Integrated performance monitoring and assessment of heavy mobile equipment

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Large, complex, mobile machines are used in many industrial sectors (mining, construction, forestry, agriculture). As the size and complexity of such production equipment has increased, the reliability and productivity of such equipment has become even more critical. For example, operating costs on a large mobile mining machine can amount to several million dollars per year, and maintenance costs can exceed 25% per annum of purchase price, and over 55% per annum of operating cost. This research project focuses on integrating the diverse aspects of monitoring the various functions and subsystems in such machines, in order to achieve meaningful and useful assessments of their performance, with respect to Equipment Modelling and Simulation, Reliability Analysis, Productivity Analysis, Maintenance Planning, Production Planning, Risk Analysis, Operations Management This research will build on established techniques for acquiring relevant information (as opposed to raw data) from large operating equipment in order to evaluate operational conditions and operating histories in conjunction with failure events and failure histories. Techniques for processing and analyzing the acquired information will be developed, to provide a basis for integrated productivity and reliability estimates, as well as holistic planning encompassing both production planning and maintenance planning. Relevant embedded sensing, computing, and communications technologies, both developed and emerging, will be evaluated in the context of common subsystems encountered in large production equipment, e.g. high pressure hydraulics and structural elements. Characterization of operational conditions and operator influence will be investigated. Productivity and reliability metrics which address both operational conditions and operator influence will be formulated.