Patent ID: 7831345

Claim:
A method of driving mine vehicles in a mine, the method comprising: assembling mine vehicles into a convoy comprising a plurality of mine vehicles in succession with no mechanical connection therebetween; driving each mine vehicle in the convoy by means of control means provided in each vehicle; appointing one of the mine vehicles in the convoy as a master vehicle and the rest of the mine vehicles in the convoy as slave vehicles; driving the master vehicle in the convoy manually, controlled by an operator, controlling the slave vehicles in the convoy automatically on the basis of a route traveled by the master vehicle, monitoring the distance between two successive vehicles and adjusting the travelling speed of the vehicles in order to prevent collisions; and driving the convoy between at least a first working area and a second working area in accordance with the following working cycle: loading the vehicles with rock material, assembling the mine vehicles in the first working area into a convoy and driving the convoy to the second working area, disassembling the convoy in the second working area, driving each single mine vehicle in the second working area separately in order to unload the rock material at an unloading site, assembling the mine vehicles into a convoy after unloading, driving the convoy to the first working area, disassembling the convoy in the first working area, driving in the first working area each single mine vehicle separately at a loading site in order to load rock material, and driving the convoy between the loading site and the unloading site substantially continuously.