Tag Archives: mining drones

Percepto’s Autonomous Inspection & Monitoring platform receives funding boost

Automation, Communications in mining, IoT, Mine surveying, Mining finance, Mining safety, Mining services, Mining software, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Percepto has announced a strategic investment of $45 million in funding to, it says, launch a transformative solution for remote, fully autonomous, asset monitoring, inspection and compliance of industrial sites.

The financing, led by Koch Disruptive Technologies, with contributions from new investors State of Mind Ventures, Atento Capital, Summit Peak Investments and Delek-US, plus existing investors U.S. Venture Partners, Spider Capital and Arkin Holdings, brings the total investment in the company to $72.5 million.

Percepto’s Autonomous Inspection & Monitoring (AIM) platform sets a new standard for how critical infrastructure and assets are monitored, end-to-end, paving the way for the remote operations centre of the future, according to the company.

“Operating a fleet of third-party robots alongside their autonomous Sparrow drone, Percepto AIM provides visual data management and analysis to report trends and anomalies and to alert of risks,” it said. “Any member of staff can request data and Percepto AIM will deploy the most suitable robot independently without human accompaniment to retrieve and stream the required data. The platform also seamlessly reports to assess risk, minimise downtime, drive efficiency and reduce operational costs without human intervention.”

Dor Abuhasira, CEO and Co-Founder Percepto, said: “Our customers, which include some of the world’s leading utility, oil and gas sites, mining and other critical infrastructure facilities, are eager to fully embrace automation across their operations and reap the benefits of driving efficiency, reducing costs and safeguarding staff. We’re excited to be the first to empower our customers with truly autonomous inspection and monitoring, driven by the management of multiple visual robotic data sources, together with other visual sources including piloted drones, CCTV and mobile cameras, on site or remotely.”

Percepto has integrated Spot, an agile mobile robot developed by Boston Dynamics, with AIM for the robot to automate inspection rounds completely, controlled remotely via the platform (see photo). Spot carries Percepto’s payloads for high resolution imaging and thermal vision to detect issues including hot spots on machines or electrical conductors, water and steam leaks around plants and equipment with degraded performance, with the data relayed via AIM.

Michael Perry, VP of Business Development at Boston Dynamics, said: “Combining Percepto’s Sparrow drone with Spot creates a unique solution for remote inspection. This partnership demonstrates the value of harnessing robotic collaborations and the insurmountable benefits to worker safety and cost savings that robotics can bring to industries that involve hazardous or remote work.”

ICL Dead Sea, a leading global speciality potash, mineral and chemicals company, has been operating Percepto’s drone-in-a-box solution to carry out inspection, safety and security missions at its operations at the Dead Sea site, and was the first to fly beyond the visual line of sight in Israel, according to Percepto.

Shay Hen, ICL Dead Sea Drone Program Manager, said: “With Percepto’s AIM, we can now live stream all of our missions and no longer have to be physically present on site to control decisions regarding maintenance and operations. Wherever we are, we know exactly what is happening on site.

“We are looking forward to examining the integration of additional robots, such as Boston Dynamics’ Spot, onto our site for holistic inspection capabilities beyond aerial inspection.”

Exyn Technologies gains Australia mining market exposure with C.R. Kennedy pact

Automation, Communications in mining, IoT, Mine surveying, Mining equipment, Mining safety, Mining services, Mining software, , , , , , , ,

Exyn Technologies, a pioneer in autonomous aerial robot systems for complex, GPS-denied industrial environments, has announced Australia company C.R. Kennedy as its first international distributor.

C.R Kennedy is one of the largest providers of survey equipment for mining and government needs in Australia, Exyn says.

The ExynAero (formerly the Exyn A3R), an autonomous and self-piloting aerial drone, was the product that helped open the door to the relationship, according to Exyn.

Clinton Harn, Head of Marketing at C.R. Kennedy, said: “When discussing with our surveying customers, the real need was a product that would map and navigate their underground caverns, much like what they saw in the blockbuster movie ‘Prometheus’.

“The ability to make science fiction a reality is very appealing, inspiring, and, most importantly, possible – that much was clear after Exyn first demoed their product to us.”

Nader Elm, CEO of Exyn Technologies, said: “We’re excited to be expanding into the Australian market with this relationship with C.R. Kennedy to help a whole new set of customers. The opportunity to continue to advance the technology in the mining sector with this new market is important for the continued evolution of mining and our business.”

In one of its earliest use cases, Exyn flew to Bulgaria to assist Dundee Precious Metals (DPM) in mapping its underground gold mine.

Current CMS would have required hours of setup to map a single stope, according to Exyn. “Equipped with Exyn’s then-A3R, however, DPM surveyors were able to map six stopes over the course of circa-three days, logging 123 flights in total, capturing accurate, high-fidelity data sets ready to be loaded into DPM’s mining software,” the company said.

Exyn Technologies expands mapping reach with two new products

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Exyn Technologies has announced two new products to expand its ability to collect data from challenging and previously-unmappable environments, and enable customers to have better solutions.

The ExynAero (pictured) is the latest aerial robot and an upgrade from the previous generation’s A3R™. Fully autonomous, the ExynAero allows for mapping of any environment (including GPS-denied, human-inaccessible, industrial environments without a pilot), keeping employees safe and maximising beyond-line-of-sight-and-communications data collection, the company says.

This new technology builds on Exyn’s previous iterations based on its ExynAI software, which can mesh multiple data streams in real time. The ExynAero is also able to leverage various sensors and platforms that can be merged together via automated software to build a robust and complete map of an environment in real time, even with multiple units running simultaneously, the company says.

Its features include robust 270° view, providing detailed in-depth visuals of stopes in full HD colour, super-bright lighting and LiDAR to provide top acuity, shooting over 300,000 beams per second for highly accurate visualisations. The agile navigation and flight stack improve the ExynAero’s stability and robustness in tight spaces, and the ExynAero can easily transfer data to teams who can analyse it, Exyn says.

Nader Elm, CEO Exyn Technologies, said: “The ExynAero represents the future of data collection across a number of applications and industrial environments. The product is the first of its kind to offer true aerial autonomy.”

The ExynAero can fly itself in the most challenging and unknown environments, collect the data, and merge the streams with ExynAI on board, according to Elm. This allows for maximum data collection and a “radical improvement” in safety for workers around the world who are placed in difficult and sometimes potentially dangerous conditions, he said.

“We’re hoping with the launch of this product, and the additional modalities offered by the ExynPak, that our customers will be able to collect the data they need easily, regardless of limitations,” he said. “The benefits of this will lea

d to not only significantly greater worker safety, but also considerably improved productivity and efficiency.”

The ExynPak (left), meanwhile, provides a new portable format that enables users to unstrap the autonomy features of the ExynAero and capture data with the built-in tools via other modalities – such as hand carry or vehicle mount – for situations where complete autonomy is not needed or practical.

Exyn’s autonomous aerial robot systems are most commonly used for industrial applications such as mining, construction, nuclear power, and military surveillance/reconnaissance. The ExynPak will allow for an expansion of the potential uses of Exyn’s core technology applications and environments to existing infrastructure or transportation modes that don’t require an aerial or autonomous component, the company said.

The Exyn team plans to continue to develop new products that help support mapping and data collection regardless of format, with more products coming out in 2021, it said.

Airobotics achieves new first with automated drones in the US

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Airobotics has received a Certificate of Waiver (CoW) from the US Federal Aviation Administration that will allow it to operate from the company’s remote operations centre in Scottsdale, Arizona.

It has become the first company in the US to receive a CoW that combines three elements – flying beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) for automated drone operations, over human beings, with a visual observer that is not required to keep a visual line of sight on the drone.

The company said this CoW for BVLOS will primarily be used within the mining sector as well as other industrial facilities in the US.

Ran Krauss, CEO and Co-Founder of Airobotics, said: “We recently opened our US headquarters in Arizona and this latest certification opens the gateways to offering American mining companies, seaports, major construction projects and, in the future, smart cities, an optimal means of increasing efficiency and safety while decreasing operational costs.”

He added: “As our unique pilotless drone technology and industrial grade platform continues breaking new ground, we are able to provide customers with a more accurate and frequent data-driven solution that is the only one of its class in the industry.”

The company recently announced a $30 million Series D round of funding bringing its total investment to $101 million. This new round of funding is to be used to further scale operations in the US after recently establishing its headquarters in Scottsdale, where Airobotics will run all North America, South America and Central America operations.

Airobotics says its automated solution represents the next generation of drone operations, overtaking standard piloted services which are expensive, inaccurate and not always available. The company is the first and only drone solution worldwide certified to fly without a human operator.

“The latest award positions Airobotics as the only drone company certified to fly BVLOS in the US, Australia and Israel, three countries considered to be in the cutting edge of UAV regulations,” the company said.