Sandvik Mining and Rock Technology said it is augmenting its autonomous mining capabilities through a partnership with Exyn Technologies, which specializes in autonomous aerial robot systems for complex, GPS-denied environments. “This partnership will open up unique benefits, build on our industry-leading automation offering and drive faster decision-making in mining processes to seize new opportunities for improving production performance,” President of Sandvik Rock Drills & Technologies Patrick Murphy said. “Through this partnership, we are working together to provide efficient solutions for mapping and visioning underground mines, which will make a substantial difference when it comes to mine locations that are hazardous, hard to reach or conventionally time-consuming to survey and inspect.”
Combining Sandvik’s OptiMine with data collected by Exyn’s aerial robots creates progressive visualization and information of the mine’s actual environment to increase overall transparency of the mining process. The future collaboration between Sandvik and Exyn will entail research on how to apply and generate 3D views and perceptions of underground spaces autonomously, while leveraging the full potential of Sandvik’s AutoMine system.
“For the first time, miners will be able to map the entirety of their underground operations, even in dangerous GPS denied environments, while making mining safer and improving productivity,” CEO and Co-founder of Exyn Technologies Nader Elm said. “Through this partnership, we hope to empower efficient decision-making for customers and drive toward the vision of fully autonomous mining operations.”
Exyn said its full-stack solution enables flexible deployment of single or multirobots that can intelligently navigate and dynamically adapt to complex environments in real-time.