US20140089035A1

US20140089035A1 - Mining Operation Control and Review

Info

Publication number: US20140089035A1
Application number: US14/034,932
Authority: US
Inventors: Veronica Jericho; Glen Blanchard; Nicolas Noben
Original assignee: Caterpillar Inc
Current assignee: Caterpillar Inc
Priority date: 2012-09-24
Filing date: 2013-09-24
Publication date: 2014-03-27
Also published as: RU2015115489A; US20140088820A1; US9052209B2; WO2014047641A1; CN104823194B; JP2015535992A; EP2898438A4; AU2013317688A1; CN104823194A; EP2898438A1

Abstract

The described system may operate in a variety of environments, but may be useful in a mining environment. The system may control virtually every aspect of the location, such as determining where trucks may be, where diggers may dig, etc. and what incidents and hazards may be present. In addition, the health of the devices in the location may also be monitored and the proper personnel may be informed if a device has an issue.

Description

RELATED CASES

This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/710,331 filed Oct. 5, 2012 and U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/704,886 filed Sep. 24, 2012, both of which are incorporated by reference for all purposes.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The current disclosure is generally related to the monitor and control of mining vehicles, machines and operators, and more particularly to the use of vehicle information, task and performance information and wireless systems adapted to particular terminal capabilities.

BACKGROUND

Mining is a complex operation. It requires large machines to undertake challenging tasks that are potentially dangerous. The machine can be hard to maneuver, the environment may be full of dangers and the machines are under significant stress.
At the same time, efficiency is becoming more and more important to mining operations. The cost of fuel is significant as is the desire to mine in the proper places as mining where there is no desirable material is wasteful as is mining where previous mining attempts have failed. By mining in places where material is known to exist, the mining may be more efficient.
Further, having machines break down in the far reaches of the mine is a challenge. As the machines are so large, it is difficult to tow them to a place where the problem may be diagnosed. Further, the maintenance itself is challenging as the machines may be required for mining to continue.

SUMMARY

The described system may operate in a variety of environments, but may be useful in a mining environment. The system may control virtually every aspect of the location, such as determining where trucks may be, where diggers may dig, etc. and what incidents and hazards may be present. In addition, the health of the devices in the location may also be monitored and the proper personnel may be informed if a device has an issue.
In the past, separate systems would perform the various tasks. The systems were poor at communicating with each other and the consistency between systems was random at best. In addition, remote visualization was difficult, especially in low bandwidth situations. The described system may allow real time visualization even when the machines are in low bandwidth locations.
In an aspect of the disclosure, a method of using a computing device to create a user interface for a mining operation includes coupling the computing device to a network, and receiving, via the network, signals from data sources including at least a mapping database and a vehicle location system. The method may also include developing, at a processor of the computing device, a plurality of mining views related to the mining operation, executing a workflow for a mining task related to one of the plurality of mining views, saving a setting in a memory of the computing device related to a usage case of the user interface responsive to execution of the workflow, and displaying a first mining desktop. Displaying the first mining desktop may include displaying one or more mining views of the plurality of mining views corresponding to real time events associated with the mining operation.
In another aspect of the disclosure, a system for managing mining tasks at a mine may include a mobile unit operating in a mining vehicle, which is one of a plurality of mining vehicles with a respective mobile unit, at least one computer server including a hardware processor, a physical memory, and a network interface, a network coupling the mobile unit to the at least one computer server, the physical memory of the at least one computer server including a plurality of modules including software code that when executed on the hardware processor cause the at least one computer server to perform operations. The hardware processor may receive information from the mobile unit via the network and the network interface, the information including location data and status data for the mining vehicle, present a workflow process selected from a plurality of workflow processes on a display of the at least one computer server, each workflow process defining presentation of at least a portion of the information received via the network using a mining desktop, and present the mining desktop indicating a status of one of the mine and the mining vehicle.
In yet another aspect of the disclosure, a method of presenting mining data related to a mining operation at a mine may include executing, via a processor of a computer, a first workflow process to identify mining zones on a map of the mine, the mining zones corresponding to one or more of a hazard zone, a speed zone, an avoidance zone, a notify on entry zone, and a notify on exit zone, executing, via the processor of the computer, a second workflow process to define a mining desktop incorporating mining vehicle location and status data received from a mining vehicle via a wireless network, and displaying, via a display of a computer, a mining desktop including at least an indication of a location of the mining vehicle and a status of the mining vehicle

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an illustration of a portable computing device;

FIG. 2 is an illustration of a computing device;

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of a method of using a computing device to create a user interface for a mining operation;

FIG. 4 is an illustration of a display of managing desktops;

FIG. 5 is an illustration of a display of create new desktop;

FIG. 6 is an illustration of a display of selecting a new view for a desktop;

FIG. 7 is an illustration of a display of adding new machine properties;

FIG. 8 is an illustration of a display of adding communication interface properties to a new machine;

FIG. 9 is an illustration of a display of managing a machine class;

FIG. 10 is an illustration of a display of operator task option;

FIG. 11 is an illustration of a display of selecting zones in a task menu;

FIG. 12 is an illustration of a display of editing site workflow such as managing a zone;

FIG. 13 is an illustration of a display of an incident task menu and related options;

FIG. 14 is an illustration of a display of incident view desktop;

FIG. 15 is an illustration of a display of new incident report workflow;

FIG. 16 is an illustration of a display of new incident report workflow properties page;

FIG. 17 is an incident view where the start and end time is changed;

FIG. 18 is an illustration of a display of a selection of a hazard task menu;

FIG. 19 is an illustration of a display of selecting machine classes for a hazard type;

FIG. 20 is an illustration of a display of minor warning;

FIG. 21 is an illustration of a display of large warning;

FIG. 22 is an illustration of a display of selecting to view a map task and options available for that task;

FIG. 23 is an illustration of a display of selecting a machine to relocate;

FIG. 24 is an illustration of a display of selecting a location for a machine to be relocated;

FIG. 25 managing a visible layer workflow;

FIG. 26 is an illustration of a display of selecting to obtain more information about an item displayed;

FIG. 27 is an illustration of a display of selecting a dashboard task menu and related options;

FIG. 28 is an illustration of a display of a Remote Foreman Terminal (RFT)-Key Process Indicator (KPI) cumulative production output;

FIG. 29 is an illustration of a display of an RFT-KPI production output;

FIG. 30 is an illustration of a display of RFT-KPI utilization output;

FIG. 31 is an illustration of a display of RFT-KPI loading tools output;

FIG. 32 is an illustration of a display of an RFT site map;

FIG. 33 is an illustration of a display of RFT Travel progress monitor;

FIG. 34 is an illustration of a display of RFT Travel progress monitor; and

FIG. 35 is an illustration of a display of a travel progress monitor;

FIG. 36 is an illustration of a display of a health task menu and related options;

FIG. 37 is an illustration of a display of selecting items to appear on the y-axis of a health monitor display;

FIG. 38 is an illustration of a display of a health monitor chart view;

FIG. 39 is an illustration of a display of selecting events to be added to a health monitor display;

FIG. 40 is an illustration of a display of a health monitor event view; and

FIG. 41 is an illustration of a display of selecting measures to be added to a health measure group.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 may be a high level illustration of some of the elements of a sample computing system. The computing system may be a dedicated computing device, a dedicated portable computing device, an application on the computing device, an application on the portable computing device or a combination of all of these.
FIG. 1 may be a sample portable computing device 100 that is physically configured according to be part of the system. The portable computing device 100 may have a processor 105 that is physically configured according to computer executable instructions. It may have a portable power supply 110 such as a battery which may be rechargeable. It may also have a sound and video module 120 which assists in displaying video and sound. The device 100 may turn off when not in use to conserve power and battery life. The portable computing device 100 may also have volatile memory 130 and non-volatile memory 140. There also may be an input/output bus 150 that shuttles data to and from the various user input devices such as a microphone, the inputs, etc. It also may control communicating via networks, either through wireless or wired interfaces. Of course, this is just one embodiment of the portable computing device 100 and the number and types of portable computing devices 100 is limited only by the imagination.
FIG. 2 may be a sample server 200 that is physically configured to be part of the system. The server 200 may have a processor 205 that is physically configured according to computer executable instructions. It may also have a sound and video module 210 which assists in displaying video and sound and may turn off when not in use to conserve power and battery life. The server 200 may also have volatile memory 220 and non-volatile memory 230. The database 250 may be stored in the memory 220 or 230 or may be separate. The database 250 may also be part of a cloud of computing device 200 and may be stored in a distributed manner across a plurality of computing devices 200. There also may be an input/output bus 240 that shuttles data to and from the various user input devices such as the microphone, the inputs, etc. The input/output bus 240 also may control communicating with external networks 252, either through wireless or wired devices. Of course, this is just one embodiment of the server 200 and the number and types of portable computing devices 200 is limited only by the imagination.
FIG. 3 is an illustration of a method of using a computing device to create a user interface for a mining operation. At a high level, the described system may be to a user interface system that may have a variety of desktops 400 (FIGS. 7-8) for different users and different uses. The desktops 400 may have a plurality of windows or desktop 400 views that may contain information that is relevant to the desktop 400 user. Staying at the high level, operations related to desktops may be viewed as a series of tasks or workflows.
Creating a desktop 400 may be one such task 410. A desktop task may include options for creating and managing desktops, adding a new desktop, naming a desktop, duplicating a desktop, editing a desktop, selecting a desktop, closing a desktop 400 and installing a remote manager. FIG. 4 may illustrate that a new desktop 400 may be selected from a plurality of desktops 400 with a plurality of views.
A layout for the desktop 400 may be selected in FIG. 5. The user may select to create a new desktop 400 in a variety of ways. For example, select the ‘+’ 430 at the end of the desktop 400 tabs area, then select the Create New Desktop option from the presented menu or select the Desktops->Create new desktop task 410 in the Tasks area of the navigation bar.
After selecting to create a new desktop, the Desktop workflow screen may be presented, showing a selection of available layouts. The user may enter a name for the desktop. The user may select the desired layout 432 for the desktop 400 as illustrated in FIG. 5.
A list of available views 434 may be presented as illustrated in FIG. 6. The user drags their desired view(s) into the layout area to illustrate how they would like the views presented. The user may select Save. The desktop 400 workflow screen may be closed. A desktop 400 with the name entered may be added to the desktop tabs 436 at the bottom of the screen. This tab may be placed in the foreground showing the layout and configuration selected by the user. The user configures the views on their desktop 400 to have the desired size and properties (e.g. to follow a machine). The user optionally saves their desktop 400 configuration for future use. The user may navigate using Back and Next to configure their desktop 400 layout and views prior to completing the configuration.
After the user has selected their desired configuration, a desktop 400 may be added to the desktop 400 tabs area at the bottom of the screen. This tab may be placed in the foreground showing the layout and view configuration as specified previously.
The desktop 400 may also have a plurality of tasks 410, where tasks 410 may include additional steps that may be executed to complete a task 410 and a plurality of drafts 420 where drafts 420 may be saved tasks 410. The desktop 400 may also have a plurality of elements that are consistent across all the desktops 400, such as a consistent navigation bar or a consistent search area.
Returning to FIG. 3, at block 300, a first mining desktop 400 may be displayed. The mining desktop 400 may be set according to default values or may be configured by a user. In addition, there may be a plurality of desktops 400. The desktops 400 may be for a specific user or may be for a specific position, such as an equipment operator or driver. Logically, there may be data that is used to create the desktops 400.
The desktops 400 may be viewed by selecting a tab from a plurality of tabs. The tabs 436 may be placed consistently across the plurality of desktops 400. Further, a ribbon of selectable options may be displayed consistently across the desktops 400 and the colors used may be consistent across desktops 400. For example, all displayed trucks may be yellow, all tabs may be blue and all warnings may be red. Further, the color may indicate the status of the machinery and the color may be consistent across the various desktops 400. In addition, the warning color may indicate the level of seriousness if there is a problem with the vehicle, such as red meaning great danger, orange meaning a slight concern, etc.
At block 310, one or more desktop 400 views into the mining system may be displayed as part of the desktop 400 selected from a plurality of mining views. A desktop 400 view of the system may be a long-running task 410 that has no finite end. Modifications or manipulations of the system are presented in a Workflow Window 440. The desktop 400 views may be thought of as windows on a desktop 400 and there may be a plurality of windows on each desktop. There are many different types of views available including site maps, machine lists, user lists, and scheduled jobs. Using different views within a desktop 400 layout, the user can customize their display to focus on the areas of the system that are important to them. The windows may be repeated in different desktops 400.
At least one of the desktop 400 views may be a view of the mining site comprising mining layers and mining devices. The height of the view of the mining site may be adjustable. Another one of the desktop 400 views may be details of active devices. Yet another display view may be live statistics of machine status, site statistics, machine latency, active machines, inactive machines, all machines and warnings.
If a displayed item is selected, additional information about the item may be displayed. For example, if a machine is selected, the current status of the machine may be displayed. Similarly, a production graph may be selected and the data used to create the graph may be displayed.
A System Search Area may also be part of the desktop. The system search area may allow the user to perform a ‘smart search’ of the system to find the following items: Entities, Tasks, Notifications and Drafts. Along with the smart search, the user may access the following features:
Help. Displays the user help documentation for the product.
About. Displays the product information screen including version and licensing information.
Logout <username>. Allows the currently logged in user to log out of the product.
Relevant safety check lists may also be displayed.
At block 320, a mining task 410 related to the desktop 400 may be displayed as part of the desktop. A task 410 may be something to be accomplished, such as move material or dig a pit, all of which require a variety of steps to be accomplished. A “wizard” may be used to guide a user through the various steps, where the wizard may list all the steps and keep track of progress through the steps and offering help along the way through the steps. Progress on a task 410 may be saved using the draft button 420. Drafts may be retrievable for addition detail in the future. Tasks 410 may be added, modified and deleted and stored for later review.
Some sample tasks 410 may be illustrated in FIG. 7 and may include a machine task 410, an operator task 410, a zone task 410, an incidents task 410, a hazards task 410, a users task 410, a jobs task 410, a desktops 400 task 410, a map task 410, an automation task 410, a dashboards task 410 and a health task 410 all of which will be discussed further.
A workflow window may be presented when the user may be modifying information within the system. Only operations that have a finite start and end may be considered workflows. Typical operations might include adding a new entity, or modifying an existing entity. When a workflow window is displayed it may be positioned within the center of the screen and sized to fit its contents. It may be moveable and resizable. The window may have minimize, maximize and close buttons in the top-right corner that correspond to ‘send to draft’, ‘maximize the window,’ and cancel operations against the workflow. Workflows may be considered the steps within tasks 410.
Machine Task
A machine task 410 may permit a variety of actions related to a machine. Some sample actions include adding a new machine (FIG. 7), managing a machine, adding a new machine class, managing a machine class, a new machinery category, managing a machine category and view a travel progress monitor (FIG. 35).
Referring to FIG. 8, a workflow 438 illustrates adding a new machine and may include adding a name, adding a machine category, adding a machine class (FIG. 9) and adding a configuration name to a machine. In addition, a communication address and a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver position may also be provided.
FIG. 10 may illustrate an operator task 410 and available options such as adding a new operator or managing operators. New operator set up may include adding an identifier and a name. Managing operators may include selecting an operator from a list.
Zones
Referring to FIG. 11, a zone task 410 may be available where the zone task 410 may entail managing zones as illustrated in FIG. 12, for example, showing creation of a hazard area 450 for use on a site map.
In one embodiment, to create a new zone the user may select to edit the site map. The site map may be presented in a workflow window showing the editing tools on the toolbar. The user may select the Draw Polygon Mode button from the toolbar. The button may become depressed to indicate the current mode. The user may click within the map to create a region, with a double-click to add the last point. The region may be shown with a default color and a popup window for the zone information is displayed. The user may enter a name, and other properties regarding the zone into the information popup. The user may close the popup using the close button in the top-right of the popup. Once all site map modifications are complete, the user may select a Save button. The site map workflow window may be closed, and the new zone may be applied to the system and may appear on all site maps. To discard the created zone and close the workflow window, the user may select the Cancel button on the site map workflow window.
To modify an existing zone within the site map, the user may select to edit the site map. The site map may be presented in a workflow window showing the editing tools on the toolbar. The user may select the Selection Mode button from the toolbar. The button may become depressed to indicate the current mode. The user may select the desired zone to be modified. A popup window for the zone information may be displayed. The user may modify the details for the zone as desired. The user may close the popup using the close button in the top-right corner.
The user may select and modify the polygon for the zone by clicking and dragging the border of the zone or may remove an existing zone within the site map, using tools for editing the site map.
Incidents
FIG. 13 may illustrate an incidents task 410. Incident Management provides a mechanism for grouping related incident events to allow for further analysis. The incident task 410 may include viewing incident events, creating a new incident report, managing incident reports, creating a new incident category, managing an incident category, creating a new incident cause and managing incident causes.
Referring to FIG. 14, viewing the incident events may further include viewing the date of the incident, the operator in the incident, the machine in the incident, the type of incident, an activity that occurred during the incident, and the details of the incident.
Referring to FIG. 15, a new incident report may collect a viewing the date of the incident, the operator in the incident, the machine in the incident, the type of incident, an activity that occurred during the incident, and the details of the incident and stores the data for additional analysis.
Referring to FIG. 16, the incident also may have a variety of requested information such as category, cause, operator, history and comments. The incident reports may be queried and reviewed and new categories may be added. Similarly, incident causes may be selected from a plurality of categories and searched and reviewed. Logically, incident causes may be selected from a list or new causes added.
A user may be presented with a table of incident events and a site map showing the location of the displayed events. FIG. 17 may illustrate one possible table of incidents. It may include the date, the number of events, the operator, the machine, the type, the activity, and the details. Incidents may be searched and viewed on a map. By default, the events presented may be all the events that have occurred since the user logged in plus an additional hour prior. The user may also configure their view to show events that occurred within a different time period.
Due to the historic nature of incident events, the site map may display only incident information, not machine position information. New incident events may be added immediately to this view as they occur.
The user may view the location where an event occurred by selecting the desired event within the table. The selected event may be highlighted on the site map 470. The map may pan to the appropriate location if the event is not within the visible area. If multiple events are selected, multiple icons may be highlighted on the map. The map may zoom out or pan to the appropriate location if required to ensure all selected events are visible. To view the event information corresponding to an event icon on the site map, the user may select the desired icon within the map and the row for that event may become selected within the table. The table may scroll, if necessary, to ensure that row may be visible.
By default, the user may be presented with all incident events that have occurred since they logged in, plus one hour prior. The user may configure their view to see events that have occurred within an alternate time period.
To display the events that occurred within a specific time period, the user may specify a date and time in the From field 472 at the top of the Incident Management view. The event table may be filtered to show all events that occurred after the specified time. The user may specify a date and time in the To field at the top of the Incident Management view. The event table may be filtered to show all events that occurred before the specified time. If both the From and To fields have been specified, the events displayed may be within that timeframe.
The user may return to showing all incident events in the table without any timeframe filtering by selecting the Now button. To create a new Incident Record, the user may select the related incident events within the table on the Incident Management view. The user may select the New Record button on the toolbar for the view. The New Incident Record workflow window may be displayed. The events selected in may be displayed in the Related Events area of the Analysis page.
The user may scan the list of related events to confirm the full set of known events is displayed, and then may select the Capture button. All available data corresponding to the timeframe surrounding the selected set of incident events may be captured and stored with the new incident record. Once captured, the Analysis page may display the history associated with all incident events in a textual form and present a site map with incidents plotted spatially, on new tabs respectively. The Spatial View tab may become selected by default.
The user may select the Play button on the Spatial View of the Analysis page to see how the incident events occurred over time (i.e. a time-based replay of the events that are selected for the incident record). The user may confirm the incident record contains the appropriate incident events by selecting the Next button to continue. The Details page of the New Incident Record workflow may be displayed. The user may enter a Summary for the record and the summary may provide a basic overview of the incident. The user may select a Category for the record. This may categorize the incident, e.g. Failed to Slow Down, Site Violation. The user may select a Cause for the record which my highlight the perceived cause of the incident, e.g. Bad Weather, Mechanical Failure. The user may confirm the operators involved in the incident. By default, the operators logged in to the machines of the selected incident events may be automatically added to the incident record.
The user optionally adds new incident events (previously added events may not be removed). The user optionally re-captures information for the incident record by selecting the Capture button. The user may view the text history to read any previously logged comments. The user may select the Next button. The Details page of the Edit Incident Records workflow may be displayed. The summary information may be presented as read-only. The user may modify the Category and Cause as desired. The user may select to add a comment by selecting the Add Comment button. An area for entering notes may be displayed. The user may enter notes supplementing the previous interpretation of the incident events. This comment may be found in the text history after the incident record has been saved. The user may select the Save button. The incident record may be updated and all captured information may be stored for future reference.
Hazards
Hazards may be known obstacles or potential dangerous areas in a mining environment. FIG. 18 may be an illustration of a hazard task 410 and available hazard options. There may be a task 410 directed toward handling hazards. The hazard task 410 may include adding a new hazard type and managing hazard types. A new hazard type may include a name, a zone color, an entry message, an exit message, speed limit, a hazard length and a hazard width. FIG. 19 may illustrate that hazards may apply to certain machine classes.
There may be hazard zones and the hazard zones may include at least one from a group including an avoidance zone, a notify on entry zone or a notify on exit zone.
FIG. 20 illustrates the combination of hazards with zones on a map 480 showing, for example, a red “don't enter” zone 482 that may include ledges or other potentially fatal hazards. In another example and a green “speed” zone 484 may be used to advise that a road has just been watered and vehicles must observe a reduced speed limit.
Notifications
Notifications may also be displayed to users on the desktop. Notifications may require increasing levels of required attention. Notification may include information which indicates configuration changes have occurred or general information to the user or it may be a warning which indicates that a system warning has been triggered but no failure has yet occurred. The notification may also be an error which indicates that an error or failure has occurred in the system that requires user attention. The notification may also be a critical failure which indicates that a critical failure has occurred that requires immediate attention as it may impact the functionality or operability of the system
When a new notification is received for the user, a small popup window may be (briefly) displayed above the Notifications area of the window containing a summary of the notification. In addition, the number presented beside the corresponding severity in the Notifications area may be incremented. Each notification may have an associated, pre-defined severity. In one embodiment, the order of severities (from best to worst) is as follows, along with its associated color:
Information and Configuration—White/no color
Warning—Yellow
Error—Orange
Failure—Red
Examples are in FIG. 20 which illustrates a small, yellow notification 486 and FIG. 21 which illustrates a medium orange notification 488.
For notifications above a pre-configured level, the popup window may remain open until the user manually closes it, e.g., a critical failure notification may remain visible, while an information message may hide itself automatically after a brief period. This may be to ensure users see and acknowledge more-crucial system errors.
If a notification is received that has specific role routing configured, the user may only receive the notification if they are performing that role. The allocation of specific types of notifications to their corresponding roles may be pre-configured and not modifiable by the user
To display the full details of a notification, a user may single-click the severity icon associated with the desired notification in the Notifications area of the window. A popup window may be displayed with the details of all outstanding notifications of the selected severity including the time they occurred. An action button may be presented beside each notification to allow the corresponding action to be initiated by the user.
The user may select to investigate or perform the action by selecting the appropriate button on the popup window. The window may be closed and the appropriate action may be taken, e.g. the user may be navigated to the appropriate area of the system to investigate further, or an action may be performed on their behalf, etc. The counter for the severity corresponding to the selected notification may be decremented. Once a notification has been actioned and removed from the current notifications area, it may be found on the notifications popup window in the recent notifications area.
There may be a plurality of pre-designed desktops 400. One desktop 400 may be a foreman desktop 400 where the foreman desktop 400 may be designed for mining foreman. The foreman desktop 400 illustrates devices spatially in the mining environment and illustrates devices on assignment in the mining environment. The foreman desktop 400 illustrates the overall mining progress, production issues in the mining environment, driver progress in the mining environment, driver production in the mining environment, incidents in the mining environment and warnings relevant to the foreman. The foreman desktop 400 may also illustrate foreman tasks 410 where foreman tasks 410 display suggested steps to complete a foreman task 410. There also may be a plurality of foreman desktops 400 wherein each foreman desktop 400 may be personalized for specific foreman.
Another desktop 400 may be a driver desktop 400 where the driver desktop 400 may be designed for mining drivers. The driver desktop 400 illustrates driver progress in the mining environment. The driver desktop 400 may illustrate hazards, incident and warning in the relevant range of the driver. The driver desktop 400 may also illustrate zones and areas in the mining environment to the driver. The driver desktop 400 may also display suggested steps to complete a driver task 410. There also may be a plurality of driver desktops 400 where each driver desktop 400 may be personalized for specific drivers.
Another desktop 400 may be a maintenance desktop 400 where the maintenance desktop 400 may be designed for mining maintenance personnel. The maintenance desktop 400 may illustrate vehicles in the mining environment and a status of the vehicles in the mining environment. The maintenance desktop 400 illustrates incidents in the mining environment along with maintenance warnings in the mining environment. There may be a plurality of maintenance desktops 400 where each maintenance desktop 400 may be personalized for specific maintenance personnel.
Another task 410 may be a maps task 410. As illustrated in FIG. 22, the map task 410 further includes viewing a site map, relocating a shutdown machine, importing a layer, managing imported layers, managing saved views. Relocating a shutdown machine entails selecting the machine and placing the machine on a map. FIG. 23 illustrates that the machine may be selected from a list of machines or the machine may be manually entered. FIG. 24 illustrates placing a machine on a map. A layer file may be imported or selected from a list. Views also may be saved and managed. The visible layers may be selected and different items may be added to the layers as illustrated in FIG. 25.
To select an item on the map, and display brief details about that item, the user may select the item directly. An information bubble may be displayed showing the summary information for the selected entity. A result of the selection may be seen in FIG. 26 where a machine has been selected and additional information may be displayed about the machine and its driver.
The user may also select a group of items. An information bubble may be displayed showing the list of selected entities as hyperlinks. The user may then navigate to the information for the desired entity by selecting the corresponding hyperlink. The bubble may then be updated to display the summary information for that entity.
Once an information bubble is displayed, the user may select to close the bubble using either the close button in the top-right of the bubble, or by clicking elsewhere on the map. To re-display the bubble they may either re-select the item or click the Info button on the toolbar for the map (which may show information for the current selection). To keep a bubble open the user may pin the details in place using the pin in the top-right of the bubble. Once pinned open, a bubble may remain open until it may be either manually closed or until the user clicks elsewhere on the map after unpinning the bubble.
A bubble may be detached from its associated item and moved within the site map to a more appropriate location. Once detached, a bubble may automatically be pinned open at the new location. When hovering over either the bubble or its associated entity, a link may be drawn to illustrate the association.
A site map may also be modified. The user may select the Edit button on the toolbar for the site map. A popup window containing an editable map may be displayed, with the same visible region as the original map however no machines or users may be shown. The toolbar for the presented site map may have an extended set of editing tools available. The user modifies the map as appropriate. The user may (optionally) save the modification as a draft 420 (e.g. for modifications that occur over a long duration). The user commits the changes by selecting the Save button. The popup window may be closed and the changes are applied to the system.
Dashboards
The dashboard task 410 (FIG. 27) may include viewing key performance indicators. Key performance indicators may include production indicators, utilization indicators and loading indicators.
One of the desktops 400 may be a remote manager desktop. The remote manager desktop 400 illustrates progress of the mining operation (FIG. 28), status of the mining operation, production time line of the mining operation, progress versus goal of the mining operation (FIG. 29), availability and utilization of loading tools (FIGS. 30, 31) and all available desktops 400 in the mining operation.
The remote manager desktop 400 illustrates remote manager tasks 410 where driver tasks 410 are suggested steps to complete a remote manager task 410. There may be a plurality of remote manager desktops 400 wherein each remote manager desktop 400 may be personalized for specific remote managers.
A mine site map such as in FIG. 32 may be reviewed remotely where the mine site map include at least one selected from a group comprising:
a Remote Foreman Terminal (RFT) site map;
a Remote Foreman Terminal-Key Production Indicator (KPI) production output;
a display of RFT-KPI utilization output;
a display of RFT-KPI loading tools output;
a display of RFT Travel progress monitor; and
RFT Travel progress monitor.
The Remote Foreman's Terminal (RFT) may be or may be similar to the portable computing device 100 of FIG. 1 and provides a low bandwidth view of the system to a Foreman, to be viewed primarily while in the field, to allow them to monitor the decisions made by the system and the Mine Controllers. This document details the first phase of user interface design.
The Remote Foreman's Terminal has the following main elements:
Site Monitor
KPI Dashboard
Travel Progress Monitor
Due to the unique operating conditions for the Remote Foreman's Terminal, a light-weight user interface has been built to deliver the specific functionality required. This user interface does not contain the full functionality of the client; it provides a simple, read-only access to a specific sub-set of functionality required by a Foreman from a remote location. This functionality itself may be reduced to cater for the potentially poor network conditions e.g. the data refresh rates of the Site Monitor may likely be reduced for the Remote Foreman's Terminal.
The Remote Foreman's Terminal section of the application may cater for both low bandwidth and low connectivity conditions. To remove the need for the user to pre-load the thin client application at a high bandwidth location prior to going to a remote location or, alternatively, the potentially lengthy initial download time once in the field, the Remote Foreman's Terminal may be available as an Air application installation.
To install the Remote Foreman's Terminal application, the user may select the Machines->Launch RFT option from the Tasks menu of the thin client. This may download, install and start an application onto the machine 100 on which the thin client may be running. After the initial installation, the downloaded files may remain on that machine and the application may be started with the only bandwidth overhead being the data required to update the display with current information. Alternatively the application may be installed via the file system, however using the Launch RFT option may be the preferred mechanism.
In an embodiment, the RFT application may be built using a run time environment, such as the Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) platform available from Adobe Systems. The layout of the RFT client application differs on the thin client in order to cater for requirements specific to the remote operating conditions including very high and very low light conditions, limited screen real estate, and the potential use of touch screens.
The user may navigate to the Site Map, KPIs or Travel Progress Monitor (TPM) sections via options at the top of the screen. By default, the application may open to display the Site Map with the map open to the site boundary as in FIG. 32.
The Remote Foreman's Terminal (RFT) may cater for use within both very high and very low light conditions. As such, the user may toggle between bright and dark modes of operation by selecting the icon in the title bar area of the application.
When operating in Bright mode, the user interface may present a color scheme that may be visible under high light conditions, including potential reflections off screens e.g. a white/bright background with appropriately contrasting colors.
When operating in Dark mode, the user interface may present a color scheme that may allow a user to look from a darkened environment, to the user interface, then back at the darkened environment without detriment, e.g. a black/dark background with contrasting colors that are not overly bright.
Since the RFT may host an application that may be required to operate under poor connectivity conditions, the current connectivity status may be presented to the user through an icon at the bottom of the application.
If the connectivity is below a pre-configured threshold required to support minimum standards of operation, the status may indicate that the application may be offline along with the last time the minimum standard of service was achieved. In addition, intermediates state may be displayed if connectivity is intermittent or approaching the threshold. This allows the user to understand how current the presented information is likely to be.
It also may be determined if the device is in a low bandwidth location and adjusting the desktop 400 for low bandwidth environments. In some situations, text messages may be communicated to and from the desktop 400 or to the device. In another exemplary embodiment, only data values may be sent, for example, in a tag/length/value format and used to supply data to a predetermined graphical form. Other methods of sending compressed and/or striped data may be used.
The RFT application may present a read-only view of the site via a mapping interface as in FIG. 33. This may be viewed by selecting the Map navigation option in the title bar area. The map presented may show a Fleet-based monitoring view of the site and may display the following elements:
Machines
Site Boundary
Roads
Waypoints
Destinations
Mining Blocks
The locations and other information presented on the map may be updated dynamically as changes are detected. By default, the map may be zoomed to show the current mine boundary.
The user may use the Search area of the site map such as in FIG. 34 to enter the name of a machine or operator. Any entities that partially match the search string may be presented in a drop-down list below the Search area showing both the name of the machine and the full name of the operator logged-in to that machine (if known). The user may select the desired item in the list in order to highlight that item within the map. If the corresponding machine is not within the visible area, the map may pan to ensure it is within view. FIG. 35 illustrates one exemplary display of operator information displayed on the RFT application.
To view KPIs for a machine, the user may select the desired machine within the map then may select the View KPIs option in the panel options menu. The application may display the KPIs section and open to the Production view showing Tons Moved for the current machine by default as in FIG. 28.
As in FIG. 33, to view the travel progress for a machine, the user may select the desired machine then may select the View Travel Progress option in the panel options menu. The application may open the travel progress monitor section with the current machine highlighted.
The KPIs section of the RFT application illustrates different measures of production and performance. While there are many different KPIs available, the measures described provide a basic set of statistics most relevant to a Foreman while they are in the field using the data that may be currently available (and accessible at the user interface layer) via the System. The KPIs presented in may likely be more complex as more data becomes accessible and as further understanding is reached regarding the needs of the Foreman.
The user may select the KPIs related to production by selecting the Production option under the KPIs menu. The Production view in FIG. 34 illustrates information related to the number of tons (or appropriate unit of measurement) of material moved within the current shift. It indicates:
The actual amount of material that has been moved for the current shift.
An estimate of how many tons of material may be moved on the current shift, projected from the current progress and time remaining for the shift.
A by-hour break-down for the current shift illustrating the amount of material that was moved for that hour.
For the current hour, an indication of the likely figure at the end of the hour extrapolated from current production and time remaining.
The data presented may be filtered by both the type of machine and material (e.g. view for all materials, coal, and waste). The units displayed may vary depending on the type of material selected.
An alternate Production KPI available illustrates the cumulative material moved throughout the shift. This may be presented by changing the type of Production KPI from “Material Moved” to “Cumulative Material Moved”. The quantity of prime and rehandled material may be illustrated on a per-hour basis. The cumulative totals may be viewed for specific loaders and material types by selecting the desired options from the filters above the graph.
The user may select the KPIs related to loading tool availability and utilization by selecting the Utilization option under the KPIs menu. The Utilization view illustrates the availability and utilization of each loading tool as a percentage within the current shift.
The user may select the loading tool-specific KPIs by selecting the Loading option under the KPIs menu. The load, hang, queue and spotting times are illustrated for each loader, with the first item presented being the average for all loading tools.
To view the location of a machine on the Site Map, the user may select the name of the machine on any KPI graph then select the View Machine Location option from the displayed menu.
To view a machine on the Travel Progress Monitor such is in FIG. 79, the user may select the name of the machine on any KPI graph then select the View Machine Progress option from the displayed menu. The Travel Progress Monitor allows the user to view the relative progress of trucks to loading tools. To view the Travel Progress Monitor, the user may select the TPM option from the application menu.
As can be seen in FIGS. 33 and 34, the Travel Progress Monitor illustrates the progress of machines travelling from a source (shown on the right) towards a destination (shown on the left). FIG. 33 illustrates empty trucks, therefore the direction of travel shown is by definition inbound. FIG. 34 illustrates loaded trucks and the direction of travel shown is by definition outbound. The progress of a machine may be clearly indicated via a marker on the timeline along with the estimated time until arrival. Any estimated times that have been exceeded may increment to indicate how far they have been exceeded by and display a “+” in front (e.g. “+02:17”).
The timeline displayed contains two linear sections. The primary section 450 illustrates the last 10 minutes of travel for a machine with a fine-level granularity, while the secondary section 452 illustrates the remaining travel time of the machine with a broad granularity. That is, the last 10 minutes of travel are shown in more detail than the rest of the travel time as it may be considered the most important/of most interest. These last 10 minutes of travel are displayed on the left-hand side of the screen to ensure they are placed within the prime viewing position for the user. The amount of real estate used by the primary and secondary sections of the timeline may be adjusted by dragging the handle 454 at the boundary of the two areas within the timeline.
If a timeline displays machines that have multiple sources, that timeline may display the relative positions of those sources according to the estimated time to travel from those sources. It should be noted that this does not imply that they have similar or overlapping paths, simply that there are machines travelling from these sources.
Where there are multiple sources presented on a timeline, an icon may be selected to expand the timeline to show each source individually. The machines may appear in the appropriate area of the Travel Progress Monitor depending on their current state. The number of machines displayed within an area may be indicated in the title bar for that area. Following is a description of each area.
Trucks travelling empty may appear in the Empty area travelling towards their assigned loader. They may have a time marker indicating the estimated time until their arrival. As trucks pass through waypoints these estimates are updated to ensure the most accurate estimate possible.
Once a truck has arrived and stopped at a loader their status may be updated to indicate that they have arrived and are queuing. A number of trucks may be queuing for a loader at any one time. Once the loader becomes available, a truck may progress to the Loading state and they may be moved on the display to the left of the loader to allow the utilization of the loader to be illustrated.
To ensure the most important loaders are seen first, the loaders are presented according to priority, with the largest loading tools presented at the top of the displayed list. Each loader has their utilization percentage and estimated load time remaining presented. If a machine goes on delay while travelling empty, they may be removed from the Empty area and moved to the Delayed area of the Travel Progress Monitor.
If a loading tool is selected in the Empty area, the following information may be presented in a summary popup:
The material being loaded.
The current mining block.
The destination.
Whether the loading tool is over trucked, correctly trucked, under trucked, or has an indeterminate trucking level.
If a truck travelling empty is selected, the summary popup may present additional information about where the truck is coming from.
Trucks travelling loaded may appear in the Loaded area travelling towards their assigned processor with an indication of the type of material they are carrying. They may have a time marker indicating the estimated time until their arrival.
Truck Arrival
Once a truck has arrived and stopped at a processor their status may be updated to indicate that they have arrived and are queuing. A number of trucks may be queuing for a processor at any time. Once the processor becomes available, a truck may progress to the Dumping state and they may be moved on the display to the left of the processor to allow the utilization of the processor to be illustrated. A number of trucks may be dumping at any time (depending on the processor). This may be illustrated by a stacked list of trucks on the left-hand side beside the processor.
To ensure the most important processors are seen first, the processors are presented according to priority, with the largest processors presented at the top of the displayed list above the dumps. Each processor has their utilization percentage (if available) and estimated service time remaining presented. If a machine goes on delay while travelling loaded, they may be removed from the Loaded area and moved to the Delayed area of the Travel Progress Monitor.
If a processor is selected in the Loaded area, the following information may be presented in a summary popup:
The destination.
If a truck travelling loaded is selected, the following information may be presented in a summary popup:
Payload size
Mining block
Stations
Trucks travelling either empty or full to a station may appear in the Stations area travelling towards their assigned station. They may have a time marker indicating the estimated time until their arrival. Once a truck arrives at a station they may be displayed in a holding area beside their station.
Unlike the Empty and Loaded areas, if a truck goes on delay while at a station it may remain displayed against that station (along with appearing in the Delayed area) with their delay status clearly indicated along with the estimated time of their delay.
Delayed Trucks
Trucks that have flagged themselves as being on delay may be presented in the Delayed Trucks area such as in FIG. 80. Each truck may be placed beside a marker indicating its last known location. For example, if a truck was last known to be at a loader when it went on delay, it would appear next to a marker for that loader.
Unknown
Trucks that have an unknown status may be presented in the Unknown area of FIG. 80. Each truck may be placed beside a marker indicating its last known location. If no location is known, the truck may be placed against an Unknown marker within that area.
States
The following states are represented for trucks:
Queuing (green) (i.e. truck has stopped on a final road segment)
Travelling/Dumping/Loading (black in bright mode, white in dark mode)
Off-Course (orange)
Lost (pink)
Not Assignable (red)
On Delay (grey)
The following states are represented for loading tools and processors: Servicing (white), On Delay (grey).
Filter
The list of machines displayed may be filtered by both Fleet and Assignment group using the Filter option at the top of the screen. Only machines that form part of the selected fleet or group may be displayed in the Travel Progress Monitor.
Find
To find a machine within the Travel Progress Monitor, the user may enter the name of the desired machine in the Find Machine field at the top of the screen. A list of machines may be presented based on partial matches with the entered text. When the user selects the desired machine from the presented list, that machine may become highlighted within the display and the display may be scrolled to ensure that machine may be within the visible area. If the machine is contained within a collapsed area of the display (i.e. not visible) the title bar for that area may become highlighted until that area is expanded, at which point the machine may become highlighted.
If the user searches for a machine that is not currently displayed, even if that machine may be a valid machine, they may be presented with a message indicating there were no results found. The user may need to remove any filtering conditions they have imposed in order to find the machine.
Machine Information
While limited KPIs are available in the machine summary information presented when a machine is selected, the user may view the KPIs for a specific machine by selecting the desired machine then selecting the View KPIs option from the Options menu at the top of the screen. The KPIs screens may be presented showing the Availability and Utilization statistics by default for that machine. To view the selected machine on the Site Map, the user may select the View Location option from the menu at the top of the screen. The Site Map may be presented with the current machine within view and highlighted.
Health
An additional task 410 may be a health task 410. As illustrated in FIG. 36, the health task 410 may further include creating new charts, viewing the health monitor, creating a new measure group and managing measure groups. The Health Monitor view may display a monitoring view within a desktop 400 of the thin client. The view may be intended to display a configured set of charts of measure data and a table of health-related events, along with a spatial view of the events on a site map.
The user may add any number of charts to the monitor view, although a maximum number of charts may be set (value to be determined at prototype/implementation phase based on usability testing). They may also edit and remove displayed charts, and save the chart to a library. The display may be toggled to show either a graphical/chart-based representation of data or a tabular list of health-related events.
Charts/Graphs
A chart may be configured to display real-time and historical information for measures with respect to a machine(s). One or more devices may be selected to be part of a health display. Each chart may be a selectable object. The user may select a chart to display a spatial view of the corresponding event and position information on the site map. Clicking and dragging a chart allows the charts to be re-ordered.
FIG. 37 may display that different items or measures may be selected to be on the y-axis. If a timescale is used along the x-axis of the graphical representation, then multiple measures may be compared and plotted against the y-axis for a machine(s). If these measures are not of comparable unit types, the largest metric may determine the scale required for the y-axis. When a numerical value is being used to represent a specific state, the user may view the textual representation of that state by hovering over the value in the scale (all values being used to represent a state may be displayed on the axis scale to ensure this information is accessible). If a measure is presented along the x-axis, only one other measure may be plotted against the y-axis for a machine(s). In this situation, the plot against time may be monitored by the user through the use of trails, which may display historical points on the graph in addition to the current plotted point.
As shown in FIG. 38, the chart may display the list of machines and measures being monitored in the key on the left-hand side. In the graphical view, each item in the key shows the color of the corresponding line within the chart. Each of these measures may be temporarily included/excluded from the chart by ticking/un-ticking the key's checkbox. By default, all configured measures may be displayed on the chart. To hide all the measures associated with a machine, the user may collapse the measure list for that machine. The information on the chart may be selected from a list of options such as shown in FIG. 39 which may include all events, some events, special events, etc.
When there is no data available for a measure within a particular time period, there may be no line drawn for that measure. If the measure is being polled and connectivity is lost, the line may be displayed as a dashed/dotted line at the level of the last known value until connectivity resumes. If data then becomes available it may be back-filled into the chart.
Referring again to FIG. 38, specific health-related events for the visible measures may be plotted on a timeline chart 870 immediately below the measures chart. The start, intermediate, and end events may be illustrated appropriately on the chart with the name of the event displayed on the left-hand side. The user may hover over these points to obtain a brief summary of the event. Clicking on this event may highlight the event in the site map. The related events may always be displayed against a timescale, regardless of the x-axis of the corresponding measures chart.
The data displayed within the chart may be controlled using the timeline 870 at the bottom of the Health Monitor view. Only measure data and events produced within the selected start and end dates may be displayed. The user may separate the measures into multiple graphical views within the same chart.
Table 1 below gives a summary of the user interactions with the chart and a description of the resulting operations.

TABLE 1

Move mouse over	When the mouse moves over the chart, a vertical line
chart	may be drawn. Each measure displayed may have its
	value, at the point where it intersects with the vertical
	line, displayed across the top of the chart. As the
	mouse and vertical line moves across the chart, these
	displayed values may be updated.
Move mouse over	When the mouse moves over a value displayed in the
chart axis	scale for the axis of a chart, the value may be pres-
	ented in a tooltip when that value is representing an
	alternate state. That is, the textual representation
	corresponding to the displayed numerical value may
	be displayed.
Click on line	Clicking on a line, or clicking on the measure name
	(in the key) corresponding to that line, may highlight
	the line and display the limits associated with that
	measure. Limits may be displayed using shading, but
	may use the same color as the measure.
Click and drag	Clicking on the chart (without selecting any chart
off chart elements	elements, e.g. lines or event markers) and dragging
	may zoom in on the horizontal time region selected
	within the chart. Note: this only applies when a time-
	based unit is displayed on the x-axis.
Click and drag	Selecting a measure within the graphical view then
line	dragging the line downwards may create a new graph-
	ical view within a chart. The user may add further
	measures from the same chart into the new view by
	dragging the measure and dropping onto the new view.
	If all the measures are removed from a view that view
	may be removed from the chart.
Hover over event	An information bubble may appear with a summary of
marker	the event.
Click on event	Clicking on an event marker within the event chart
marker	may highlight the corresponding event in the site map.
Hover over	Hovering the mouse over one of the measure values
measure values	displayed may display the name of the measure to
or polling	which the value corresponds. If the measure is cur-
indicator	rently polling, a Disconnect Polling option may also
	be presented. If the measure is not polling, a Start
	Polling option may be available.
Click on polling	Clicking on a polling indicator may stop the polling
indicator	for that measure.
Scroll wheel	Using the scroll wheel while over a chart may zoom
	in or out of a chart, focused on the current point, by
	magnifying the current timeline. That is, zooming
	in may reduce the timeframe displayed. Zooming out
	may increase the timeframe displayed.

Tabular View
As illustrated in FIG. 40, the user may switch to a tabular view of the health-related events. The events displayed may be the combination of all events configured for the displayed charts. The severity of the events may be illustrated via the color of the icon in the Active column. The color of the text may indicate whether an event has received a corresponding deactivate event. The user may configure the displayed columns, or select a row(s) within the table to highlight the corresponding event(s) in the site map.
When a new chart is added, the events for that chart may be added to the tabular view. The user may include/exclude events related to a machine by selecting/de-selecting a corresponding checkbox above the table as illustrated in FIG. 40. The user may filter their event view to only see events that are currently active (i.e. only see events that have not yet received a corresponding deactivate event). In addition, they may toggle their view so that they see a summary of the events, with all events rolled up into a single line item according to the combination of event type and machine. This view may also indicate the number of occurrences of activate events since a deactivate event occurred.
Site Map Summary
As illustrated in the non-tabular portion of FIG. 40, the Site Map may provide a spatial view 890 of all configured health-related events for the displayed charts. The Site Map may display the current positions of all machines for the charts and, if known, it's previous locations (as a degenerative trail of no more than 1 hour of time). As full path capturing is not performed, this may likely only provide an approximate path for a machine, however the position at which events occurred may be clearly shown. The machine path and events may only be shown for the currently selected timeframe. The icons used to illustrate the health-related events on the Site Map may indicate the severity of the event.
Timeline Summary
The timeline 870 at the bottom of FIGS. 38 and 40 may be used to indicate and define the time period for which the graphical and tabular views may present data. If the x-axis of a chart is displaying time, the timescale of the chart may display the region selected within the timeline bar. When the vertical line displaying the mouse position moves through a chart, that line may also be represented within the overall timeline bar 870 to illustrate the current position with respect to the full set of data available. The user may perform operations on the timeline 870 including pausing the replay of real-time data, resuming playback of real-time data, selection of a timeframe, and selection of a replay speed. The timeline 870 may be configured to show either calendar time or Service Meter Units (SMU). All charts may be aligned to use the same timescales.
The timeline 870 also may display a summary of channel polling information. There may be a maximum number of channels that may be polling at one time throughout the system. The indicator illustrates the number of channels being polled on the current Health Monitor view, along with the number of channels being polled throughout the system compared with the number of channels available.
The shaded areas of the timeline 870 indicate the availability of data for the configured measures. This may be to allow the user to more readily determine whether data is available without having to scan the entire timeline.
Display Health Monitor View
The user may view the health of a specific machine by selecting a machine within a site map view (Note: this may be a view that has the machine information side-panel enabled) then selecting the View Health option/button within the machine information panel and selecting the desired type of chart from the pre-configured list of system desktops 400 (e.g. Fuel Monitor, Engine Monitor). This may display a desktop 400 with a pre-configured set of charts showing the health of this specific machine. It may be noted that, as this may be a system desktop, the desktop 400 configuration may be not saved unless the user creates a copy of the desktop 400 for their personal use. To re-open a saved desktop, the user may select and open the desktop 400 from the Manage Desktops screen, or via the menu off the desktop 400 options button (if configured to be part of that menu).
Adding a New Chart
To initiate adding a new chart to the Health Monitor view, the user may select the New Chart option from the Panel Options menu at the top-right of the view. This may display the New Chart workflow allowing the user to select the desired machines, which measures to display on each axis of the chart, and the events to monitor for the selected machines and/or measures. The Measure Details area may display all known properties of the currently selected measure or group. The Associated Items area may display all known associated trends, channels, events, histograms, and cumulatives for the measure.
As illustrated in FIG. 37, the user may select the configuration of the y-axis.
If the x-axis is time, the y-axis may allow multiple measures (or groups of measures) to be selected.
If the x-axis is a measure, only one measure may be selected for the y-axis.
Once the user has selected the y-axis configuration, they may select the Next button to continue.
In FIG. 39, the user may configure the events they wish to monitor for the selected machine(s). They may select from one of the following options:
All events—This may display all health-related events for the selected machines.
All level 2 and 3 events—This may display the level 2 and 3 health-related events (only) for the selected machines. Note: this option may be selected by default.
All level 2 and 3 events for the selected measures only—This may display the level 2 and 3 health-related events that occur for the measures selected, for the selected machines only.
Specific events—Allows the user to select a specific set of events to be monitored for the selected machines. The displayed list may be pre-populated with the events related to the selected measures.
The type of chart presented may be the most appropriate chart for the type of data available, e.g. line graph, bar graph, point graph, etc. As illustrated in FIG. 38, the colors used to identify each measure may be selected by the user interface to provide an even spread of contrasting colors (to be defined either automatically using available built-in tools, or via a pre-determined color configuration). The colors are not able to be selected or modified by the user, however the user may select a measure in the key for the chart to highlight the corresponding line within that chart.
When the Health Monitor view may be displaying a tabular view of events as in FIG. 40, the user may create a new chart for the channel corresponding to an event.
Edit Existing Chart
To edit a chart displayed in the Health Monitor view, the user may select the Edit Chart option in the Options menu for the chart being modified. The Options menu may be displayed in the top-right corner of the chart. The user changes the chart as desired, including the selected machines and measures, then may select the Save button to commit their changes. The chart displayed in the Health Monitor view may be updated appropriately.
Display Values at Point
To display the value of a measure at a point, the user may move the mouse through the chart area. A vertical line may be drawn to intersect with a point on the x-axis and the value at that point may be written underneath the x-axis. The point at which a displayed measure intersects with the vertical line indicates the y-axis value for that measure. The intersecting value for each of the displayed measures may be listed across the top of the chart, using the same key color for the text.
If time is being displayed on the x-axis, the position of the machine at the time corresponding to the mouse position may be illustrated within the Site Map. After the mouse is moved outside the chart, it may return to displaying the value at the right-most side of the chart.
Change Timeframe
To change the timeframe displayed within a chart, the user may move the start and end braces on the timeline control at the bottom of the Health Monitor view such as the timeline in FIGS. 38 and 40. When a chart is first added, the timeline control may be initialized to connect the end time to the last known point at which data is available for the configured chart, with at most one day's duration shown.
A chart may continue to show the same duration of data as new data is received unless the user changes the duration or the start and end points of the display window. By moving the start and end braces on the timeline 870, the data presented in each chart (both graphical and tabular views) may be modified to only contain data between the new selected start and end times. If the end time does not fall on the right-most point of the timeline 870, real-time data may not be presented within the graph and the timeline may be automatically paused. The user may view real-time data by moving the end time to the right-most point of the timeline 870.
Switch Graphical View to Tabular View
The user may switch from a graphical view of data such as in FIG. 38 to a tabular view such as in FIG. 40 by selecting the View as Table option in the Panel Options menu for the Health Monitor view. The graphical view may be hidden and the health-related events may be displayed in a table, along with the list of machines from the measures configured and the timeline control.
The table may use an icon in the Active column to indicate the severity of the events, along with whether the event may be a start, intermediate, or end event (i.e. whether the event has received an associated deactivate event, if applicable). If the event has received a corresponding deactivate event, the text may be displayed using an alternate color. The columns displayed may be configurable for each chart. The user may return to the chart to a graphical view by selecting the View as Graphs option in the Panel Options menu for the Health Monitor view.
Health measures may be grouped together to provide an easier way of finding related items. FIG. 41 may be a Manage Groups screen that may be used to add, edit, and remove groups, including the list of Favorite measures for the system (note the Favorites may be shared across the system, they may not be a user-specific set). FIG. 41 illustrates exemplary data that may be selected from only the “oil temperature” measurements available.
View Groups
To initiate the display of the Manage Groups workflow screen for viewing the list of grouped measures in the system, the user may select either:
The Tasks->Machine->View Measure Groups option; or
The Panel Options->View Measure Groups option on the Health Monitor.
The Health Measure Groups screen may display a list of all the configured groups within the system, including the special “Favorites” group. Selecting a group within the list may display the measures contained in that group in the Measures table. Groups may be added and edited using menu selections and by saving the selected items at the end of the editing session.
Health Limits
The user may use the Health Limits workflow to manage these limits. Customer limits override any previously set limits. Each limit may be applied at either the system, machine category, machine class, or machine level, and each measure may have at most one target, at most two lower limits, and at most two upper limits applicable at a time.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

The describe system may operate in a variety of environments, but may be useful in a mining environment. The system may control virtually every aspect of the location, such as determining where trucks may be, where diggers may dig, etc. and what incidents and hazards may be present. In addition, the health of the devices in the location may also be monitored and the proper personnel may be informed if a device has an issue.
In the past, separate system would perform the various tasks 410. The systems were poor at communicating with each other and the consistency between systems was random at best. In addition, remote visualization was difficult, especially in low bandwidth situations. The described system may allow real time visualization even when the machines are in low bandwidth locations.

Claims

We claim:

1. A method of using a computing device to create a user interface for a mining operation comprising:

coupling the computing device to a network;

receiving, via the network, signals from data sources including at least a mapping database and a vehicle location system;

developing, at a processor of the computing device, a plurality of mining views related to the mining operation;

executing a workflow for a mining task related to one of the plurality of mining views;

saving a setting in a memory of the computing device related to a usage case of the user interface responsive to execution of the workflow; and

displaying a first mining desktop including:

displaying one or more mining views of the plurality of mining views corresponding to real time events associated with the mining operation.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

creating a plurality of mining desktops at a workstation, wherein creating each of the plurality of mining desktops includes:

selecting a desktop view layout from a plurality of layout configurations;

displaying the plurality of mining views; and

populating the selected desktop view layout with at least one of the plurality of mining views.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the plurality of mining views comprises at least two of a travel progress monitor view, an incident view, a hazards view, a key performance indicator view, and a health monitor view.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying a safety check list corresponding to the displayed one or more mining views.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining if the computing device is in a low bandwidth location and adjusting an element of the first mining desktop for low bandwidth environments.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of mining views comprises a view of the mining operation including mining layers and mining devices.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of mining views includes a live statistic of at least one statistic selected from a group comprising machine latency, active machines, inactive machines, and machine warnings.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first mining desktop is one of a foreman desktop, a driver desktop, and a remote manager desktop.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the foreman desktop illustrates one or more of devices on assignment in the mining operation, an overall mining progress, production issues in the mining operation, driver production in the mining operation, and illustrates devices spatially in the mining operation.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising displaying the foreman desktop on a portable device configured for multimedia data receive and display and further configured for text-only send.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the foreman desktop illustrates one or more of a production time line of the mining operation, and all available desktops in the mining operation.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the driver desktop illustrates one or more of hazards in a relevant range of the driver, incidents in the relevant range of the driver, zones in the mining operation to a driver, and work areas for the driver in the mining operation.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the driver desktop is personalized for specific drivers.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the mining task is at least one selected from a group comprising a machine task, an operator task, a zone task, an incidents task, a hazards task, an users task, a jobs task, a desktops task, a map task, an automation task, a dashboards task and a health task.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the zone task further comprises managing zones including at least one from a zone group comprising an avoidance zone, a notify on entry zone or a notify on exit zone.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the zone applies to a specific machine class.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the map task further comprises at least one from a map group comprising viewing a site map, relocating a shutdown machine, importing a layer, managing imported layers, managing saved views, wherein relocating the shutdown machine comprises selecting the shutdown machine and placing the shutdown machine on a map.

18. A system for managing mining tasks at a mine comprising:

a mobile unit operating in a mining vehicle, which is one of a plurality of mining vehicles with a respective mobile unit;

at least one computer server including a hardware processor, a physical memory, and a network interface;

a network coupling the mobile unit to the at least one computer server;

the physical memory of the at least one computer server including a plurality of modules including software code that when executed on the hardware processor cause the at least one computer server to:

receive information from the mobile unit via the network and the network interface, the information including location data and status data for the mining vehicle;

present a workflow process selected from a plurality of workflow processes on a display of the at least one computer server, each workflow process defining presentation of at least a portion of the information received via the network using a mining desktop; and

present the mining desktop indicating a status of one of the mine and the mining vehicle.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the physical memory further contains a code module that when executed on the hardware processor causes the at least one computer server to:

set an alarm condition based on the information received from the mobile unit responsive to a trigger set via the workflow process.

20. A method of presenting mining data related to a mining operation at a mine, the method comprising:

executing, via a processor of a computer, a first workflow process to identify mining zones on a map of the mine, the mining zones corresponding to one or more of a hazard zone, a speed zone, an avoidance zone, a notify on entry zone, and a notify on exit zone;

executing, via the processor of the computer, a second workflow process to define a mining desktop incorporating mining vehicle location and status data received from a mining vehicle via a wireless network;

displaying, via a display of a computer, a mining desktop including at least an indication of a location of the mining vehicle and a status of the mining vehicle.