Tag Archives: LiDAR

Exyn to open up to 3D mapping access with Stitch3D partnership

Automation, IoT, Mining services, Mining software, , , , ,

Exyn Technologies, a pioneer in multi-platform robotic autonomy for complex, GPS-denied environments, has announced a partnership with Stitch3D, a provider of modern cloud solutions, to host, manage, view, process and share point cloud data securely directly on the web.

This collaboration helps to expand the impact and accessibility of portable SLAM capture devices by allowing feature rich point cloud data to be broadly shared and acted upon, Exyn says.

The Exyn Nexys is a completely modular 3D mapping solution designed to reduce time to capture, increase safety and drive efficiency in challenging, complex, or dangerous environments like mining, logistics, construction and infrastructure inspection. Through this partnership, Exyn and Stitch3D unlock the potential of 3D data with user-friendly software that simplifies the navigation and management of point clouds across various industries, according to Exyn.

This strategic collaboration is designed to expand the reach of Exyn’s transformative mapping technology by making it accessible to more customers through Stitch3D’s innovative point cloud management and collaboration software. After uploading a feature-rich Nexys data set into Stitch3D, operators will be able to perform volumetric calculations, generate digital elevation models, automatically classify ground points, or annotate areas of interest for project management – all in real-time with multiple stakeholders operating simultaneously, the company explained.

“At Exyn, we are dedicated to delivering solutions that allow more industries to easily take advantage of SLAM-based LiDAR scanning technology to increase safety and drive efficiency across a variety of active working environments,” Brandon Torres Declet, CEO of Exyn Technologies, said. “We are thrilled to partner with Stitch3D to make the analysis, management and sharing of high-quality 3D models equally streamlined.”

Clark Yuan, founder and CEO of Stitch3D, said: “Stitch3D is committed to bringing LIDAR solutions to the web through our collaborative cloud architecture and automated point cloud processing software. The partnership with Exyn will enable users to capture a high quality point cloud, rapidly calculate stockpile volumes, generate DEMs, or classify ground points – all in a real-time multiplayer 3D viewer. We are very excited for this partnership to deliver quality point cloud intelligence at the tactical point of need.”

Exyn Technologies providing speed and safety benefits for mine surveyors

Automation, IoT, Mine surveying, Mining services, , , , , ,

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 launches Nexys, a modular 3D mapping solution for mining sector

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Exyn Technologies has announced Exyn Nexys, a cutting-edge modular 3D mapping solution specifically designed to meet the unique needs of the mining industry, among others, at the SME MineXchange Conference and Expo, in Phoenix, Arizona.

Nexys stands out as a benchmark in autonomous mapping technology, delivering unmatched flexibility, speed and accuracy for surveying and inspection tasks in the most challenging and intricate environments, Exyn claims.

“Nexys boasts an innovative modular design that supports deployment in various configurations, including handheld, backpack-mounted, vehicle-mounted, drone-integrated, or via ground robots,” the company says. “This versatility renders Nexys an indispensable tool for comprehensive mapping in diverse environments, particularly underground and indoor spaces unique to mining, as well as rugged outdoor terrains.”

Equipped with advanced LiDAR technology and Exyn’s proprietary SLAM algorithms, Nexys achieves fast and efficient data capture speeds and real-time point cloud colourisation, the company says. When mounted on a robot, its Autonomy Level 4 (AL-4) capabilities enable intelligent autonomous navigation through dynamic, complex environments, guaranteeing extensive coverage even in GPS-denied areas critical for mining.

With integrated hemispherical cameras, Nexys provides immediate visualisation of detailed, colourised data directly onto a 3D point cloud. Capable of capturing up to 1.9 million scan points per second, it guarantees survey-grade accuracy up to 5 mm at 1 sigma, essential for precision-driven surveying and mapping operations in the mining sector, Exyn says.

Designed to IP67 standards within an ISO 9001 certified framework, Nexys is engineered to endure the harshest mining conditions. Its ergonomic design is complemented by a comprehensive suite of accessories, including GPS modules, protective cages and Drone Link for seamless robot integration, enhancing its utility in numerous mining scenarios.

Brandon Torres Declet, CEO of Exyn Technologies, said: “We are thrilled to introduce Exyn Nexys to the mining world, a reflection of Exyn’s unwavering commitment to innovation and our ambition to transform the landscape of mapping and surveying.”

Raffi Jabrayan, VP, Business Development of Exyn, added: “Nexys is specifically engineered to navigate the complex and hazardous environments of underground mines, offering unmatched accuracy, efficiency and safety in orebody mapping, stope condition monitoring and operational planning. This is a significant leap forward in our mission to enhance mine productivity and worker safety through cutting-edge autonomous mapping solutions.”

Wingfield and LASE partner on next generation load volume scanner solution

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With the introduction of WingScan Advanced LiDAR technology to its existing offering, Wingfield Scale & Measure can track inventory no matter how it moves through an operation, the company claims.

Tracking material as it moves is critical to understanding production rates and reconciling inventory to sales, with Wingfield saying it provides solutions at every step in the inventory life cycle.

According to Wingfield, WingScan allows businesses to:

  • Gain confidence in their numbers, pre-inventory, using WingScan to establish the quantitative value of bulk material traveling from the source of production on conveyor belts;
  • Use Wingfield’s aerial and ground-based LiDAR to measure stockpiles of inventory; and
  • Use Wingfield’s industrial scales, and/or WingScan’s truck and rail LiDAR systems to instantly measure outbound materials.

WingScan is a volumetric load scanner using advanced LiDAR technology developed in partnership with German software company LASE Industrielle Lasertechnik GmbH. The WingScan product line includes solutions for measuring in-motion bulk materials traveling via conveyor belts, open top trucks and rail cars.

“WingScan delivers real time, accurate information to your PLC with zero maintenance and one-touch calibration which frees up your maintenance team to focus on other issues,” Dan Caine, Managing Director of Wingfield Measure, says.

Joseph Wingfield, CEO of Wingfield Scale and Measure, added: “With WingScan, we are taking our expertise in the field of measurement to a whole new level. We are making it possible to know the precise quantities of materials in the earliest stages of the supply chain.”

U&M and Hexagon ready to deploy AHS solution at Brazil mine

Automation, Communications in mining, IoT, Mine operation news, Mining equipment, Mining safety, Mining services, Mining software, Precious metals, Sustainable mining, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

U&M Mineração e Construção S/A, as the largest native open-pit mining contractor in the Americas and one increasingly focused on sustainability, is about to embark on a major autonomous haulage project that could prove transformational for all sizes of mine sites across the globe.

The company has been busily working on an in-house Autonomous Haulage System (AHS) for several years, enlisting the help of Hexagon’s Mining division back in 2020 to ensure what it delivered to the market was a commercial proposition with widescale applicability, IM discovered this week at HxGN LIVE Global 2023 in Las Vegas.

Now the companies are ready to deploy their combined OEM-agnostic AHS solution at a mine in Brazil, starting next month, as part of a plan to bring two AHS-enabled retrofitted Caterpillar 777 trucks to the operation.

The collaboration is seeing U&M carry out all mechanical changes to the 100-ton-class payload trucks to make them automation-ready without disturbing the OEM system. The contractor is also in charge of the navigation system and software that the trucks will run on – the ‘autonomous driver’ as it could be termed.

Hexagon, for its part, provides the HxGN Autonomous Mining Mission Manager Solution to optimise the movement of autonomous and non-autonomous vehicles, and mine production activities through one interface; the World Perception solution to enable object detection, operator vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-person awareness; and some additional on-board infrastructure – such as sensors and an antenna.

This, according to the companies, makes for an autonomous contractor solution that can be rolled out anywhere in the world.

“What we are creating is a scalable platform that can be used on any truck,” Mauricio Casara of U&M says

“The first project may involve Cat 777s, but what we are creating is a scalable platform that can be used on any truck,” Mauricio Casara, Commercial Director at U&M, told IM. “We are looking to improve on the legacy AHS solutions by making automation available to any size of mine with any type of trucks.”

As part of the company’s R&D work to this point, it has also retrofitted an autonomous solution on a Komatsu 730E, with that truck running at its proving grounds in Brazil.

Interestingly for this proof of concept involving the two Cat 777s, the plan is to enable the trucks to interact with both autonomous and manned vehicles in the haulage cycle from the off: an interaction that the traditional AHS providers have only just started to work on after more than a decade of industry deployments.

This is just one of the hurdles the solution will overcome, according to Andrew Crose, Vice President, Autonomous Mining, Hexagon’s Mining division.

“The world perception sensor stack that we have on board these machines will allow us to distinguish between trucks, light vehicles, berms, people and many other objects,” he said. “By leveraging this, we can ensure the trucks operate as safely as possible while being as productive as possible. That is key to achieving buy-in from all stakeholders involved.”

While the official partnership for this project was not signed until 2020, U&M has been utilising the GNSS positioning smarts of Hexagon – through the NovAtel business it acquired – for many more years.

This same GNSS solution is being leveraged in the two-strong autonomous truck trial along with V2X, 4D Radars,  ultra-wideband time-of-flight systems and more.

Crose added: “It’s worth mentioning that around 60% of the autonomous machines running in the field have some Hexagon solution on them. We are sometimes providing the positioning, world perception, fleet and mission management, onboard autonomy and by-wire, all part of our interoperable strategy.”

While this initiative is inevitably going to pique the interest of those companies in charge of running these autonomous trucks, U&M has no plans to compete with the likes of Caterpillar and Komatsu when it comes to manufacturing automation-ready trucks.

“There are so many existing trucks out in the field that our clients are running; all of which can be retrofitted with the solution we are working on,” Casara said. “The whole industry talks about sustainability and how to mine sustainably, but the sustainable solution to achieving autonomous operations is not to build brand new trucks and equip them for automation; it is to retrofit the smarts onto them to enable that automation.

“This is the sustainable way to roll out the automation needed across the sector to achieve mining companies’ productivity and decarbonisation goals.”

South32 and Emesent collaborate on LiDAR-equipped Spot trials at Cannington

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South32’s Cannington Mine, in Queensland, Australia, says it is supporting Emesent in its pursuit of developing and testing light detection and ranging (LiDAR) scanning and automation technologies in real underground mining environments.

The team from Emesent were recently on site at Cannington with Spot the Robot Dog, trialling Spot’s autonomy development and capabilities in the underground silver-lead mine.

While the technology is still in its research and development phase, it has the potential to guarantee safer outcomes and ultimately transform the way Cannington operates, South32 says. Mining work safety and productivity can be improved by deploying the autonomous capabilities of Spot in various potential scenarios with different data capturing tools, including scanning, video recording and heat sensing, it added.

The focus on site was testing Spot’s capability in ‘post blast re-entry’ scenarios and emergency response. Spot, with an integrated LiDAR scanner, autonomously navigated sections of the mine, travelling through uneven and wet ground without operator intervention and exploring unlit areas. It was able to produce a 3D Point Cloud map of the underground mine in the process, South32 said.

The Cannington team has previously worked with Emesent to help develop industry-leading technologies including its Hovermap System for underground scanning, which is now used in mines all over the world.

Delta Drone and Strayos team up to improve mine site decision making

Automation, IoT, Mine surveying, Mining equipment, Mining services, Mining software, , , , , , , , , ,

Drone-based data provider, Delta Drone International Limited, has announced a new product addition to its data solutions business model via its partnership and distribution agreement with AirZaar Inc, a corporation doing business as US-based, mining-focused software provider Strayos.

The arrangement will allow DLT to distribute software licences across Africa and Australia, either directly or via resellers and consultants. DLT will apply the solution in an integrated way
for existing and new customers to process and value-add drone captured data. In addition, customers will gain extra value from the Strayos platform more broadly, given its multi functionality to generate ongoing operational insights across business operations.

DLT CEO, Christopher Clark, said: “We have been assessing the markets in which we predominantly operate, being Australia and Africa, and have identified that our customers want a stronger vertically integrated solution that not only includes data capture but also data insights. Overlaying AI-intelligence in our current data workflows adds a higher value proposition to the end user, resulting in faster turnaround of reporting and ultimately simplifying decision making within these complex environments.”

Clark said the partnership with Strayos was mutually beneficial, with Delta Drone International seeing an increased revenue mix of software sales while Strayos would leverage the drone-focused provider’s global presence and geospatial experience “to ensure customers receive seamless on-boarding and continuous support”.

Strayos, Delta Drone says, has developed a unique software platform with advanced image processing, digitalisation and artificial intelligence tools designed to improve safety, efficiency and productivity in mining job sites.

DLT added: “Strayos’ software is primarily data-enabled by aerial imagery and LiDAR, captured by drones, and used to create digital twins of sites. The digital twins can be further enhanced by adding data from additional sensors from mining equipment. Strayos AI generates insights that help mining management and engineers make faster more informed decisions and ensure conformance across their operations.”

Strayos CEO, Ravi Sahu, said: “By partnering with Delta Drone, customers in Africa and Australia will be able to take advantage of Strayos’ AI powered solutions and insights to optimise their operations for safety, sustainability and productivity from mine to mill. Delta Drone is an excellent partner for this market expansion as they can immediately expand the products and value add they offer to their current customers and are well-positioned to support new customers.

“Working with Delta Drone is the beginning of an exciting new chapter in making advanced AI solutions easily available to the mining industry.”

Exyn’s drone-based mining autonomy ambitions taking flight

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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.”

Newcrest grads underline automation possibilities with SmartHog development

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The use of an all-terrain unmanned ground vehicle, incorporation of military spec hardware and sensors, a bank of lead/acid batteries, and the ingenuity of three mechatronics graduates have brought Newcrest Mining closer to its goal of automating the PC1 extraction level at its Cadia East gold-copper underground mine in New South Wales, Australia.

The company has progressively been rolling out automation-focused technologies at this mine steered by its Mining Innovation and Automation (MIA) Team.

Last year, this team, with the help of Epiroc, successfully implemented the first semi-autonomous integrated production level at the mine, with, at the time, an autonomous Scooptram ST18 capable of full 24/7 production across seven drives of a whole panel cave at the operation.

It is a slightly smaller machine that is helping the company progress from the automation of production and support equipment at the mine to autonomously completing a range of inspection tasks on the fully-autonomous PC1 extraction level.

The seeds for the SmartHog vehicle – a WartHog all-terrain unmanned ground vehicle with ‘smarts’ – were sewn back in early 2021, when Cadia’s first mechatronics graduate arrived to join the MIA team.

“A challenge was set to build an automated underground inspection robot utilising a WartHog chassis,” Aaron Brannigan, Cadia General Manager, told IM, explaining that the challenge provided a hands-on task for the graduate that would result in a solution that was beneficial in realising the team’s key focus of improving safety through technology and innovation.

The new graduate began to design this robot with the WartHog chassis as the base and, over time, was joined by two more mechatronics graduates – one with a dual computer science degree – where the conceptual work behind the robot really started to accelerate.

In early 2022, the three started to build the robot from a range of hardware, all based on military specifications to withstand the underground environment.

Brannigan explained: “To achieve this, the graduates made every cable themselves, crimped every connector, assembled all the components and sensors and wrote the software code for various aspects of the sensor outputs.”

Since the inspection robot was designed to replicate tasks typically performed by people on the level, it had to be fitted with a range of sensors including LiDAR, Radar, a PTZ camera, stereoscopic camera, LED spotlights and a weather station for wet bulb temperatures and measuring wind velocity for ventilation purposes, the company explained. Powered by a bank of lead/acid batteries, the SmartHog was commissioned on surface and, in June 2022, completed trials underground, including being ‘checked in’ to the autonomous system.

“With some further testing and improvements, the SmartHog will soon live permanently underground in the autonomous zone and will be able to complete a range of inspection tasks,” Brannigan said. “This moves us closer to our goal of automation at the extraction level and is a key focus of improving operational safety and sustainability through technology.”

IM put some questions to Brannigan to find out more.

IM: How are you leveraging technology from the automotive sector in the SmartHog? What kind of adaptations are required for this to work underground?

AB: The SmartHog utilises automotive industry radars as a way of localising its position underground. LiDAR is vulnerable to interference from dust and moisture in the air, whereas radar can ‘see’ through these, allowing the SmartHog to continue to navigate and know its position underground when these are present. We believe the use of radar in this context is industry-leading and our intent with this is twofold: first, it demonstrates the advantages and reduced downtime of radar over LiDAR and, second, it encourages original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to move from LiDAR to radar for their autonomous equipment so they can take advantage of the benefits it offers.

IM: What existing underground communications infrastructure is in place at PC1 to help facilitate the real-time transmission of data from the SmartHog?

AB: Our underground PC1 level has Wi-Fi throughout which forms the basis of the autonomous system, and this is connected to the surface via fibre optic cables.

IM: How are you using the new data you are collecting with the SmartHog at Cadia? What tasks is it allowing you to do that you couldn’t previously carry out (or conducted differently)?

AB: The primary purpose of the SmartHog is to undertake a range of tasks that a person has usually performed in the past, improving both safety and efficiency. One example is geotechnical inspections of draw points and extraction drives. In the past when it was necessary for a Geotechnical Technician to undertake an inspection, the autonomous level would need to be deactivated and the autonomous equipment removed to ensure there was no risk of vehicle on person interaction. This is a time-consuming process and means production is stopped for the duration, not to mention the potential risk to the person entering the level on foot.

With the various sensors fitted to the SmartHog, it can scan and photograph the draw point (using the conventional digital camera and stereoscopic camera) and send this information to the surface where a Geotechnical Engineer can review it, all while autonomous loading operations continue.

As the SmartHog is ‘checked in’ to the autonomous system and is ‘seen’ by the other equipment, it can operate independently but also become part of the autonomous traffic management system. Should the Geotechnical Engineer require further information about the draw point, the SmartHog can return and drive up to the limit of the draw point and capture further data from the range of sensors.

IM: Are there other projects outside of the PC1 where you could use the SmartHog?

AB: We anticipate in the future that each panel cave could have their own SmartHog, so that a range of tasks can be completed as previously outlined.

IM: Are there plans to make more SmartHogs? Could they be adapted to carry out other tasks?

AB: The way we have developed the first SmartHog may look very different to how any future SmartHogs may look. The value the graduates gained from solving a current problem using a hands-on approach is priceless and helps demonstrate the value of the graduate program. We believe the graduate program at Newcrest is industry-leading given the types of challenges our graduates can address and solve using the skills recently acquired at university on real-world challenges.

Given the SmartHog is battery powered, as battery technology improves, the next generation of SmartHogs will be able to carry lighter and higher capacity batteries allowing for larger payloads and longer run times. This could allow the inclusion of other sensors and different types of cameras, such as infrared and thermal, which are traditionally heavy items and would limit the range of the current battery performance. The options available are endless once battery technology improves to the point where runtimes are increased and recharge times are reduced. This is not far off given the speed at which battery technology and design is improving.

Blickfeld to expand LiDAR sensing tech roots into North America

Automation, IoT, Mining services, Mining software, , , ,

Blickfeld, the Germany-based LiDAR sensor technology company, is set to expand its operations into the US, opening a new office in the Detroit area to act as its strategic North American location.

Heading up the US division will be the company’s new hire, Patrick L Pylypuik, who has been recruited as Head of Sales in the North America region. With over 20 years experience, Pylypuik will support company growth by building critical relationships with new and existing customers and partners in the US.

A core focus for the company’s expansion will be its software capabilities in the volume measurement and logistics, crowd analytics and security space. Blickfeld says its LiDAR is disrupting various industries by providing digital 3D data about environments – helping to offset significant inaccuracies and financial burdens.

“From agriculture and forestry to construction and mining, there are opportunities for entire operations in the US to profit from more accurate and efficient business planning and operation – cutting costs and increasing companies’ competitive advantage,” the company said.

In mining, the company’s Percept software is able to translate raw LiDAR data into actionable insights, and includes features such as the detection, tracking, classification, counting, and volume estimation of objects, as well as zone entry and exit detection. It was recently updated to include a volume measurement feature for potential applications like stockpile management.

Dr Florian Petit, co-founder of Blickfeld, said: “Expanding our presence in the US provides us with a whole new set of opportunities, from an operational and partner perspective. We look forward to expanding our industry capabilities and helping companies across many different industries to optimise their operation. ”

Pylypuik added: “It’s been a pleasure to join Blickfeld at this point of fast growth – the North America region provides us with many new partner opportunities and nurturing these new relationships will be critical for Blickfeld’s international presence. I am particularly excited about the challenge of bringing a new technology to market – one which can benefit many industries.”