On October 8, in line with the Australian Federal Government’s Modern Manufacturing Strategy, METS Ignited announced the latest award of projects as a part of its Industry Growth Centre collaborative project funds. The METS Ignited Tranche 4 Collaborative Project Funds represent a combined investment of over A$6 million dollars from METS Ignited and Industry partners has been awarded to Universal Field Robots plus three additional projects led by AMOG, Gekko Systems and Polymathian.

The success of these four projects with over 17 industry partners in total is projected to deliver almost two hundred new roles, and generate a combined revenue contribution of over A$100 million for the sector. These projects recognise Australia’s world-class technological capability in areas of national competitive advantage. Australia’s mining equipment, technology services (METS) sector is already playing a key role in adding value beyond just resource extraction.

Universal Field Robots is already successfully delivering a product with IMDEX for sensing in open pit mines – namely IMDEX Blast DOG™ – a semi-autonomous system that helps optimise blasting based on high-resolution three-dimensional material models built from sensor data. To perform the sensing, the machine drives to the blast holes, uses robotic vision to verify the blast hole location and then winches a wireline sensor down the blast hole to collect data.

UFR and IMDEX are now taking the product underground with industry partner Gold Fields. The UFR autonomous platform will sit in the cuddy charging while the production drill is working in the drive. When the production drill has finished, the robotic sensor platform will be deployed into the drive.