Lachlan Campbell Archives - International Mining

GroundProbe has taken out Queensland’s top award at the Australian Engineering Excellence Awards (AEEA), hosted by industry body Engineers Australia.

The awards recognise and celebrate Australia’s top engineering projects and the engineering teams behind them.

GroundProbe received this award for its SSR-Omni technology. The SSR-Omni is the world’s leading Slope Stability Radar (SSR) technology for monitoring and detecting movement and potential collapses across open-pit mines and tailings dams, GroundProbe says.

GroundProbe’s Head of Product Development, Fernanda Carrea, said: “Our product development department is comprised of a world-class team of engineers across a breadth of engineering disciplines, all working towards a common goal; ensuring maximum safety for our customers through trailblazing technology.

“It’s exciting and humbling for our engineers to be recognised by their peers as experts in their field for their excellent work. The award is especially meaningful considering it’s across all engineering disciplines and industries, not just within our particular focus.”

GroundProbe focuses on real-time technologies that help manage risk, ensure safety and increase productivity across mining and civil projects. In 18 years, the company has grown from a PhD project at the University of Queensland into the global technology and innovation powerhouse it is today.

The SSR-Omni is GroundProbe’s full-coverage, high-resolution system.

Using embedded super-computing on a chip, the SSR-Omni scan processes over 600 MB of raw data down to a fraction of the size, while proprietary algorithms also predict the time of collapse and display the data in 2D and 3D visualisations. The day-night camera system can stream multiple video feeds at different zoom levels back to the user for real-time inspections, according to the company.

GroundProbe’s VP Technology, Lachlan Campbell, said GroundProbe has always been at the forefront of innovation but prides itself on adapting its tried-and-tested mechanical engineering experience to solve new problems.

“Due to catastrophic tailings dam failures resulting in devastating loss of life, the market was looking for a solution to ensure maximum safety for their facilities and surrounding communities,” Campbell said. “We developed a technology that covers the broadest of areas, detecting miniscule movement at the earliest possible time. In 40 seconds, the SSR-Omni scans 360° and takes 37 million measurements in a 11.2 km diameter, showing movement of rock and ground of 0.1 mm precision.”

The SSR-Omni has been successfully deployed to mining customers around the globe, including sites across Australia, North America, South America and Africa.

Engineers Australia Queensland Division Manager, Stacey Rawlings, said of GroundProbe’s award-winning technology: “The SSR-Omni pioneering approach has created a world leading solution for stability monitoring of pits and tailings dams and is a worthy nominee to represent Queensland at the national awards.”

GroundProbe has also been selected as a finalist for the Sir William Hudson Award – the highest honour for a project awarded by Engineers Australia. The Pinnacle Awards Ceremony will be held in November where the Sir William Hudson Award and National Engineer of the Year Award will be announced.

GroundProbe says it has launched a new data aggregation software for geotechnical sensor monitoring, MonitorIQ.

MonitorIQ is, according to the Orica-owned company, feature-rich allowing users to collate and compare data from more than 120 sensor types on one platform including the suite of radar, laser and vibration monitors provided by GroundProbe. It also allows users to compare data from prisms, piezometers, drones, temperature readers, air pressure measurement, and many other sensor types.

The all-new software can also consolidate data across multiple sites be they mines, tailings dams, natural landscape hazards or other built structures, according to the company.

“Through the centralisation of all monitoring data into one dashboard and analysis platform, MonitorIQ revolutionises how users consolidate sensor data to correlate and identify trends, ensuring confident decision making,” GroundProbe said.

Brian Gillespie, GroundProbe’s CEO, said the development of MonitorIQ is the result of its customers using many different sensors to gather various types of information.

GroundProbe said: “More than just a data aggregation platform, MonitorIQ comes built-for-purpose with GroundProbe’s patented geotechnical analysis software, SSR-Viewer, fully embedded.

“This gives users the freedom to access SSR-Viewer’s all-inclusive suite of visualisations and safety-critical charting and alarming tools, on-the-fly, direct from MonitorIQ.”

GroundProbe is part of Orica Monitor – a newly formed division of Orica – dedicated to providing advanced monitoring technology solutions across both the mining and civil industries. MonitorIQ, meanwhile, is the latest addition to Orica’s suite of leading digital technology solutions.

Lachlan Campbell, GroundProbe’s VP of Marketing and Technology, said: “MonitorIQ completely eliminates the need for users to switch between multiple platforms when working with any data collected on-site. This combined with SSR-Viewer’s deep dive analysis capability presents an interface that is integrated and intuitive.”

He added: “Safety has been and always will be our number one priority, and this solution will ensure efficient and effective decision-making to provide maximum safety.”

James Usherwood, Product Manager for MonitorIQ, said: “MonitorIQ has definitely transformed the way we view, interact and report on data. Where MonitorIQ will go in the future will definitely change the way the mining and civil construction sectors monitor hazardous areas.”

MonitorIQ is currently being rolled out globally across the GroundProbe customer network, which spans 30 countries.

GroundProbe’s SSR-Omni slope stability tech recognised at AEEA event

GroundProbe aggregates geotechnical data with MonitorIQ