System and method for controlling a drill and blast event

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11199389-B2
Application number	US-201916360313-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 21, 2019
Priority date	Mar 21, 2018
Publication date	Dec 14, 2021
Grant date	Dec 14, 2021

Abstract

A blast plan control system and method used to control a drill and blast event is disclosed. The system and method customizes results for specific conditions. The system can receive certain inputs, such as conditions of the area to be blasted and the desired rock fragment size, and use these inputs to output a plurality of blast plans characterized by a set of characteristics that achieve the desired fragmentation size. A user can select a blast plan for execution from the plurality of blast plans. When the control system receives a selected blast plan, the control system can generate a work order for the selected blast plan and communicate the work order to operators and/or drilling equipment associated with execution of the drill and blast event. The operators and/or drilling equipment can then prepare for and execute the selected blast plan.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method of controlling a drill and blast event, comprising:
receiving, by a control system, a desired rock fragment size for a desired percentage of the population of rock fragments resulting from the drill and blast event;
receiving, by the control system, drill and blast event characteristic inputs;
determining, by the control system, simulation variables to be used in place of unknown parameters, wherein the simulation variables include randomly selected values generated by selecting a shape of distribution based on drill and blast characteristic inputs and wherein the shape of distribution is one or both of Normal and logNormal;
generating, by the control system, multiple drill and blast event scenarios based on drill and blast characteristic inputs and simulation variables in place of unknown parameters;
determining, by the control system, drill and blast event scenarios comprising drill and blast event specifications for drill and blast events that result in the desired rock fragment size for a desired percentage of the population of rock fragments;
receiving, by the control system, drill and blast event specifications selected from the multiple drill and blast event scenarios;
communicating, via the Internet of Things, by the control system, the selected drill and blast event specifications to at least the drilling equipment to be used during execution of the drill and blast event; and
executing the selected drill and blast event by at least the drilling equipment to be used during execution of the selected drill and blast event.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the drill and blast characteristic inputs include rock characteristics and bench characteristics of a rock bench that is a target of the selected drill and blast event as well as drill parameters of equipment that is to be used in the selected drill and blast event.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating, by the control system, multiple drill and blast event scenarios includes running a Monte Carlo simulation.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining, by the control system, constraints for the simulation variables, and applying the constraints to restrict the simulation variables to values inside of a range defined by the constraints.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the constraints are based on the drill and blast event characteristic inputs.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the simulation variables and the drill and blast event characteristic inputs are used in a Kuz-Ram rock fragmentation model when determining, by the control system, drill and blast event scenarios.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
preparing and submitting, by the control system, an order of material for implementing the drill and blast event.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the drill and blast event specifications include the measurements of holes that are to be drilled into a rock bench that is a target of the selected drill and blast event, as well as the cost of the corresponding drill and blast event.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
displaying a plot of the rock fragmentation sizes resulting from multiple drill and blast event scenarios against the drill and blast event specifications correlating with the respective drill and blast event scenario.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
generating, by the control system, a work order including the drill and blast event specifications of the selected drill and blast event, wherein communicating, by the control system, the selected drill and blast event specifications to at least the drilling equipment to be used during execution of the drill and blast event includes sending, via the Internet of Things, the work order to at least the drilling equipment to be used during execution of the drill and blast event.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing software comprising instructions executable by one or more computers which, upon such execution, cause the one or more computers to:
receive, by a control system, a desired rock fragment size for a desired percentage of the population of rock fragments resulting from the drill and blast event;
receive, by the control system, drill and blast event characteristic inputs;
determine, by the control system, simulation variables to be used in place of unknown parameters, wherein the simulation variables include randomly selected values generated by selecting a shape of distribution based on drill and blast characteristic inputs and wherein the shape of distribution is one or both of Normal and logNormal;
generate, by the control system, multiple drill and blast event scenarios based on drill and blast characteristic inputs and simulation variables in place of unknown parameters;
determine, by the control system, drill and blast event scenarios comprising drill and blast event specifications for drill and blast events that result in the desired rock fragment size for a desired percentage of the population of rock fragments;
receive, by the control system, drill and blast event specifications selected from the multiple drill and blast event scenarios;
communicate, via the Internet of Things, by the control system, the selected drill and blast event specifications to at least the drilling equipment to be used during execution of the drill and blast event; and
execute the selected drill and blast event by at least the drilling equipment to be used during execution of the selected drill and blast event.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium storing software of claim 11 , wherein the instructions executable by one or more computers, upon such execution, cause the one or more computers to determine, by the control system, constraints for the simulation variables, and applying the constraints to restrict the simulation variables to values inside of a range defined by the constraints.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium storing software of claim 12 , wherein the constraints are based on the drill and blast event characteristic inputs and wherein the drill and blast event specifications include an amount of resources for use in the selected drill and blast event.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium storing software of claim 11 , wherein generating, by the control system, multiple drill and blast event scenarios includes running a Monte Carlo simulation.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium storing software of claim 13 , wherein the amount of resources includes material for implementing the drill and blast event.

16. A control system for controlling a drill and blast event, comprising:
one or more computers and one or more storage devices storing instructions that are operable, when executed by the one or more computers, to cause the one or more computers to:
receive, by a control system, a desired rock fragment size for a desired percentage of the population of rock fragments resulting from the drill and blast event;
receive, by the control system, drill and blast event characteristic inputs;

determine, by the control system, simulation variables to be used in place of unknown parameters, wherein the simulation variables include randomly selected values generated by selecting a shape of distribution based on drill and blast characteristic inputs and wherein the shape of distribution is one or both of Normal and logNormal;
generate, by the control system, multiple drill and blast event scenarios based on drill and blast characteristic inputs and simulation variables in place of unknown parameters;
determine, by the

Assignees

• Accenture Global Solutions Ltd

Inventors

• Pierbattista Marco
• Hidalgo Pablo F
• Kwiecinska Anna
• Cwiklinski Piotr

Classifications

• F42D3/04 Primary

  for rock blasting · CPC title

• G06Q50/02

  Agriculture; Fishing; Forestry; Mining · CPC title

• G05B15/02

  electric · CPC title

• E21C37/00

  Other methods or devices for dislodging with or without loading (breaking-down by means inserted in slits E21C27/14) · CPC title

• E21B44/00

  Automatic control systems specially adapted for drilling operations, i.e. self-operating systems which function to carry out or modify a drilling operation without intervention of a human operator, e.g. computer-controlled drilling systems; Systems specially adapted for monitoring a plurality of drilling variables or conditions · CPC title