Fatigue prediction technology improves safety at Peruvian mine
01 April 2013
An ESA spin-off company has raised the levels of safety for dozens of drivers at the El Brocal mine in Peru by predicting their fatigue.
El Brocal mining high up in the Peruvian Andes
In far-flung mining operations around the world, drivers typically work 12-hour shifts, driving trucks and loaders of 160–180 tonnes – the size of a small apartment block. Combine the gruelling schedule with even a small mistake, and you have a recipe for disaster.
“Sixty-five percent of serious accidents are caused by fatigue,” says Jean Verhardt, founder and CEO of EstrellaSat. With the help of ESA’s Business Incubation Centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, Jean has developed a way to detect the early signs of fatigue.
Sensitive gyroscopes developed for satellites measure tiny changes in the vehicle’s motion, analysing patterns in braking, steering and acceleration. “The system isolates specific movements related to fatigue out of thousands of movements in a given night,” Jean says. “That way, it can predict fatigue before the driver himself is aware of it.”
But Jean still needed a way to link the fatigue sensors to supervisors who could decide when a driver has had enough. The big obstacle: many mines sit in remote areas without cell phone, or 3G, coverage.
Jean got support from ESA’s ESTEC space research and technology centre to develop a way to link the motion sensors on the vehicles to remote offices via wifi and satellite.
“Our role was to give him tech support,” says ESA communication systems engineer Nader Alagha. “We helped to integrate existing technologies in an innovative way so he could develop an effective system.”
Thanks to the expertise from ESTEC engineers and elements from their space systems, a data link via satellite was developed to create a constant connection between the fatigue monitor and an office hundreds of kilometres away, where trained staff can evaluate the data in real time from the drivers.
Following an extensive high-altitude field trial of the Driver Fatigue Management System, in November 2012 EstrellaSat recently closed its first contract, and is now setting up the system covering 30 drivers operating ten vehicles at a high-altitude mine in the Peruvian Andes.
“We saw during the field trial that keeping drivers aware of their fatigue status in real time substantially reduced fatigue levels," says Steve Dixon, Chief Operating Officer, Stracon GyM S.A. "We expect that the fully operational fatigue service will result in a long-term reduction in driver fatigue levels at our mines,”
The next version of the system will draw even more on space technology. Working with ESA’s human spaceflight directorate, EstrellaSat is now developing a vest with sensors that measure temperature, heart rate and other physiological data to pinpoint risky fatigue in drivers even more accurately, and in time get them out from behind the wheel.