Fragmentation georeferencing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12529313-B2
Application number	US-202218555675-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 19, 2022
Priority date	Apr 19, 2021
Publication date	Jan 20, 2026
Grant date	Jan 20, 2026

Abstract

A system for determining locations of blast fragments may include: a three-dimensional (3D) imaging system mounted on an excavation device and configured for viewing a portion of a pile of blast fragments and configured for capturing at least one image of the viewed portion of the pile of blast fragments; a positioning system configured for providing a location and heading of the excavation device; and a processor. The processor may be configured to execute instructions to perform image processing operations upon the images of the viewed portion of the pile of blast fragments, to: identify a reference location in the viewed portion of the pile of blast fragments; determine the reference location in a geographic coordinate system; identify a plurality of individual blast fragments in the viewed portion of the pile of blast fragments; and determine a distinct geographic coordinate corresponding to each of the plurality of individual blast fragments.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1 . A system for determining locations of blast fragments in a pile of blast fragments produced in association with or resulting from mining operations, the system comprising:
a three-dimensional (3D) imaging system mounted on an excavation device and configured for viewing a portion of a pile of blast fragments and configured for capturing at least one image of the viewed portion of the pile of blast fragments; a positioning system configured for providing a location and heading of the excavation device; a processor configured to execute program instructions to process signals from the 3D imaging system and the positioning system, including by performing image processing operations upon the at least one image of the viewed portion of the pile of blast fragments, to:
identify a reference location in the viewed portion of the pile of blast fragments;
determine the reference location in a geographic coordinate system using the location and heading of the excavation device;
identify a plurality of individual blast fragments in the viewed portion of the pile of blast fragments;
associate or match individual blast fragments with closest grid elements in a grid pattern; and

determine a distinct geographic coordinate corresponding to each of the plurality of individual blast fragments by way of allocating to each identified blast fragment a georeferenced location relative to the reference location coordinate system and a grid element with which the blast fragment has been associated or matched.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein each distinct geographic coordinate comprises a set of coordinates in a mine coordinate system or a Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) geographic coordinate system.

3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the viewed portion of the pile of blast fragments comprises a current in situ dig face of a muck pile to which material excavation operations are to be directed.

4 . The system of claim 3 , wherein the 3D imaging system is intentionally/specifically configured for viewing and imaging the current in situ dig face of the pile of blast fragments.

5 . The system of claim 4 , wherein the 3D imaging system is intentionally/specifically configured relative to the excavation device such that during an initial part of each of a plurality of material excavation operations directed to the in situ dig face, (a) a field of view of the 3D imaging system views the current in situ dig face and/or a target portion thereof; and (b) the 3D imaging system captures an image of the current in situ dig face and/or a target portion thereof.

6 . The system of claim 3 , wherein the 3D imaging system is configured to manually and/or automatically trigger the image processing operations, to select one of the at least one captured images for the processing, including automatically triggering the image processing operations based on one or more of the following trigger criteria being met by the at least one captured image:
an exposure value of the at least one image being within a preselected range; a measured difference between the image and a previous one of the images being above a preselected threshold; the 3D imaging system generating distance information from at least a preselected fraction of the image; an average distance between a location of the 3D imaging system and the pile being within a preselected range; a difference in distance between a nearest point in view and a furthest point in view being below a preselected threshold; and an average slope of the pile in view being within a preselected range of being perpendicular to a line of sight from the 3D imaging system.

7 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the positioning system comprises an antenna/marker of a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), or a Universal Total Station (UTS) system.

8 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured for determining a distinct geographic coordinate corresponding to each of the plurality of individual blast fragments by way of determining a distinct geographic coordinate corresponding to each of the plurality of individual blast fragments relative to the reference location in the geographic coordinate system.

9 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured for determining the reference location in the geographic coordinate system by way of:
(i) calculating α from:

α
≡

R
FM

R
FP

where R FM is a 3D range between a 3D imaging system location F and a location M of blast fragments and R FP is a 3D range between the 3D imaging system location F and a location of a point P in the centre of the field of view of the 3D imaging system at the same level as the excavation device;
(ii) calculating v M from:

v
M

=

(

x
F

+

α
⁢
Δ
⁢
x

α
⁢
Δ
⁢
y

z
F

+

α
⁢
Δ
⁢
z

)

where x F is an x coordinate of the point F, Δx is a distance between point F and point P along an x-axis, Δy is a distance between point F and point P along a y-axis, z F is a z coordinate of the point F, and Δz is a distance between point F and point P along a z-axis;
(iii) converting v M to mine coordinates V M from:
V=Rv+V A and

V
=

Rv
+

V
A

⁢

and
⁢

R

Assignees

• Orica Int Pte Ltd

Inventors

• Chen Benny
• Ody Michael
• Kirby Meyrick

Classifications

• G01B11/026

  by measuring distance between sensor and object (G01B11/0608 takes precedence) · CPC title

• E21C35/20

  General features of equipment for removal of chippings, e.g. for loading on conveyor · CPC title

• G01S19/485

  whereby the further system is an optical system or imaging system · CPC title

• H04N13/133

  Equalising the characteristics of different image components, e.g. their average brightness or colour balance · CPC title

• H04N13/239

  using two two-dimensional [2D] image sensors having a relative position equal to or related to the interocular distance (H04N13/243 takes precedence) · CPC title