Virtualized Reality: an Application to Open-pit Mine Monitoring

In this paper, an infrastructure for monitoring remote equipment and solving some of the logistic challenges of operating satellite surface mines is presented. This infrastructure includes strategies for communicating timely and accurate information amongst operators, planners and supervisors, using off-the-shelf network protocols. Advanced data visualization techniques are implemented, so users can find information easily in a familiar format. A computerized excavator test-bed was developed to demonstrate performance and diagnostic monitoring systems, as well as other operator assisted systems. Results to date, including data from the Syncrude's mine site, are presented.