Caterpillar has installed facial recognition systems in its rigid dump trucks in partnership with Seeing Machines to enable fleet owners in the mining industry to monitor their driver for signs of fatigue.
The round-the-clock operation of mine sites makes driver fatigue a very real problem, and rigid dump trucks are such large vehicles that the hazard drivers can potentially pose to an operation by losing focus during operations is particularly high.
Cat’s facial recognition system specifically scans for signs of microsleep: brief and involuntary periods of unconsciousness experienced by fatigued drivers that are indicated by signs such as changes in the positioning of the head and eyelids.
Whenever the system detects potential fatigue, the software sounds an alarm and forwards a video clip to a 24-hour command centre dedicated to sleep fatigue in Caterpillar’s Illinois headquarters for verification by Caterpillar’s employees.
At this point, a safety advisor contacts the driver through radio and informs the site manager of the incident and of the possible need to intervene and allow the driver to rest.
Caterpillar Safety Services, which is a consultancy branch of the company, is still in the early stages of implementing this initiative with Seeing Machines, but is looking to expand it further to cover about 38,000 trucks globally.
Another major trend aimed at reducing the risk profile of heavy vehicles, particularly in the mining segment, is to increase the autonomy of the vehicles.
Volvo Group has already introduced a driverless heavy truck designed for mining environments, as part of ongoing efforts to deliver commercially viable self-driving solutions to the industry.
Komatsu has likewise been pioneering the operation of autonomous rigid dump trucks for a number of years, across sites in Australia and South America.
