An innovative pedagogical simulation and animation of a shovel-truck system

Abstract

This paper aims to simulate and animate a shovel-truck system in an open pit mine using Arena® Software for teaching and learning purposes. The  shovel-truck system is the use of loading and dumping units in the transportation of materials. The shovel-truck system has wide application in open pit  mining. Animation of a shovel-truck system in Arena® is a reflection of the logic defined by the module’s flowcharts. Arena® software is a widely used  simulation software based on Discrete Events. The data were analysed by an input analyser tool in Arena® software to get distributions and expressions  for the shovel-truck system. The shovel-truck system was then modelled in the software. The developed animated model depicts the exact activities in  open pit mines.