Activity Sensing vs GPS Tracking — What Mining Companies Need to Know

Every mining logistics team has GPS. Very few have activity sensing. This comparison explains what each technology detects, where each fails, and why mining companies that rely on GPS alone continue to see pilferage that GPS-only systems cannot catch.

What GPS Detects

What Activity Sensing Using Sensors Detects

The Gap GPS Misses

GPS records: Truck halted for 35 minutes at GPS coordinate 21.4735°N 84.2810°E.

Activity sensing records: Unloading event detected. Duration: 22 minutes. Physical activity signature: HIGH confidence match to unloading pattern. Location: 12 km from nearest authorised delivery point.

The GPS record alone is unactionable. The activity sensing record is evidence.

How the IAS Module Works

The IAS (Intugine Activity Sensing) module is an IoT device mounted on the truck body. It captures physical activity data from the truck continuously using sensors.

The rolling window algorithm processes this data in 5–10 minute segments and classifies activity as:

Transit — vehicle in motion

Loading halt — sensor signature consistent with material being loaded onto the truck

Unloading halt — sensor signature consistent with material being discharged

Idle halt — vehicle stopped, no significant physical activity

Any unloading halt detected outside an authorised delivery geofence triggers an alert.

Why Mining Specifically Needs Both

Bulk commodity logistics is uniquely vulnerable to pilferage that GPS cannot detect:

No unit count — quantity is only verified at the destination weighbridge

Long corridors — hundreds of km with multiple halt opportunities

High volume — hundreds of trucks per day make manual surveillance impossible

Established informal markets — buyers near mine corridors incentivise drivers

GPS answers: Where is the truck? Activity sensing answers: Is the cargo still on the truck?

Both questions need answers. Only both technologies together provide them.