Planning system for autonomous operation

• US 9,805,316 B2
• Filed: 04/30/2010
• Issued: 10/31/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/01/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Technological Resources Pty. Ltd. (Rio Tinto Limited)
• Original Assignee: University of Sydney
• Inventors: Nettleton, Eric, Hennessy, Ross, Durrant-Whyte, Hugh, Gktogan, Ali Haydar
• Primary Examiner(s): Boswell, Beth V
• Assistant Examiner(s): Anderson, Folashade
• Application Number:
  US13/318,469
• Publication Number:
  US 20120046983A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,741 Days
• Field of Search: 705 712, 701 23, 701 24, 701 25, 701400, 701532, 701537, 701538, 700 95, 700103, 700113, 700114
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/45004 Mining
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations

Abstract

A planning system (201) for scheduling the operation of autonomous entities within a defined geographical region. The planning system operates at a region plan level (301) for strategic planning across the geographical region, at an operation plan level (302) for operations to be performed by autonomous entities in localized zones having operation-defined geographical boundaries, and at a task plan level (303) in which processing is undertaken in respect of specific tasks to be performed by the autonomous entities, in undertaking the operations.

Claims

1. An automation system for scheduling the operation of autonomous entities within a defined geographical region containing a plurality of localized zones having operation-defined geographical boundaries, the automation system comprising:

a plurality of autonomous entities;

a hierarchical control system having a top level controller associated with the defined geographical region and a plurality of lower level controllers, wherein each lower level controller is associated with a localized zone, the top level and lower level controllers are configured in a hierarchy determined by the spatial location of the localized zones in the geographical region, the control system in communication with a computer-implemented mine analysis system, a computer-implemented planning system, and the plurality of autonomous entities to control operation of the autonomous entities,

the mine analysis system configured for

receiving sensor information from a plurality of sensors of at least two different types relating to one or more of spatial spectral and geological properties associated with the geographical region, the localised zones and the plurality of autonomous entities;

generating, based on the received sensor information, a plurality of models of the defined geographical region, at least one model associated with a first sensor type and at least one other model associated with a second sensor type, different to the first sensor type;

fusing at least two of the plurality of models to yield an integrated model of at least part of the geographical region;

the planning system configured for generating one or more plans from the integrated model, wherein the planning system operates at hierarchical levels, the hierarchical levels of operation comprising;

a) region plan level, the region plan level defining a strategic plan including high level operations across the geographical region;

b) an operation plan level, the operation plan level determining entity-related operations required for each of the high level operations performed by the autonomous entities in selected localized zones; and

c) a task plan level, the task plan level defining tasks performed by said autonomous entities when undertaking each of the entity-related operations, wherein operation of the planning system comprises;

generating plan information including a region-wide plan, one or more job plans from the region-wide plan, and one or more task plans from each job plan, communicating the one or more task plans to the top level controller, the communicated task plans being implemented at a lower level controller and the lower level controller implementing the task plans by the plurality of autonomous entities; and

receiving an updated integrated model of at least part of the geographical region from the mine analysis system, wherein;

the mine analysis system is further configured to receive

updated sensor information based on the operation of the autonomous entities, the updated information reflecting changes within at least one localized zone resulting from the implementation of the one or more task plans by the autonomous entities, generate an updated integrated model based on the updated sensor information; and

send the updated integrated model to the planning system;

the planning system is further configured to update, based on received updated integrated model, the generated plan information and send the updated plan information including one or more updated task plans to the control system;

and

the control system is further configured to control the autonomous entities to perform updated tasks defined in the one or more updated task plans.

2. The automation system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the planning system further comprises a user interface operable to receive data from an operator of the mine planning system to define the localized zones.

3. The mine automation system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the planning system automatically creates said at least one localized zone dependent on the data defining activities at the region plan level.

4. The automation system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the planning system automatically creates said at least one localized zone dependent on the data defining activities at the operation plan level.

5. The automation system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the region-wide plan comprises production targets for the region.

6. The automation system as claimed in claim 5, wherein the one or more job plans comprise activities of entities that collectively achieve the production targets.

7. The automation system as claimed in claim 6, wherein the one or more job plans comprise allocation of entities to said localized zones and allocation of production activities to the allocated entities.

8. The automation system as claimed in claim 7, wherein the one or more task plans comprise movements or processes required by the allocated entities to complete a said production activity.

9. The automation system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the planning system manages planning instances implemented in software, the planning instances comprising a planning instance for each said entity-related operation and a planning instance for each said specific task, wherein the planning system creates and deletes active planning instances to achieve the activities at the region plan level.

10. The automation system as claimed in claim 9, wherein the planning system further comprises a communication interface with the autonomous entities for receiving status information comprising the state of completion of at least one of the entity-related operations and the specific tasks, wherein the creation and deletion of planning instances is dependent on the status information.

11. The automation system as claimed in claim 10, wherein managing planning instances comprises

instructions in a planning instance for said region plan level for creating planning instances at the operation plan level and instructions in each planning instance at the operation plan level for creating a planning instance at the task plan level.

12. The automation system as claimed in claim 9 comprising an interface to receive information describing the characteristics of the region and comprising a heuristic to automatically create one or more said entity-related operations in response to receipt of particular information through the interface to receive information describing the characteristics of the region.

13. The automation system as claimed in claim 12 comprising an operator interface allowing entity-related operations to be modified or deleted by an operator of the planning system.

14. The automation system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the planning system is incorporated as a mine planning system in a mine automation system, and the control system is incorporated as a mine control system in the mine automation system, wherein the mine planning system and the mine control system are linked to a mine picture compilation system.

15. The automation system as claimed in claim 14, wherein the planning system is arranged to schedule variation of the geographical disposition of at least one of the boundaries of the localized zones.

16. The automation system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the updated information comprises information selected from the group consisting of in-ground information, out-of-ground information.

20. The automation system as claimed in claim 16, wherein the updated information comprises both in-ground information and out-of-ground information, the in-ground information relates to a resource prior to processing, and the out-of-ground information relates to information of a resource extracted.

17. A computer-implemented automation system for scheduling the operation of a plurality of autonomous entities within a defined geographical region containing a plurality of localized zones having operation-defined geographical boundaries, the automation system comprising:

at least one processor;

a mine analysis system coupled to the at least one processor, wherein the mine analysis system is configured for;

receiving sensor information from a plurality of sensors of at least two different types relating to one or more of spatial, spectral and geological properties associated with the geographical region, the localised zones and the plurality of autonomous entities;

generating, based on the received sensor information, a plurality of models of the defined geographical region, at least one model associated with a first sensor type and at least one other model associated with a second sensor type, different to the first sensor type;

fusing at least two of the plurality of models to yield an integrated model of at least part of the geographical region;

a hierarchical computer-implemented planning system configured for generating one or more plans from the integrated model, wherein the planning system includes a hierarchy of modules, the hierarchy of modules including;

a) a region planning module generating a region-wide plan comprising at least one job to which one or more autonomous entities are assigned, wherein the geographical region comprises the plurality of localized zones having operation-defined geographic boundaries and at least one of the autonomous entities is a mobile entity that, is required to move between localized zones to implement the region-wide plan;

b) a job planning module, associated with each job in the region-wide plan, generating a job plan comprising a series of tasks for the autonomous entities assigned to the associated job;

c) a task planning module, associated with each autonomous entity, generating a task plan comprising a set of actions to be performed by the associated autonomous entity as part of the associated job;

a hierarchical control system having a top level controller associated with the defined geographical region and a plurality of lower level controllers, wherein each lower level controller is associated with a localized zone, the top level and lower level controllers are configured in a hierarchy determined by the spatial location of the localized zones in the geographical region, the control system is in communication with the computer-implemented mine analysis system, the computer-implemented planning system and the autonomous entities to control operation of the autonomous entities, and a communication system for;

communicating the task plans to the top level controller of the hierarchical control system, the task plans implemented by a plurality of lower level controllers controlling implementation within a said localized zone and not controlling implementation within other localized zones; and

receiving updated sensor information on the operation of the autonomous entities, the updated sensor information reflecting changes within at least one localized zone resulting from the implementation of the task plans by the autonomous entities;

receiving an updated integrated model of at least part of the geographical region from the mine analysis system, wherein the mine analysis system is further configured to receive the updated sensor information and generate the updated integrated model and to send the updated integrated model to the planning system via the communication system;

receiving updated generated plan information from the planning system, wherein the planning system is configured to update the generated plan information from the updated integrated model and to send the updated plan information including one or more updated task plans to the control system; and

wherein the control system is further configured to control the plurality of autonomous entities to execute a set of updated actions based on the updated task plan.

18. The automation system as claimed in claim 17 wherein the autonomous entities are subject to supervisory control of individual controllers corresponding to the localized region in which the autonomous entity is located.

19. The automation system as claimed in claim 17 wherein the autonomous entities are heterogeneous.