An interactive simulation model of human drivers to study autonomous haulage trucks

Driverless haulage trucks have recently been developed for open pit mines. To predict the benefits of an Autonomous Haulage System (AHS), a deterministic/stochastic model has been created to compare AHS to a manual system by estimating benchmarked Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) such as productivity, safety, breakdown frequencies, maintenance and labor costs, fuel consumption, tire wear, and cycle times. The goal of this paper is to describe the driver/autonomous sub-models that function within a virtual 24/7 open pit mine operating with 9 trucks and 2 shovels to move ore to a crusher and waste rock to a dump.