Automation & robotics


mobile, eight-wheel, multi-purpose platform with traction control and independent suspension, which provides a lot of agility. The overall design allows for any sort of payload to be installed on top of it, from gas sensors to inspection cameras – either optical or thermal – all the way up to a 3D LiDAR scanner. And you can integrate any of those with the platform and get the data back to wherever you’re operating the robot from.” Theoretically, the operator could control the robot from anywhere in the world – provided they have a 4G connection. Fundamentally, then, the Explora XL is built to be robust and reliable – these, as Macdermid says, are the key qualities when it comes to designing robotics for mining – but it’s also adaptable and very user-friendly. “It is all controlled through an off-the-shelf game pad controller,” Macdermid explains. “The software and controls are meant to be intuitive to use. So, if anyone has played a car- racing game on an Xbox or a Playstation, they’ll be able to operate this, no problem.” The hardware is straightforward enough – the Explora XL is a hardy, agile and intuitive UGV – but how well does it perform in real-life use-cases? After years spent refining the Explora XL in open-cut and underground mines – as well as on Brisbane’s suburban golf courses – ADR got the chance to put their platform to the test, when a limestone mine collapsed in the south-eastern US in August 2021. Cut into a mountain, the mine is one of the US’s largest underground room and pillar operations; the subsidence and subsequent air blast (which was estimated to have moved at 180–190mph) were so severe as to bring about the collapse of the mountain itself. Shortly before the subsidence, the mine’s experienced crew had sensed that something was wrong and had evacuated the area. As a result, there were no fatalities or injuries, but the task of getting people back into the mine to survey the extent of damage – and to prevent further collapse – remained a challenge. The only option was an unmanned operation on a scale that had never been attempted before.


As Macdermid explains, the mine’s operators searched all over the world for a company that could do this. “There were a couple that responded, but they gave lead times of up to 6–9 months for the R&D required for this sort of inspection. And then they got in touch with us and we said: ‘We can be there in under a month’. We already had a fleet – so we shipped 10 of the Explora XLs over there.”


Up to the task ADR’s prime objective was to undertake a comprehensive visual inspection and survey of the subsidence, to ensure that the blast had not caused any structural damage that could lead to further


World Mining Frontiers / www.nsenergybusiness.com 11


collapse. In short, this small fleet of robots had to determine whether or not the mine was safe for human re-entry.


ADR were confident that their Explora XLs were up to the challenge – but the mine itself presented logistical complications that they couldn’t have planned for. “One of the biggest challenges was communications,” Macdermid says. “This mine is over 100 years old and it had little to no communications inside. It only had AC power as far as about 100– 200ft into the mine. Otherwise, it was just flashlights on [the miners’] heads or lights on the loaders, and a leaky feeder system, which is effectively a communication system for two-way radio.”


Above: More than 100 miners were killed when a mine collapsed in Manisa, Turkey, in 2014.


Below: The operator can control the Explora XL scanner from anywhere in the world with 4G connection.


Opposite: The Explora XL is built to be robust and reliable.


“As resources become more finite, we’re having to go deeper and deeper and the risk just keeps elevating.”


To get around this, ADR had to build up a mesh network from scratch using the robots. As Macdermid recalls, “We would drive a robot in; park it up; then drive another robot in further; and relay information through all of the robots. We also had additional nodes through the entry to the mine. So,


cemT/Shutterstock.com; Australian Droid & Robot


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