundAware to deliver verbal and visual warnings to the operator. Depending on customer preferences, we can alert the driver if the bund wall height is insufficient or if operators are approaching the bund too closely or at a bad angle. This enables the operator to take appropriate action, such as stopping short of the bund, choosing a safer dumping location or adjusting their approach angle.
Leveraging advanced light detection and ranging (LiDAR) technology, we measure the bund wall’s height and monitor various operator indicators, such as contact speed, approach angle and distance from the toe of the bund.
This comprehensive monitoring ensures operators are aware of potential hazards, enabling them to take corrective actions promptly and maintain operational safety.
How does BundAware prioritise safety compliance?
We’ve found that ensuring bund compliance is more likely to be done wrong when done manually, which is because people can’t be in more than one place at a time.
The beauty of BundAware is it relies on an algorithm that has been set to the right standards. It monitors every reversing truck, and every time a truck backs up to a bund wall.
That information is then fed back to a central cloud location, which can be used by supervisors for training purposes, whether they are educating operators on what to do next time or showing trainees how best to approach a bund wall, prioritising safety for future generations of operators.
What other benefits does BundAware bring?
I like to say that BundAware is bit like insurance. No one likes to pay insurance instalments, but the day you make the claim, you’re glad you’ve got it.
Fundamentally, BundAware raises the safety performance of a mine site. It also ensures the productivity and efficiency of an operation remain high.
If a truck goes over, or comes close to going over, a tip head bund wall, a mine could be shut down for a period of time, which is costly.
A mine that installs BundAware is proactive about preventing injury and downtime, leading to better performing operation overall.
How has Decoda advanced BundAware since March?
We’re at a point now where we know the technology works and we’ve had trials with some mining customers. We’ve refined the BundAware algorithm to ensure we don’t get false positives, and we’re close to commercialisation.
We’re now working with customers to determine what they want the change in operator behaviour to be. For example, do they want operators to drop short of the bund or drive to a different area before dumping? This will be different for every customer depending on the intricacies of their operation.
We are looking to be ready to launch BundAware to the market this year.
What have your test customers said about BundAware?
A common trend we are seeing is customers have been surprised at how often their bund walls aren’t compliant. They also gain insight into operator behaviour on-site around the clock.
They see value in the system because they cannot only realise the immediate safety and productivity advantages of BundAware, but they can also access the camera footage as proof of what they need to train or retrain their operators on.
Customers have been appreciative of the camera feedback because it helps them know exactly how to run future operator training sessions.
What’s next for Decoda and BundAware?
Without giving too much away, our long-term plan is to get BundAware formally into the market and then look at how it could be used on other pieces of mining equipment.
We’ve had customers wanting both our BundAware and RockAware (a similar system that detects large dangerous rocks before a haul truck runs over them) products installed at once, so we are looking for opportunities to roll out both products onto fleets.
The most natural progression for us would be to look at deploying BundAware overseas. You can find us all over Australia but we’re not limited to that; we can help mines become safer all over the world.
This feature appeared in the July 2024 issue of Australian Mining.
