by Daniel Gleeson

Torsa has unveiled its next generation Collision Avoidance System for shovels, haul trucks, auxiliary and light vehicles, building on the first version of its system that was deployed at Antamina in Peru.

The Spain-based company says its latest CAS optimizes loading operation, allowing the two trucks to be loaded simultaneously.

Gabino de Diego, the new director of Business Development for Torsa, explained: “For our first generation, our design team evaluated all the detection technologies available in the market. With the focus on reliability and operators’ safety, LiDAR became the technology of choice. Actually, Torsa were the first one in the market with a LiDAR-based CAS.

“Now, in our fourth generation, a new 3D LiDAR is able to scan more than 900,000 points per second, for an extremely accurate map of the vehicle’s surroundings. In addition to LiDAR, Torsa CAS system is equipped with cutting-edge detection technologies to provide maximum accuracy: ToF, UWB and high precision GPS.

“The combination of all those technologies allows our system to detect vehicles and other equipment with centimetric precision.”

Torsa has developed a user interface as part of this latest update, taking on feedback from users to streamline the information required for both the people running the vehicles and equipment and for the ones in the control rooms, “reducing the information noise and providing a minimal invasive system”.

“For example, in our fourth generation CAS system, we have incorporated a predictive algorithm to avoid false positives because we know that this is key for someone who is driving many ours every single day,” de Diego said.

He added that the company’s CAS system has clocked up millions of hours of operation to date in various mines, with plans to bring the technology to mines in US, Canada, Africa and Australia from this year onwards.

Like all TORSA solutions, the collision avoidance system for shovels, trucks and light vehicles is integrated into the TORSA Cloud environment, ensuring the correct interaction, operation and technical information management for all clients, the company says. The cloud-based platform provides real-time data and information that can be used to target specific issues in the mine, running campaigns to optimize the operation.

“Thanks to the business intelligence modules included in the platform users are able, for example, to play back incidents and vehicle interactions for detailed analysis, or rank the operators based on multiple parameters to study and optimize behavioral KPIs,” de Diego said.

TORSA collaborates actively with the International Council on Mining & Metals (ICMM) where the company is involved in the Innovation for Cleaner Safer Vehicles (ICSV) program, which brings together 27 of the world’s leading mining companies and technologies suppliers to collaborate in a non-competitive space in order to accelerate the development of a new generation of mining vehicles.