A heuristic algorithm for tripper car scheduling in iron ore mills

The tripper car is a machine commonly used in the iron ore beneficiation process to distribute the material in a set of silos. The tripper car scheduling problem seeks to keep the level of material in the silos as stable as possible so as not to generate operational instability in subsequent processes. This work contributes by introducing new operational characteristics that have not yet been dealt with in the literature. This work proposes a heuristic optimization algorithm for sequencing and resequencing the tripper car during its operation. Resequencing is necessary because there are changes in the process, such as equipment downtime and changes in the characteristics of the material to be fed, which can be unexpected. To validate the proposed algorithm, a case study of a plant was carried out, and the results showed that it improved the operational efficiency of the process.