Crushing of blasted ore is an essential phase in extraction of valuable minerals in mining industry. It is typically performed in multiple stages with each stage producing finer fragmentation. Performance and throughput of the first stage of crushing is highly dependent on the size distribution of the blasted ore. In the crushing plant, a metal grate prevents oversized boulders from getting into the crusher jaws, and a human-controlled hydraulic manipulator equipped with a rock hammer is required to break oversized boulders and ensure continuous material flow. This secondary breaking task is event-based in the sense that ore trucks deliver boulders at irregular intervals, thus requiring constant human supervision to ensure continuous material flow and prevent blockages. To automatize such breaking tasks, an intelligent robotic control system along with a visual perception system (VPS) is essential. In this manuscript, we propose an autonomous breaker system that includes a VPS capable of detecting multiple irregularly shaped rocks, a robotic control system featuring a decision-making mechanism for determining the breaking order when dealing with multiple rocks, and a comprehensive manipulator control system. We present a proof of concept for an autonomous robotic boulder breaking system, which consists of a stereo-camera-based VPS and an industrial rock-breaking manipulator robotized with our retrofitted system design. The experiments in this study were conducted in a real-world setup, and the results were evaluated based on the success rates of breaking. The experiments yielded an average success rate of 34% and a break pace of 3.3 attempts per minute.

中文翻译：

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使用实时 3D 视觉感知系统的自主机器人岩石破碎

爆破矿石的破碎是采矿业中提取有价值矿物的重要阶段。它通常分多个阶段进行，每个阶段产生更精细的碎片。破碎第一阶段的性能和产量在很大程度上取决于爆破矿石的粒度分布。在破碎设备中，金属炉排防止超大巨石进入破碎机颚部，需要配备岩石锤的人工控制液压机械手破碎超大巨石并确保连续物料流动。这种二次破碎任务是基于事件的，因为矿石卡车以不规则的间隔运送巨石，因此需要持续的人工监督以确保连续的物料流动并防止堵塞。为了自动化此类破坏任务，智能机器人控制系统和视觉感知系统 (VPS) 必不可少。在本手稿中，我们提出了一个自主破碎机系统，其中包括一个能够检测多个不规则形状岩石的 VPS、一个机器人控制系统，该系统具有在处理多个岩石时确定破碎顺序的决策机制，以及一个综合机械手控制系统。我们展示了自主机器人碎石系统的概念验证，该系统由基于立体摄像头的 VPS 和使用我们改造的系统设计实现机器人化的工业碎石机械手组成。本研究中的实验是在真实世界的设置中进行的，并根据破解成功率对结果进行评估。实验的平均成功率为 34%，破发速度为 3。