GroundProbe is celebrating taking out the Technology Transfer Award at the 2019 Institution of Engineering Technology (IET) Innovation Awards in London.
The event seeks to acknowledge and celebrate pioneering innovations across the breadth of science, engineering and technology, according to GroundProbe, with the technology transfer award recognising “perception-shifting innovations that demonstrate effective use of existing technology from one sector to another in an alternative way”.
GroundProbe was recognised for its GML technology. Proven in underground mines as a geotechnical monitoring tool, the GML was adapted for civil projects where it reduces the environmental impact and cost of tunnelling through reduced shotcrete use, according to the Orica subsidiary.
The GML system is a high-speed computing and LiDAR technology that provides live feedback to aid efficient tunnel construction. It scans the tunnel or civil project under construction, determining areas of non-compliance for real time remediation. It produces 14 million point results in less than two minutes, according to the company, ensuring the highest quality data is gathered in the fastest time possible.
Benny Chen, GroundProbe’s Manager – Product Innovation and Commercial, said: “In an industry first, the GML is able to guide construction crews to spray to the desired thickness or design profile on-the-fly in real-time.
“With live, actionable information, the innovation significantly reduces shotcrete usage and rework during construction.
“We have proven to reduce shotcrete usage in tunnel projects by 30%, translating to huge environmental and cost benefits,” Chen said.
GroundProbe CEO, Brian Gillespie, said it was an honour to receive international recognition from the IET.
“I am immensely proud of our technology team, who conceived, designed, developed and commercialised this solution for cross-industry applications, all from our company headquarters in Australia.
“Across the world, GroundProbe technologies and our people that build them are making tunnels, underground and open-cut mines and tailings dams safer and improving the way we work,” he said.
Commercialised, patented and proven, the GML has been successfully tested in several major tunnel construction projects in Australia and is currently being demonstrated across the Nordics and Asia.