General information model and its application for rock excavation in underground work sites

In the underground mining and tunnelling rock excavation processes, there is plethora of different machine, tool and information system providers involved and practically no general information model covering the complete process. The competition in the field is getting more intense and all the actors should intensify their operations. The information management and integration of different information systems' data is among the most interesting enablers for such a better operational efficiency. The main goal of the research was to develop flexible methods for better application interoperability and information management for the underground rock excavation processes. The research used a literature survey, a commercial systems survey, professional interviews and worksite observations in order to develop a new general information model for rock excavation and define a toolchain for the exploitation of the developed model. In this research, the information model for underground rock excavation actions was developed applying applicable parts of existing standards and software tools. The main information model can be extended by using separately designed sub-models. In addition to information model also a toolchain of how to practically do the model development and information integration, has been described. These actions will enhance information management and application interoperability in the rock excavation processes and enable more efficient information exploitation leading potentially to better controlled processes, more efficient work phases and cost savings.