Automatic rock breaker control

Automate the breaking of oversized rocks at the receiving station. A dump truck unloads ore onto the grizzly screen, large lumps get stuck on it, and the operator breaks them manually with a rock breaker — a hydraulic hammer on a manipulator.

Manual control requires the operator's constant presence and depends on their attention and experience.

A major diamond mining company.

We built a pilot in which a computer vision system controls the rock breaker instead of an operator.

1. 01Cameras above the grizzly screen and recognition of ore lumps
2. 02Detecting oversized rocks that do not pass through the screen
3. 03Calculation of the impact point and the manipulator trajectory
4. 04Automatic control of the rock breaker manipulator

The pilot showed that computer vision can control a rock breaker instead of an operator: the system itself finds an oversized rock and breaks it.