Eye Trackers

What's the considered opinion among the HEF membership then ..?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22640279

One accident prevented by this technology would surely pay for an entire fleet upgrade to it, but I am not sure I want the office to have a video of me picking my nose. Seriously though, for large mine operations and jobs that don't necessarly require ones full concentration (haul truck driver), I can see where insurance companies will be dictating the use of this technology by virtue of reduced premiums.

From the article: "For now he acknowledged that the system was not perfect: for example, if a user glances down, the camera loses sight of the driver's eyes and sounds the alarm."

This 'strive for perfection' driven by technology is getting out of hand. And what's next? Accidents because 'one more glance down' and you're back to being a flag man? How is this not going to add stress in the workplace?

"Your Honor, I only ran over that guy because I used up all my 'glanced downs' and let's face it, I would have had to glance down to see him."

Now to be honest, I've never driven a quarry truck. But I also wouldn't have that on my list of things 'most likely to put you to sleep'. Apparently it's a problem?

I am very skeptical about new stuff and adding electronics to equipment w/ a verified benefit to the owner, but, many years ago I was the 7 pm to 7 am foreman for an outfit that unloaded iron ore from ships and trucked it to the other sidfe of steel mills. I had more than one of my drivers go to sleep in the wee hours with minor consequences, and one went head on with a train!

I have no mining experience, but I would imagine the haul truck drivers are lacking in mental stimulation sometimes, and it might be well worth while.

The thing is that we've had 2 accidents in the past 18 months or so caused by haul truck operators falling asleep at the wheel. One we were lucky and got away with only minor damage, the second twisted the truck chassis so a 6-month $3m truck is a write off. Yes we can strip it for parts but that's not the point. I did suggest as opposed to the "vibrating seat" as an operator warning that we mount a 4lb hammer in the cab headliner that pounds the operator's head if he's detected dozing. It didn't receive too much support, I wonder why ......?

It's OK, this is all stop gap while they finish working the bugs out of the automated system that makes drivers obsolete. GPS is done now to the extent that the main frame knows where all the trucks are.

Skynet is only a couple of years away.

Nige said:

I did suggest as opposed to the "vibrating seat" as an operator warning that we mount a 4lb hammer in the cab headliner that pounds the operator's head if he's detected dozing. It didn't receive too much support, I wonder why ......?

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I like the way you think Nige!:salute

Yair . . . I have never driven a modern mining truck but I can say for sure and certain a Euclid with a four speed hi/lo behind a heavy clutch, not much brakes and a "two pipes through the bonnet" 12v-71 resulted in very few micro sleeps.

I think there is just not enough to do on the modern rigs

I would have thought some version of the "dead mans button" that operates a claxon (or Nige's hammer) if not pressed at random close intervals would be cheap and effective.

Cheers.

Scrub Puller, you have an excellent point there. With all the modern technology and attention to creature comforts we have lost a key component to running equipment in general, and with that, the demand to pay attention.

I recall not so long ago running open cab equipment in the winter and paying close attention to the curtains, having reversed the fan, to somehow remain comfortable throughout the day. Or, the joy on running a cable dozer when the clutches were perfectly adjusted. The pleasure of having run an entire week without having to re-thread cable in the DW 15s and DW 20s. The satisfaction of having caught a DW 20 perfectly shifting from 6th to 2nd on a 19A D9 with just the slightest kiss to the stinger.

Even when we were doing more mondane tasks there was enough physical activity required that falling asleep was never a problem.

Admittedly I have nearly fallen asleep while loading haul trucks during mass excavation projects. With climate control, music, low decimal cabs, etc. relaxation comes way to easy. Nowadays we are miffed if we have to clean our windows because of thirty drops of rain and dust. As John C. mentioned this will all be done as the drones are flown pretty soon. Somebody a half a world away will be operating equipment with a video game type controller, or worse, the computers will be operating everything.

Fortrunately my company is involved in stream channel construction and restoration, and though GPS is an aid, it is hard to imagine when it will ever be cost effective to perform this work from a remote location. Besides, who will shovel out tracks at night when it is well below zero and you have been working in the water and ice all day.

Sorry, I got off on a tangent here, but Scrub Pullers comments struck me as poignant (pretty good word for a dirt mover from Idaho eh?).

Nige said:

I did suggest as opposed to the "vibrating seat" as an operator warning that we mount a 4lb hammer in the cab headliner that pounds the operator's head if he's detected dozing. It didn't receive too much support, I wonder why ......?

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Might have damaged the hammer?...................................!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oxbow said:

Scrub Puller, you have an excellent point there. With all the modern technology and attention to creature comforts we have lost a key component to running equipment in general, and with that, the demand to pay attention.

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That is a really good point. More and more, technology just allows us to trade one form of monotony for another. As a side note, it's becoming clear that joystick jockeys are also subjected to uber-monotony as they remotely control machines from a desk. The cycle just continues albeit at higher technological level.

I worked at a large open pit mine in the mid 60's and on graveyard shift some of the end dump drivers would nod off and Detroit 12V149's with straight pipes through the bonnet made no difference. We used pit mechanics that did repairs on the trucks for minor problems. We would have operators stop for some stupid reason like losing power because they following were asleep in most cases one of the mechanics would test run the truck to the dump the and check on the power loss while the driver had a cup of coffee and walked around for a few minutes . We had no drivers falling asleep and wrecking a truck no lost production it worked out for everyone ( the trucks were Cat 779 electric & Unit Rig M100 electric )