EMESRT Level 9 in an Autonomous World: What Intervention Controls Do When There’s No Driver

By the OpenAutonomy.com Editorial Team

Mining companies are racing to meet EMESRT Level 9 compliance, especially in places like South Africa where it's becoming a regulatory requirement. Level 9 is all about automatic intervention controls—basically, systems that can hit the brakes when a collision is about to happen.

For manned operations, the logic is pretty simple: Alert the driver. If they don't react, escalate to louder warnings. Still nothing? The system takes over and stops the truck. Makes sense, right?

But here's where it gets interesting: what does Level 9 even mean when there's no operator to warn?

A Quick Look at the EMESRT Framework

The Earth Moving Equipment Safety Round Table built a nine-level system for incident controls in mining. It's basically a ladder of safety measures:

• Levels 1-6: Fundamentals like site design, keeping vehicles separated, procedures, making sure operators are qualified. These work on timescales ranging from years down to individual shifts.

• Level 7: Operator awareness tools like cameras, mirrors, displays showing what's around them. Response time? Minutes.

• Level 8: Active alerts when trucks get too close to something, when drivers show signs of fatigue, or when speed limits are broken. We're talking seconds of response time here.

• Level 9: Takes control away from the operator. Automatically slows down or brakes the vehicle. Response time measured in milliseconds.

In a traditional mining operation with human drivers, each level builds on the last one. You get these overlapping safety nets. But pull the human out of the cab, and the whole relationship between these levels shifts.

EMESRT Nine-Level Incident Control Model in Mining

The Paradox of Autonomous Level 9

Think about it: an autonomous haul truck is already running itself. It's scanning the environment, plotting routes, managing speed, doing everything without any human input. So if the autonomous system decides it's safe to move forward, what exactly would Level 9 override?

The answer isn't about catching a distracted operator anymore. In autonomous operations, Level 9 becomes an independent safety layer that can step in when the main autonomous system hits something it can't handle properly.

What Level 9 Actually Does in Autonomous Ops

Handling Mixed Fleets

Most mines aren't running 100% autonomous yet. You've got autonomous haul trucks sharing the same roads with manned light vehicles, maintenance crews on foot, and conventional equipment. Level 9 is the safety bridge between these worlds. When an autonomous truck's sensors pick up a maintenance ute or a person in a bad spot, Level 9 can slam on the brakes—independent of the truck’s main navigation system.

Redundancy Where It Counts

Even the best autonomous systems can fail. Sensor glitches happen. Software hits edge cases. Trucks encounter scenarios nobody programmed for. Level 9 systems run separately—often with their own sensors and decision-making logic. If the main autonomous system makes a bad call, Level 9 can still intervene.

It's basically a safety system for your safety system. The last line of defense running on its own.

Protection When Things Go Wrong

Autonomous systems juggle a lot—sensor fusion, AI decision-making, real-time adjustments. But what happens when GPS signals get weak in a deep pit? When dust clouds block the LiDAR? When the connection to fleet management drops out? Level 9 systems are typically built with different assumptions and failure modes than the primary autonomous system, so they can keep working when conditions get rough.

The Open Autonomy Angle

This is where things get really interesting for open architectures. ISO 21815 (Earth-moving machinery – Collision awareness and avoidance) sets up standardized ways for collision detection systems to talk to equipment controls. Part 2 of the standard, published in 2021, specifically covers how third-party proximity detection and collision avoidance systems can plug into OEM equipment.

Here's why that matters:

In closed-stack autonomous setups, the autonomous control and Level 9 intervention are usually bundled together from one vendor. Everything's tightly integrated with proprietary connections between safety and vehicle controls.

With open autonomous architectures, ISO 21815 lets mines pick the best Level 9 collision avoidance systems—from specialists like Hexagon, Booyco Electronics, or Wabtec—while running autonomous control from someone else entirely. The standard ensures these systems can communicate properly no matter who made the equipment.

This modularity is significant. Building good proximity detection, figuring out when to intervene, and integrating reliably with braking systems takes specialized expertise. ISO 21815 means mines can tap into that expertise without being locked into whoever provides their autonomous haulage or makes their trucks.

Making It Work in Practice

Implementing Level 9 in autonomous operations isn't straightforward. The system needs to tell the difference between normal operation and actual danger. When two autonomous trucks pass each other on a haul road, they're close—but that's not necessarily an emergency. You can't have Level 9 stopping trucks every time they pass each other, or productivity tanks.

Modern systems handle this through intelligent scenario recognition. They can identify operational contexts—trucks passing at designated spots, loading operations, planned maintenance—and adjust their intervention thresholds accordingly. The goal is real safety value without constantly interrupting normal work.

Where This Is All Heading

As autonomous mining spreads, independent safety intervention systems matter more, not less. Regulators are starting to recognize that autonomous operations need redundant safety architectures. And with standardized interfaces through ISO 21815, mines don't have to choose between integrated safety and autonomous functionality—they can mix and match the best technologies.

EMESRT levels were originally about protecting workers from vehicle hazards in manned operations. Extending these principles to autonomous operations is an important evolution. It acknowledges that even highly sophisticated autonomous systems benefit from an independent safety layer that can step in when the primary system reaches its limits.

Level 9 in an autonomous world isn't about catching a distracted operator. It's about making sure that even when there's no operator at all, something's still watching, still evaluating, and ready to intervene when it needs to.