Autonomous Haulage

Context

Safety-critical mining operations with autonomous vehicles operating alongside human-controlled systems. Determinism, isolation, and recoverability were primary constraints.

Role and mandate

Solution architecture responsibility spanning IT/OT boundary definition, integration patterns, and security control alignment across operational and enterprise domains.

Architecture problem

Enable data exchange between operational technology and enterprise platforms without introducing non-deterministic failure modes or unsafe control paths.

Constraints

• Human safety and regulatory compliance.
• Strict separation of control and observation planes.
• Legacy field protocols and heterogeneous vendor estates.
• Low tolerance for operational disruption.

Decisions and trade-offs

• Explicit IT/OT zoning with protocol mediation via gateway patterns.
• One-way data flows for telemetry where bidirectional control was unnecessary.
• Identity and network boundaries treated as safety mechanisms, not convenience layers.

Outcomes

• Reduced blast radius for operational faults and cyber events.
• Clear auditability of control boundaries and responsibilities.
• Improved confidence in autonomous system isolation and recovery assumptions.