Challenge

Underground mines require a safe way to manage mixed traffic: combining personnel, manned machines and autonomous vehicles, while maintaining strict safety standards underground.

Key safety and operational challenges:

• Single-lane, high-traffic tunnel – heavy trucks, utility vehicles, and personnel must share the same narrow access, creating “mining thrombosis”
• Dynamic safety requirements driven by productivity – static robot cells keep vehicles far apart, reducing tunnel capacity. To increase the flow, machines need dynamic geofences that shrink and expand based on relative positions.
• Complex sensing setup – UWB wall-mounted sensors and vehicle tags generate continuous ranging measurements data that must be turned into approximate positions and safety zones in real time

Why simulation was essential:

• No complete physical infrastructure yet – the safety concept required early validation before the new tunnel and hardware were fully deployed
• High risk of real-world testing – validating emergency stops, bubble overlaps, and dense traffic scenarios only in the mine would be slow, costly, and unsafe

Solution

Robotec.ai deployed its RoSi digital twin platform to create a high-fidelity virtual model of Boliden’s underground tunnel and vehicle fleet. This environment became the foundation for developing, testing, and validating the Kite Shield safety system across three stages.

• Digital twin of the tunnel and fleet
  • A precise 3D environment replicating the tunnel geometry and infrastructure layout provided an accurate foundation for early testing