Computerized truck guidance nearly completed.

• Author: Bickford, Paul
• Position: Manufacturing Report

Computerized truck guidance nearly complete

Two North Bay firms have almost completed development of a computer-guidance system for underground mining trucks.

"We're getting fairly close to having it for sale," said Glenn Brophey, president of Mintronics Systems Corp.

It is hoped that the system, known as Opti-Trak, will be ready to go underground by August.

Opti-Trak will guide underground mining vehicles. It is designed to allow a driverless truck to travel under its own guidance from a stope, where it would be loaded by an operator, to an ore pass. It would dump at the ore pass under computer control and return to the loading site.

The truck would guide itself using lasers installed on the vehicle and reference markers mounted in the drift.

A human has to be involved only at the beginning of each 15-to-20-minute cycle. Once the truck is started, it goes where it is directed and returns completely on its own.

Mintronics Systems and its partner, Donson Engineering Ltd., have been working on the project for three years.

Brophey noted that Inco Limited is working on a similar system. However, Inco's system would be more complex, requiring the design of a new truck.

"We're working with existing vehicles," noted Brophey.

The Opti-Trak technology...