Szkoła Eksploatacji Podziemnej

Trains are the major haulage systems in mining besides conveyors and trucks. Trains however have some major disadvantages limiting the usability of this transport system: They are not able to climb steep inclines or declines, due to the rails they need a separate driveway which in underground mining often means to reverve dedicated tunnels for train traffic, which are not available for simultaneous use by standard vehicles.
Now, Minetronics and MT-Silesia created the new digital VirtuRail system which enables to run trains on rubber tired wheels. In order to assure that all axles are running on an identical track - as if they were on steel rails - all wheels or axles are electronically steered. This system is very successfully in use since May 2016 at the Ahrental construction site of the Brenner Base Tunnel in Austria, where it was even supplying the TBM advance world record in May 2017.
Due to the reliable use of the automation system over about 200.000km, a demonstration of a fully autonomous operation was performed in December 2018, showing a train to move driverlessly all the way into the TBM backup. All tests and the demonstration were performed in a mixed use construction site production environment with regular vehicle traffic and people moving in the tunnels.
The paper shows how the new VirtuRail system was designed and which environments it is able to operate in. A special emphasis is put on the requirements and addons needed for the autonomous operation.