An overview of models for truck dispatching in open-pit mines

Abstract

Nowadays, it is difficult to imagine an open-pit mining (OPM) enterprise without an automated dispatching system operating in it, which provides control over the operation of technological shovel-truck systems (STS). The objective of this article is to review and document the mine dispatching systems' (DS) models and algorithms. The purpose is to understand these algorithms and the proposed academic solutions in this area to identify any gaps in the current literature and to open up opportunities to establish research questions that need to be addressed in an integrated simulation and optimization operational planning research framework. In this article, we review industrial mine dispatching systems and the main academic models behind such systems. The dispatching systems are divided into three subsequently related problems to review: the shortest path, production optimization and real-time dispatching. Finally, the limitations of current algorithms for dispatching systems are documented in terms of mining practice feasibility and optimality of the solution on large-scale problems. The results of this literature review enable us to evaluate the logical links between major components of an integrated simulation and optimization operational planning framework with current theory of mine dispatching systems.