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The most costly part in an open-pit mine is the transportation of material out of the mine. The efficiency of the truck-and-shovel fleet plays a major role in cost control. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The truck dispatching simulation model with consideration of age-based maintenance is proposed.

This paper underlines an impact of truck dispatching decisions and reveals remarkable differences in the total production under different approaches of operational availability. Additionally, the simulated results introduce an effective scheduled maintenance for different truck age levels.

The approach is based on a case study taking into account the stochastic equipment behavior and environment in a real open-pit mine. This approach can be used more generally in situations in which truck fleets are used to transport material.

The purpose of this paper is to create new ideas for assistive technology products at home, especially products utilizing robotic consumer appliances available in the homes of elderly people. The work was founded on a reported increase in household robots as well as an ageing population in the industrialized world.

Technology should be something that is perceived as belonging to our own world that fits our daily practices. Earlier studies show that in addition to cleaning functions, new household robots could change home routines and people's relationship to them. Taking the previous studies as a starting point, the paper proposes a vacuum cleaner robot as a platform for developing pervasive safety services and describe implementation of a conceptual prototype which brings the feeling of safety to an older person and their relatives by assisting in case of accidents. Moreover, the results are presented of an empirical evaluation of the prototype with end-users.

It is proved that reasonably priced off-the-shelf components can be used to build the safety product demonstration model. The initial evaluation results, as well as referenced studies show that the acceptance rate of a household robot-based product is high, which is encouraging for further research in this domain. Also the paper could pinpoint areas that will require further work.

To add more practicality to the research and move towards product development, a strong industrial partner involved in household robotics would be needed. For increased reliability and robustness, more research is required in areas of advanced sensing technology and decision algorithms.

A novel concept of a safety product for elderly care based on a vacuum cleaner robot is presented and an attempt is made to increase awareness that there will be a demand for such products.