Planning Dragline Positioning Sequence with A * Search Algorithm *. Issue 1 (July 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Liu, Haoquan; Kearney, Michael; Forbes, Michael
• Is Part Of: IFAC-PapersOnLine. Volume 50:Issue 1(2017)
• Page Start: 12477
• Page End: 12483
• Publication Date: 2017-07
• Subjects: Artificial intelligence -- process optimization -- dragline operation planning -- decision making; Automatic control -- Periodicals; 629.805
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ifacol.2017.08.1924
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2405-8963

Abstract

Abstract: Dragline excavators are among the largest earthmoving machines in surface mining, where they are used to remove the waste material that sits above a target mineral or coal reserve. The effectiveness of their operation is highly dependent on the sequence of positions at which they operate and the material movement during the excavation at each position. This paper addresses the problem of how to position a dragline in order to efficiently finish an excavation task with a specified digging and dumping strategy at each position. The dragline positioning sequence is computed among a range of candidate positions using the A* search algorithm. The algorithm is applied to two simulated dragline excavation scenarios that are defined based on actual terrain data. We show that the proposed A* algorithm is able to produce the optimal positioning sequences in a reasonable amount of computation time, allowing it to be applied in real-time decision support for the dragline operators.