Automation & robotics
Right: OffWorld’s Excavator conducts rock face mapping before and during its excavation of ore deposits.
Opening page: OffWorld’s Surveyor is a state- of-the-art rugged autonomous robotic system for mission- critical use cases.
insects for real, for instance spontaneously forming “bucket brigades” in much the same way that ants carry food back to base. To put it differently, swarm robots can not only work effectively together – they can also learn to deepen their relationships in real-time. If, to give one hypothetical example, a gang of surveying robots use ground-penetrating radars and other sensors to map an open pit copper mine, the information they gather can then automatically be transmitted to excavators, in turn informing how they approach drilling. Nor are these big-picture ideas the only places where this technology excels. Using laparoscopy, the same precision technique used in certain types of surgery, OffWorld’s excavator robots can target the metal ore they need, rather than smashing a rock face up wholesale. Beyond saving time and money, this focused approach can have positive environmental consequences too. “It’s selective mining,” is how Keravala phrases it, noting that excavating with the swarm avoids the need for either hydrocarbons or “drill and blast” tactics – both techniques that have helped turn mining into one of the most polluting industries on the planet.
Not, of course, that any of this is easy. For starters, Thanga describes the difficulty of giving robots flexibility on the one hand, and ensuring they don’t go rogue – and fail to complete their tasks. Deciding exactly how many robots a particular project requires has proved tricky too. “Too many cooks spoil the soup,” is how Thanga puts it, noting that there’s always a risk machines end up spending more time negotiating traffic jams than they do hewing rock. A broader challenge involves proving to operators that these complex devices can really bolster operations in practice. At the same time, Thanga says that swarms
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must meet the “safety requisites” expected of them. To be fair, there are signs that the sector is progressing at speed. “We’re looking to first deployments in the 2025 period,” Keravala says, adding that OffWorld’s surveyor robots are even further advanced.
Man maids
Speak to the experts, meanwhile, and there are hints that swarm robots could yet achieve even more remarkable collaboration. If Thanga’s bucket brigades are one example here, the professor invokes another image to describe what mining machines might one day manage. If Roman legionaries joined their shields into the famous tortoise formation, bunching close together before marching ahead as a single unit, Thanga has seen drones do something similar. That could be particularly useful for drilling operations – an activity predicated on power and consistency – not least when a cluster of robots all moving in the same direction could push forward even devices that have failed.
All the same, it’d be wrong to envisage a future where robots buzz about without any interference. Especially in hazardous mines, a flesh-and-blood intelligence needs to ensure that their robot allies don’t get too confused – and manually intervene if they do. For his part, Keravala foresees people only needing to be at the surface of underground mines. “We’re much more about humans on the loop – rather than humans in the loop,” he explains, suggesting that their role will involve “anomaly management” rather than the direct “curation” of devices. It seems clear, in other words, that Pete Seeger’s talk of comradeship won’t vanish entirely, even if the sector’s conception of the term may ultimately need to expand. ●
World Mining Frontiers /
www.nsenergybusiness.com
OffWorld
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