DigiEcoQuarry ‘s consortium will meet in Milan on the 3rd and 4th of November, 2022 for our annual meeting to analyze the latest advances in the project and to discuss about the following steps in its development
Currently, quarries are missing the great opportunities of digitalisation. In fact, they use ≤1% of the data produced. Here, the biggest challenge is to connect all the quarry processes and integrate their management in real-time, to improve and optimise their operating regime.
DIGIECOQUARRY’s ambition is to tap the full potential of “Digital Quarries” through a significant breakthrough in process digitalisation and automation capabilities for the aggregates sector.
DIGIECOQUARRY aims to design, develop and validate in 5 pilot environments an Innovative Quarrying System (IQS) comprising sensors, processes, tools and methods for data capture, processing and sharing to provide integrated digitalised, automatic and real-time process control for aggregates quarries. This will translate into:
Improved H&S and Security conditions for workers, avoiding their exposure to dangerous operations through automated and controlled processes.
Improved Selectivity and Efficiency of the aggregates extractive sites, thus increasing the profitability of the quarrying processes, ensuring long-term operational sustainability and viability
Maximised Sustainability and Resource Efficiency in the quarry operations by reducing emissions, improving the management of water and fostering a sustainable supply of RM to feed new and existing value chains closing minerals loops and ensuring a long-lasting production.
Improved social acceptance through the communication with policy makers, citizens and relevant actors to get them involved in the value chain.
DIGIECOQUARRY addresses the quarry as a whole (from small up to multi-site quarries), comprising 8 processes:
This figure shows the overall collaboration logics between partners and the performance of data collection throughout the quarrying operation.
The network of IoT sensors gathers data about the machines, the materials, the environment and other important parameters on the field. Sensors’data is collected by on-the-field sub-platforms and a cloud-based main platform: the IoT smart mining platform. This interoperability platform provides the necessary interfaces to accommodate heterogenous data and offers data storage capacity (data lake) for each site. As such, the main platform enables standardised exchanges of all relevant data with the BIM and sub-platforms (the latter being implemented as a data warehouse including the AI processes and algorithms).
These sensors, sub-platforms, IOT smart platform, BIM models, AI components and services comprise the Intelligent Quarrying System (IQS).
The IQS will thus ensure that all the quarry management is optimised from a global and holistic perspective in quasi real-time, defining priorities between process interaction, leading to a decision-making support framework.
This ensures a market potential and a competitive advantage that will be gained through the pilot sites, leading to a business case which can be implemented and replicated across the EU and worldwide in the coming years.
DIGIECOQUARRY addresses the quarry as a whole (from small up to multi-site quarries), comprising 8 processes:
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