Path Departure Risk Assessment and Hierarchical Longitudinal Control for Autonomous Mining Trucks

Autonomous Mining Trucks (AMT) are extensively deployed in open-pit mining areas. When AMT experience path departure, collisions with road boundaries or obstacles may occur, leading to severe consequences. This necessitates specialized path departure risk assessment and safety control strategies. In this paper, an enhanced Time to Lane Crossing (TLC)-based departure risk quantification method and a collision detection-based collision risk quantification method are proposed, and a hierarchical longitudinal control strategy is developed building upon these quantifications. Experiments using actual AMT operational data from mining sites demonstrate that the proposed safety protection control strategy computes appropriate deceleration commands based on risk quantification results, enabling timely safety interventions before path departure or collisions occur, thereby ensuring AMT operational safety.