A near optimal hoist scheduling for deep level mine rock winders

Optimal hoist scheduling of a deep level mine twin rock winder system for demand side management

“…In contrast to existing studies, the rock winder problem presented in this paper applies the above mentioned techniques in a mining environment with the added requirement of an integer solution to the optimised scheduling problem. The formulation of the rock winder problem into a constrained integer linear programming model along with a solution methodology using an adapted Branch and Bound methodology without feedback control was first introduced in [18]. The reformulation of the problem in [18] for application in a MPC algorithm has been presented in [19].…”

“…The formulation of the rock winder problem into a constrained integer linear programming model along with a solution methodology using an adapted Branch and Bound methodology without feedback control was first introduced in [18]. The reformulation of the problem in [18] for application in a MPC algorithm has been presented in [19]. These two papers provide preliminary results for the complete and concise formulation of the study presented in this paper in which the adapted Branch and Bound methodology is incorporated within a MPC algorithm to obtain a near optimal hoist schedule for a twin rock winder system.…”

“…The Branch and Bound (BnB) methodology described in [23] is adapted and applied as explained partially in [18] within an MPC algorithm to obtain a near optimal mixed integer hoist schedule solution to the LPM formulated in Section 4. Integer values are required because the winders cannot be controlled to complete a fraction of a hoist cycle within a 30-min period, but only complete cycles.…”