Autonomous Driving in Underground Mines via Parallel Driving Operation Systems: Challenges, Frameworks and Cases Study

Autonomous driving plays a crucial role in the development of intelligent mines. However, the complex environments in mines present many challenges for the application of autonomous driving compared to urban scenes. Especially in underground mines, the environments such as dust, water mist, narrow roads, and sharp turnings bring additional difficulties for autonomous driving. In response to these issues, a framework of autonomous driving in underground mines based on parallel driving operation systems was proposed. It consists of the intelligent scheduling and management platform, autonomous trackless rubber-tyred vehicle, V2X cooperative perception system, and remote driving system. Field tests were conducted in two real mines to validate the effectiveness of the solution. The experiments demonstrate that our proposed solution boosts the automation level of transportation operations, ensuring operational efficiency and enhancing the safety of transportation processes in underground mines.