Haul road defect identification using measured truck response

Current management techniques for the maintenance of mine haul roads, such as ad hoc blading, scheduled blading and even maintenance management systems, have shortcomings in complex mining environments. This paper investigates the possibility of using the response of haul trucks to aid the management of haul road maintenance. The question arises as to whether truck response data can be used to recognize road defects at specific locations, in terms of type and size. This is important since different defect types require different road maintenance strategies. A modeling methodology based on dynamic equilibrium of the unsprung mass of a haul truck is proposed and investigated.