Tag Archives: Exyn Technologies

Exyn Technologies providing speed and safety benefits for mine surveyors

Exyn Technologies says it is helping mines all over the world to become safer and more efficient with the use of its products, reporting on a comparison study made at Northern Star Resources Limited’s Pogo Mine in Alaska that showed the ExynAero is not only more efficient and accurate at mapping difficult places, but that it is also safer for the surveyors involved.

In this study comparing ExynAero, a fully autonomous aerial robot, with traditional CMS methods, the report authors showcased a significant improvement in safety, survey quality and time savings.

Exyn’s fully autonomous robot pairs a rotating LiDAR unit with a flight platform in order to perform cavity mapping surveys within open stopes. This hardware, combined with what is now the highest level of aerial autonomy, Level 4A Autonomy (AL4), allows survey teams to map deeper, more accurately, safer, and faster than before.

Andrew Loomes, Chief Mine Surveyor, Pogo Mine, said: “It is infinitely safer to use…we’re nowhere near the brow now, doing jobs around the corner in some cases. The safety aspect is definitely one of the driving factors to why we purchased the gear.”

Using Exyn technology instead of traditional surveying methods is a very low risk alternative for both surveyors and equipment as it keeps both out of potentially dangerous and unknown situations, Exyn says.

“The quality is unmatched as the unique application of Level 4A Autonomy to pilot the unit doesn’t require line of sight. As a result they can prove areas are between 12-35% bigger than traditional methods because they lack the limitations of traditional methods and have greater capacity to detect things like gas pockets.”

Time wise, it is 45% quicker than traditional methods requiring only 15 minutes compared with the 27.3 minutes taken by traditional CMS, the authors said.

Loomes added: “Even though [CMS] takes twice as long, from a quality standpoint, to get the same data from a CMS would take even longer with more equipment…the data doesn’t even compare.”

Exyn Technologies brings in Brandon Torres Declet for next growth drive

Exyn Technologies has appointed Brandon Torres Declet as CEO to drive its next phase of growth, overseeing all aspects of Exyn and looking to expand its geospatial product offerings to customers worldwide, the company says.

With a career spanning over 25 years, Torres Declet brings an extensive background in the drone industry as a successful entrepreneur, C-suite executive, board director and policy expert, Exyn says. Over the course of his more than 25-year career, he has built relationships with top government agencies and corporations in highly regulated markets making him perfect for this role to help drive Exyn’s growth, it added.

He joins Exyn Technologies from his previous role as CEO of AgEagle Aerial Systems, Inc, a commercial drone solutions provider. Before that, he founded MEASURE, an aerial intelligence company, which was sold to the Aerodyne Group in 2019, where he remained as Chairman of Aerodyne MEASURE. Torres Declet also developed a SaaS platform, Ground Control, which provides drone mission planning, data collection, processing, analysis and intelligence reporting which was sold to AgEagle in 2021.

In public service, he was appointed Senior Advisor to Oxford University’s Centre for Technology and Global Affairs and to the FAA’s Advanced Aviation Advisory Committee by the US Secretary of Transportation. He has also served as Counsel to the US House of Representatives and Homeland Security Committee, Counsel on Capitol Hill, and to the Senate Intelligence and Judiciary Committees.

“It’s a great time to join Exyn Technologies,” Torres Declet said. “The company is well established and has earned a solid reputation as a market leader in robotics and autonomy. I’m excited to build on this foundation and help drive increased value for our customers. Given my background and experience, I have a strong appreciation for what it takes to take a company, and particularly start-ups, like Exyn to the next level. I look forward to collaborating with the entire team to plan to ensure Exyn’s success.”

C.R. Kennedy & Co, Aero X Ventures back Exyn Technologies’ latest funding round

Exyn Technologies, a pioneer in multi-platform robotic autonomy for complex, GPS-denied environments, has announced the successful second close of its recent funding round.

This milestone, Exyn says, further strengthens the company’s strategic partnerships with two prominent investors, C.R. Kennedy & Company and Aero X Ventures.

Exyn says it is revolutionising industries such as mining, logistics and construction by providing a single, integrated solution to capture critical and time-sensitive data in complex and GPS-denied environments. This breakthrough technology enables safer, more affordable and highly efficient data collection.

The company plans to leverage the secured funds to advance product innovation, launch new products, expand into new markets and applications and enhance the overall client experience.

C.R. Kennedy & Company, established in 1934, is Australia’s largest distributor of geospatial instruments, employing over 280 highly skilled professionals.

Robert Kennedy, Managing Director at C.R. Kennedy & Company, said: “After working with some competitor products, our sales specialists made the correct decision to sell the Exyn system. The factors in our decision were reliability, aftersales support and future developments. No other system in our experience comes close to the reliability of the ExynAero, which satisfies the demanding requirements of Australian underground surveyors.

“Moreover, we see Exyn’s dedication to research and development reflected in regular software updates with improved functionality. With their groundbreaking Level 4 Autonomy, Exyn has surpassed their competition, and we eagerly anticipate their future product developments.”

Aero X Ventures, a deep-tech, early-stage venture firm specialising in transformative aerospace and defense technologies, brings significant strategic value to Exyn.

Kyle Mounts, Partner and CIO at Aero X Ventures, said: “Our partnership with Exyn recognises the incredible strategic alignment and potential to capitalise on our firm’s resources to accelerate their growth. Exyn’s world-class team has demonstrated a unique capability to apply highly capable autonomous systems to solve complex real-world problems. As Exyn scales its products across industries, we look forward to leveraging our social capital and deep expertise in aviation and defense, bringing significant value to Exyn’s continued success.”

Ben Williams, COO of Exyn, said: “We are thrilled to have Aero X Ventures and C.R. Kennedy as investors in Exyn. Their expertise and resources will be invaluable as we continue to drive innovation, expand into new markets and solidify our position as a market leader. Together, we will unlock new opportunities and revolutionise the autonomous robotics landscape.”

Eyxn expands presence in Latin America with new Chile office

Exyn, a company focused on multi-platform robotic autonomy for complex, GPS-denied environments, has opened its new office in Chile.

This strategic expansion, the company says, will enable Exyn to deliver its innovative technologies to an established mining market eager to enhance safety, efficiency and productivity through advanced technology solutions.

Exyn says it has established itself as a leading provider of cutting-edge technology solutions for the mining industry. Its approach to multi-platform robotic autonomy has revolutionised operations in complex and GPS-denied environments, enabling unprecedented efficiency and safety, the company claims.

Exyn calls itself a pioneer in artificial intelligence-backed technology, having commercialised the highest level of aerial drone autonomy in the world, Autonomy Level 4. Exyn’s robots can autonomously navigate previously inaccessible environments without a prior map, existing infrastructure (GPS, communications, etc), or an operator in the loop, according to the company.

The new Chile office demonstrates Exyn’s commitment to serving the Latin American (LATAM) region with expanded and faster support.

The office will be led by Cristian Ramirez, who brings over 20 years of experience deploying, marketing and selling technology and services for the mining industry in Chile and Latin America. Ramirez’s expertise in fleet and energy management, coupled with his drive to make the mining industry smarter, safer and more efficient through innovation, will be instrumental in driving Exyn’s growth in the region, the company says.

Nader Elm, CEO of Exyn Technologies, said: “The opening of our new office in Chile marks a major milestone for Exyn. We are excited to bring our leading-edge technology further to the South American market, hungry to leverage advanced solutions to enhance safety, efficiency and productivity in their operations. With our expanded presence in Chile, we can now provide even faster support and tailor our offerings to meet the specific needs of our LATAM customers.”

The Chile office represents Exyn’s commitment to global expansion and solidifies its position as a leader in multi-platform robotic autonomy, it says. By establishing a strong presence in the LATAM region, Exyn aims to empower mining, agriculture, logistics and construction companies with transformative technologies, driving a new era of innovation and growth in the industry.

Jaguar Mining to deploy ExynAero autonomous robot for cavity monitoring in Brazil

Exyn Technologies and NSS Canada say they have expanded their footprint with Jaguar Mining in response to a growing demand for autonomous robots to capture critical data in complex, GPS-denied environments underground.

Historically, mining in geographically complex areas has been dangerous and intensive in terms of labour, time and cost. The evolution of autonomous aerial robots provides mining companies with faster and safer data capture in critical underground operations leading to more streamlined planning and workflows.

After a successful demonstration at the Caeté mining complex (which includes the Pilar and Roça Grande mines and the Caeté Plant, located in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil), Jaguar Mining made the decision to purchase Exyn’s autonomous robot, the ExynAero, to be used as a cavity monitoring solution in its underground mining operations.

The ExynAero is a fully autonomous aerial robot that intelligently navigates and maps complex GPS-denied industrial environments without a pilot, keeping employees safe and maximising beyond-line-of-sight-and-communications data collection. Equipped with Autonomy Level 4 – the highest level in the industry, according to Exyn – survey teams can confidently send the ExynAero on autonomous missions into open stopes and and other underground cavities knowing that all computation and data collection is stored on-board. Following this with Exyn’s post-processing pipeline, survey teams can refine, subsample and georeference their data sets for volumetric calculations and other mining operations, it added.

Jaguar, which produces more than 95,000 oz/y of gold, has been using Autonomy Level 4 in this latest deployment, Eyxn confirmed.

“We are thrilled to deliver innovations that help reduce risk to humans and increase efficiency and productivity in mining operations,” Raffi Jabrayan, Exyn’s VP of Commercial Sales and Business Development, said. “Our technology can do in a few minutes what traditionally took hours, with countless risks to surveyors working in potentially dangerous environments.”

Bruno Lalonde, NSS Canada President, added: “NSS Canada is proud to provide innovative solutions to help underground mines like Jaguar Mining Inc safeguard employees while optimising efficiency. The addition of Exyn autonomous solutions will help their team improve OPEX, increase safety and get actionable data from dangerous environments faster.”

Eric Duarte, Vice President of Operations for Jaguar Mining, added: “The introduction of Exyn autonomous technologies at Jaguar Mining is another step towards our commitment to quality, by increasing safety, operational efficiency and cost effectiveness in our underground operations.”

Exyn and Easy Aerial join forces on new ExynAero EA6 flagship airframe

Exyn Technologies has announced it will be partnering with Easy Aerial to launch its new flagship airframe, the ExynAero™ EA6, integrated with ExynAI™ and optimised for Exyn’s diverse use cases.

Exyn has been using the DJI M210 as its main airframe for mining and commercial customers. However, with the M210 product transitioning to end of life, Exyn needed to source its new flagship airframe.

This airframe needed to continue to meet its commercial customer demands, and be US-made to comply with US Government customer requirements. Beyond sourcing a new airframe manufacturer, Exyn was searching for a new partner with a product that would be capable of evolving with the company, it said.

After an extensive evaluation of different airframe manufacturers, Easy Aerial was selected as the preferred partner. By stepping into a new, customised platform Exyn has greater flexibility on future adaptations of the product based on customer feedback, it said. Exyn also benefits from the option to expand its offerings to include Easy Aerial’s drone-in-a-box solution, automated charging and remote operations to further automate its autonomous robot.

Exyn said: “Easy Aerial and Exyn, both agile and dynamic startups, were able to quickly and nimbly adjust to customer feature requests, supply chain constraints, new sensors and specialised configurations. In addition, Easy Aerial and Exyn are ISO-9001 certified and Easy Aerial is AS9100 certified, which will help facilitate quality production of the ExynAero EA6.”

Nader Elm, CEO of Exyn Technologies, said: “We sought out to find a product partner that shared our mission and would be an active collaborator in building an ExynAI-specific robot to be used across the industry verticals we address. In our search, we found a compatible airframe in the Easy Aerial Osprey and an incredible team behind it that would jointly propel us forward.”

The Osprey platform is beneficial to Exyn in its business verticals like mining and construction. The Osprey is a hexarotor airframe that provides motor redundancy in case of failure. The platform offers longer airborne endurance, while maintaining a slightly smaller form factor than the M210 and accommodates increased thrust capabilities.

Ido Gur, CEO of Easy Aerial, added: “Exyn and Easy Aerial share a common vision of automating monitoring solutions. Many of our customers share the same operational needs of autonomous drone-based robotics to operate in the most demanding environments, so this partnership was a no-brainer. We’re ecstatic to be working alongside Exyn, supporting our enterprise and government customer base.”

Exyn Technologies out for further AI-backed drone growth with latest financing

Exyn Technologies has announced a successful $35 million Series B round of funding that will, it says, help it grow and diversify its sales, marketing and product teams to support continued worldwide expansion and movement into new industries and applications.

The lead investor, Reliance Industries, is a multinational corporation and India’s largest company headquartered in Mumbai. It has diverse businesses, including energy, petrochemicals, natural gas, retail, telecommunications, mass media and textiles.

Exyn says it will use this relationship and investment to break into the Indian market, expand its global footprint into Latin America, Australia and Africa, and bring exposure to its future business verticals.

“We are thrilled to have Reliance Industries backing Exyn,” Nader Elm, CEO of Exyn Technologies, said. “With the extra funding, we hope to expand our worldwide footprint further to improve safety by keeping those in these dangerous fields around the world out of harm’s way.”

Exyn calls itself a pioneer in artificial intelligence-backed technology, having commercialised the highest level of aerial drone autonomy in the world, Autonomy Level 4 (AL4.) Exyn’s robots can autonomously navigate previously inaccessible environments without a prior map, existing infrastructure (GPS, communications, etc), or an operator in the loop, according to the company.

“AL4, the highest level of aerial autonomy in the market, has been a key differentiator in the mining industry,” Elm said. “The application of our fully autonomous robots is expansive. With this investment and partnership, we look forward to transforming dangerous, physical data collection into a safer and more efficient workflow that can unlock further operational effectiveness and efficiency for our customers. ”

Trimble and Exyn pool technologies to create autonomous site surveying solution

Trimble and Exyn Technologies have announced a strategic collaboration to explore the use of autonomous construction surveying technology through integrating Boston Dynamic’s SpotⓇ robot, the ExynPak™ powered by ExynAI™ and the Trimble® X7
total station.

This solution will, the companies say, enable fully autonomous missions inside complex and dynamic construction environments, which can result in consistent and precise reality capture for production and quality control workflows. It also has potential for mining.

“The integration of autonomous surveying technology into a construction workflow has groundbreaking potential,” Aviad Almagor, Vice President of Technology Innovation, Trimble, said. “It can improve operational efficiency and transparency throughout the build lifecycle while also transforming worker safety for potentially hazardous data collection.”

Autonomous robots powered by ExynAI, can sense and avoid obstacles, dynamically adapting to the ever-changing complexity of construction environments, according to Exyn. To ensure the utmost safety and efficiency, the ExynPak mounts and integrates with a robot, supporting level 4 of autonomous exploration missions without requiring the robot to “learn” about its environment beforehand. A surveyor defines a 3D volume for a mission and the integrated robotic solution handles the complexities of self-navigation without needing a map, GPS or wireless infrastructure, the companies explained.

The integration of the Trimble X7 provides high-speed, high-accuracy 3D laser scanning to capture the state of the environment, according to Trimble. The captured data can be uploaded to the Trimble Connect® collaboration platform and shared with project stakeholders for further analysis, including a comparison to Building Information Models and previous scans to monitor quality and progress. The end result is a map of unprecedented detail and accuracy collected with minimal human intervention and risk.

Nader Elm, CEO of Exyn Technologies, said: “Industry has been waiting for reliable and robust autonomous technology to transform difficult and dangerous activities. Exyn’s technology is helping to enable a new front in human-robot collaboration. By working with pre-eminent leaders such as Trimble, we aim to create adaptable, state-of-the-art systems to tackle the complexities across construction and industrial environments.”

Exyn partners with drone data capture company EROCK Associates

Exyn Technologies has announced a distribution partnership with EROCK Associates that, it says, highlights the increasing availability of Exyn’s aerial drone and portable SLAM mapping products across critical infrastructure projects and complex mining.

The partnership will make the ExynAero™ and ExynPak™ available to a host of new customers seeking best-in-class aerial autonomy and 3D SLAM mapping for capturing critical data in high-risk environments, Exyn says.

EROCK Associates is a drone data capture company specialising in inspection for major construction infrastructure projects, multiple large-scale operations and emergency responses to time-sensitive situations. In short, EROCK “boldly drones where no one has gone before”, the company says, making Exyn a perfect partner.

Nader Elm, CEO and Co-Founder of Exyn Technologies, said: “We’re thrilled to welcome EROCK Associates as our newest channel partner of the ExynAero and ExynPak to deliver the key benefits of real-time data capturing, safety and operational efficiency in critical industries and mining. By offering world-class software and technology, we expand their capabilities to great levels, enabling them to tap into a new customer base and explore geographic areas never before reached. We aim to be integral to fully autonomous critical infrastructure projects and mining operations.”

Eric Bennett, Founder of EROCK Associates, said: “This partnership with Exyn will unlock a new world of capabilities for EROCK Associates. We look forward, with much excitement, to offering our customers Exyn’s cutting-edge products. A long time in the making, we feel confident that we can meet and exceed levels of safety and efficiency, like never before.”

Exyn’s autonomous aerial robot systems are commonly used for industrial applications such as mining, construction, infrastructure inspection and military surveillance/reconnaissance, Eyxn says. With this new distribution partnership, Exyn says it is looking forward to working alongside public sectors to unlock key capabilities of robotic 3D mapping.

Exyn’s drone-based mining autonomy ambitions taking flight

Having already achieved the highest documented level of aerial autonomy – level 4A – with its drone-based solutions, Exyn Technologies is striving for further industry firsts, Raffi Jabrayan, VP of Business Development and Commercial Sales, says.

One of its more recent breakthroughs came in Germany at the K+S’ Werra mine site, where a team demonstrated the use of the ExynAero™ and ExynPak™ at an underground salt mine.

Over the course of three days underground, Exyn’s field engineers successfully flew multiple autonomous missions in hard-to-reach areas while capturing rich, high-fidelity point clouds in a fraction of the time it would take traditional cavity monitoring systems, according to the company.

Jabrayan explained: “Several drone companies had previously attempted an autonomous mission to scan the immense cavities this specific site has, but the dust interference meant most of these missions ended within seconds.

“We were able to fly in some cavities completely beyond visual line of sight, mapping areas in a fraction of the time the teams would normally take for such manual inspections. In all, we were able to carry out a six-minute autonomous flight at the site.”

While the company did not carry out any specific modifications to its ExynAero platform to conduct such a flight, Jabrayan acknowledged that ongoing design and software improvements over the last year had enabled the company to accurately detect both dust and thin wires underground.

In addition to this, the company also displayed the capabilities of its handheld ExynPak solutions while on site in Germany.

The ExynPak, according to Exyn, can provide the world’s first real-time colourised point cloud visualisation on a handheld LIDAR scanner, capturing precise, colourised 3D models 20-30 times faster than a traditional stationery tripod or terrestrial scanner.

Powered by ExynAI™, the ExynPak ‘drapes’ real-time RGB information captured through two hemispherical fixed cameras onto point clouds created by a gimballed Velodyne LIDAR Puck LITE, providing operators a complete colourised 360° view of their environment, Exyn says.

At the Werra mine site, the Exyn team was able to capture a colourised cloud where the stratification of the rock could be clearly seen in the scan, enabling the K+S team to obtain data it would likely never be able to replicate in any other way, according to the company.

Jabrayan says such information could see operators plan their mining processes around the colourised captures, following mineralisation identified by the scans to ensure no economic ore had been missed after mucking out.

At the Werra mine site, Exyn’s field engineers successfully flew multiple autonomous missions in hard-to-reach areas while capturing rich, high-fidelity point clouds in a fraction of the time it would take traditional cavity monitoring systems

 

The ExynPak is likely to become a core part of Exyn’s next aerial autonomy offering for open-pit mining, powered by ExynAI, which enables safe flight in the most dangerous industrial environments.

“We have done some work in terms of moving our flights to the surface,” Jabrayan said. “It could cover various aspects – tailings monitoring, highwall scans…there are lots of requirements for it. We are actively working on integrating GPS into our ExynAI stack for outdoor autonomous flights, however, it’s not ready to be pushed to customers just yet.”

The company is currently working on surveys of ground-based resources, such as stockpiles, using a handheld ExynPak, plus carrying out aerial flights in manual mode.

Reaching the level of autonomy it has underground will most likely involve the help of its collaboration partner, EY, and a third company providing “software and visualisation input”, Jabrayan says, adding that he expects to see this autonomous solution come to light in 2023.

Earlier this year, Exyn, in partnership with Maestro Digital Mine, presented an aerial drone fitted with a Maestro gas monitoring Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) device.

This new gas monitoring drone, which integrates critical gas sensors onto the ExynAero and ExynPak platforms, is effectively the “quickest and safest mobile gas monitor on the planet”, Michael Gribbons, CEO and Co-founder for Maestro, said.

Powered by ExynAI’s multi-sensor fusion capabilities, gas sensor readings are captured while the robot is in flight and displayed in real time via a ruggedised tablet, Exyn explained. These sensor readings are saved with precise coordinates in a high-fidelity point cloud that can be exported and examined in a variety of mining software.

Jabrayan says a lot of mines have reached out to the companies since first presenting the solution at the SME MineXchange Annual Conference & Expo in Salt Lake City, earlier this year.

“They are interested in the benefits such a solution could provide in terms of safety and productivity,” he said. “By flying the gas sensing drone underground soon after a blast, it could take the necessary readings and issue a notice to another system that it is safe to re-enter the area.”

This could see more mines shift away from re-entry processes based on out-of-date manual gas readings, to a system that is much more accurate and shaves – potentially – hours off operational downtime.

Exyn is closing in on a long-term trial agreement with at least one miner in Australia looking to test out this gas-sensing drone solution, according to Jabrayan.

“The long-term plan is to develop a drone-in-a-box solution that can reside underground and be flown immediately after a blast to offer the quickest possible readings,” he said. “Remote autonomous mapping of this type could see Exyn provide data to shift operators as they are heading underground, allowing them to get a picture of the environment ahead of reaching the location.”

The incorporation of such data into mine site operational processes could see drone-based solutions become vital to the running of mines in the future, and Exyn, through its post-processing pipeline, ExSLAM, is looking to enable this.

ExSLAM extracts the raw cloud from robot logs and refines it for third-party software, using a factor graph optimisation algorithm to create low-drift point cloud maps.

Jabrayan says the company continually receives plaudits from customers about the ease of use of this solution, explaining that Exyn is one of the few companies that georeferences its maps inside an existing coordinate frame.

“From there, we are able to detect all the survey points, download them, georeference them and push the data to any end-user software,” he said.

Exyn, Jabrayan says, is software agnostic when it comes to this process, but he did admit the company was in advanced talks with some leading mining software companies that could see its mapping data integrated directly into their platforms.

“We are also working with certain companies to use robotic process automation to make it a one-button process to scan, go directly into the end-user software, and create a mesh that can be used,” he said.

“We remain focused on using our technology and R&D to provide the best solution to customers in order for them to be as productive as possible and, of course, work in a more efficient and safe manner.”