###### Abstract  
The current advancement of robotics, especially in Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), leads to a prominent combination between the mining industry and connected-embedded technologies. This progress has arisen in the form of state-of-the-art automated giant vehicles with Autonomous Haulage Systems (AHS) that can transport ore without human intervention. Like CPS, AHS enable autonomous and/or remote control of physical systems (e.g., mining trucks). Thus, similar to CPS, AHS are also susceptible to cyber attacks such as Wi-Fi De-Auth and GPS attacks. With the use of the AHS, several mining activities have been strengthened due to increasing the efficiency of operations. Such activities require ensuring accurate data collection from which precise information about the state of the mine should be generated in a timely and consistent manner. Consequently, the presence of secure and reliable communications is crucial in making AHS mines safer, productive, and sustainable. This paper aims to identify and discuss the relation between safety of AHS in the mining environment and both cybersecurity and communication as well as highlighting their challenges and open issues. We survey the literature that addressed this aim and discuss its pros and cons and then highlight some open issues. We conclude that addressing cybersecurity issues of AHS can ensure the safety of operations in the mining environment as well as providing reliable communication, which will lead to better safety. Additionally, it was found that new communication technologies, such 5G and LTE, could be adopted in AHS-based systems for mining, but further research is needed to considered related cybersecurity issues and attacks. cybersecurity; autonomous haulage systems; operating technology; mining industry; cyber-physical systems; communication; safety +
Footnote †: journal: _electronics_  
computer processes with physical world applications to enable autonomous and/or remote control of physical systems [3]. Mining is an industry that inherits the full advantage of Industry 4.0 by using cutting-edge driverless vehicles called Autonomous Haulage Systems (AHS) or Autonomous Haulage Trucks (AHT). These trucks can carry up to four hundred tons of ore and accurately transport it without human interaction. AHS is the state-of-the-art in the mining industry for autonomous vehicles. Since their first system development endeavor in Chile in 2005, AHS have attracted attention in the last decade from haulage truck manufacturers such as Caterpillar and Komatsu. The successful reputations of existing autonomous mines around the world notably increased the demand for AHS in surface mining during the last few years. Komatsu America has reported that its FrontRunner system has achieved a new milestone record of more than two billion tons of material that was transported autonomously at CODELCO's Gabriela Mistral in Chile since the opening of its first autonomous copper mine in 2008 [4]. Generally, Autonomous Trucks (ATs) have been designed to reduce the vulnerability to the risk of equipment contact with auxiliary equipment or Equipped Manual Vehicles (EMVs). According to the definition of CPS above, the AHS could be seen as a kind of CPS. The AHS equipment exceedingly relies on wireless communications, including object avoidance/detection systems, Global Positioning Systems (GPS), e.g., GNSS, and artificial intelligence. Inside the AHS intelligence system (i.e., FrontRunner for Komatsu and Command for Caterpillar), all data obtained are compiled so that the software can make a suitable decision. Calculating the maximum speed allowed to a nearby equipment or the estimated time for an AT to break are possible decisions. Thus, determining the exact location of every AT and EMV is mandatory for the trucks to prevent accidents, which increases safety and decreases the maintenance or replacement cost [5]. ATs have demonstrated notable fuel consumption performance as a result of their driving consistency.