Digitalization in Mining Geomechanics – Looking to the Future

Abstract

ABSTRACT According to Deloitte (2014), the term "Industry 4.0" refers to the next development stage in the organization of the entire value chain process in the manufacturing industry. The mining industry, just as any other industry, is also in the process of moving into this new stage. The challenges facing the mining industry are increasing, with environmental concerns becoming broadly understood, emergent technology changing the nature of work and society and resource nationalism fueling the expectations of a better life. New and emergent technology and working practices, increased stakeholder expectations around competitive economic returns and rents, and community expectations for an inclusive and sociably acceptable industry is leading to changes in the roles and attributes of the mining engineer of the future (Smith 2017). Similar to other areas within the mining industry, there is a lot of digitalization being implemented in the field of mining geomechanics. This paper will review some of those technologies that have been developed in the field of mining geomechanics along with looking into some future opportunities. INTRODUCTION According to Deloitte (2014), "Industry 4.0" refers to the next development stage in the organization of the entire value chain process in the manufacturing industry. The first industrial revolution was observed in the late 18th century with the arrival of steam power and the invention of the power loom. This led to mechanization and radically changed how goods were manufactured. The late 19th century saw the second industrial revolution when electricity and assembly lines made mass production possible. In the beginning of the 1970s, the third industrial revolution was observed. During this time, advances in computing enabled the programming of machines and networks, powering automation (Deloitte 2018). An overview of the evolution of these industrial revolutions can be seen in Figure 1. According to Marr (2016), Industry 4.0 introduces what has been called the "smart factory". In this system, the cyber-physical systems monitor the physical processes in the factory and make decentralized decisions. The physical systems become an Internet of Things (IoT), communicating and cooperating both with each other and with humans in real time via the wireless web. The development of Industry 4.0 will be accompanied by changing tasks and demands for the people in the factory (Gorecky et al., 2014).