Mining Feature: 2024 Topic Selection Meeting for Mine Automation and Emerging Technologies Health and Safety Partnership
Tuesday, February 27, 2024
A topic selection meeting for the NIOSH Mine Automation and Emerging Technologies Health and Safety Partnership is scheduled for Tuesday February 27th at 3:30-5pm during MINEXCHANGE 2024 SME Annual Conference & Expo. The topics discussed at this meeting will be considered during an upcoming agenda-setting meeting.
The meeting will be held in the North 126C room at the Phoenix Convention Center.
These partnership meetings are hosted by NIOSH in collaboration with the Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration.
Participation is open to conference attendees.
Registration
If you’d like to attend, please respond to Joel Haight, University of Pittsburgh, at jhaight@pitt.edu
Initial list of suggested topics
We have compiled an initial list of topics based on our exposure in the industry, but we hope that members will expand the list based on their own knowledge and expertise. The goal for this Phoenix meeting is to review these collective suggestions, identify the highest priorities, and select key topics to cover during the agenda setting meeting in May.
Please review the list below and send suggestions to Joel Haight (jhaight@pitt.edu) or bring them to the meeting.
Workforce Challenges
- Retaining talent
- Retraining talent
- Recruiting talent
- Getting worker buy-in
Workplace Challenges
- Identifying new hazards
- Optimizing health and safety
- Human System Integration (HSI) design
- GPS denied environments
Data Infrastructure Requirements
- Wireless requirements
- Wireless co-existence
- Hazard identification/tracking
- Data security
- Critical safety systems
Regulation and Best Practices
- Rulemaking processes
- User interface design standards
- The language of automation
- Administrative challenges
- Implementation processes
- Design standards across OEMs
Implementation in Small Mines
- Economies of scale
- Marginal benefit
- Step-wise implementation
- OEM flexibility
Emerging Technology
- Evaluating opportunities
- Avoiding safety pitfalls
- Lifecycle introduction and planning
Maintenance Challenges
- New LOTO protocols
- Impact on productivity vs safety
- Automated inspection
Global Perspectives
- Motivations for implementation
- Lessons learned
- Overcoming acceptance obstacles
- Getting worker buy-in
- Planning for autonomy
Situational Awareness (SA)
- Worker SA
- Machine SA
- Distributed SA
Upcoming Challenges
- Strategic planning
- Keeping up with technology