MineStar®
MineStar® is an integrated mining information system, developed by Caterpillar and our alliance partners. The system features machine health, productivity, machine and material tracking, drill management, CAES and an advanced truck assignment program. MineStar® has the capability of not only linking machines in the field to MineStar office systems, but to other mining information systems as well. Alliance partners, Mincom and Trimble, are providing the office software and radio infrastructure software, respectively. Although MineStar® includes on-board hardware, it is a very powerful office based software system. MineStar® was officially launched at MINExpo 2000 and is now commercially available.
Components of MineStar®:
- MineStar® FleetCommander - Schedules and assigns trucks; maximizes production and shovel utilization and minimizes truck wait time; designed to handle small, medium and large fleets.
- ® Production - Provides constant productivity information from trucks, loading tools and earthmoving machines to increase efficiency of mining operations.
- ® Health - Acquires machine and fleet health in real time over a wireless network from VIMS and reports to a service center or production database for improved maintenance operations.
- MineStar® Material Tracking - Monitors material movement and type, alerts operators and planners of mis-routes to ensure material is moved to the proper location.
- MineStar® Machine Tracking - Monitors machine location for the entire fleet; incorporates playback function to analyze dump movement and haul road congestion.
- MineStar® Business Enterprise - Integrates mining functions such as mine planning, real time production and machine health, financial and human resource information to mining company Enterprise Systems.
- CAES - Provides machine operators a real time site plan to complete earthmoving tasks in the most efficient manner.
- Aquila Drill Management - Controls drilling operations for maximum production and provides material recognition.
Features of MineStar®:
- Tightly integrated with on-board machine systems
- Contains advanced scheduling functions
- Links production and maintenance data together
- Advanced radio communication built specifically for mining
- Supports Caterpillar and non-Caterpillar machines
- Web enabled reporting for easier distribution and access throughout the mining company.
- Use of Internet Protocol to expand customer's intranet to machines in the pit for improved flow of information.