17 Jul Guideline for Applying Functional Safety to Autonomous Systems in Mining now circulating for voting

Following an extensive peer review period, the final draft of the Guideline for Applying Functional Safety to Autonomous Systems in Mining  is circulating among GMG members within the Autonomous Mining Working Group to vote on publication. If you did not receive the vote information by email or are unsure about your company’s membership status, please contact us here.

This guideline provides a common approach to applying functional safety to autonomous systems and references international standards within the context of the mining industry and its current maturity. This guideline also describes clear expectations for the communication requirements to support change management and effective application. To this end, it:

• Identifies important reference materials and lists standards that are relevant to applying functional safety to various aspects of autonomous systems
• Outlines an example of a functional safety lifecycle for applying autonomous systems in mining and identifies some key expectations and responsibilities for providing information, documentation, and support at each stage
• Offers high-level guidance on software development, verification, and validation; competency management; cybersecurity; and assurance documentation

Thank you to everyone who took part in the peer review process to ensure that these guidelines are useful and informative to diverse stakeholders. All feedback and comments have been reviewed by the project leaders and we have made some changes and clarifications based on those comments. Some comments/feedback have also been set aside for the next edition and the related system safety project.