UNEXMIN team at Porto Follow-up meeting. Photo in front of INESCTEC lab building.

Porto follow-up Workshop

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UNEXMIN partners met in the beautiful city of Porto during the 28th and 29th of July.

The reason for this reunion was a UNEXMIN follow-up meeting on the project where every currently running Work Package (a block of the work breakdown structure) coordinator presented a review of the work done until now, and a planning of respective future developments.

There were also many relevant discussions on topics related to UNEXMIN’s overall advancement, such as project organisation and the development of UX-1, the multi-robotic platform.

UNEXMIN team discussing UX-1 developments

The UNEXMIN team discussing UX-1 developments

One of the main points from this meeting was the debate concerning the first prototype’s construction and development. The questions raised about the project’s progress will have a final and determinant answer when UNEXMIN partners meet in Tampere in September, where they will take part in a one-week-work agenda totally devoted to clarify the next steps to take regarding UX-1.

UNEXMIN meeting: autonomous robotic system that goes into the sea floor.

TURTLE – a robotic autonomous deep sea lander – made from other INESCTEC european project

UNEXMIN partners also visited the labs of INESCTEC (Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores, Tecnologia e Ciência), one of the partners from the UNEXMIN project consortium, who are specialists in sea robotics, and who have past experience in this field related to UNEXMIN. In the labs the consortium could see and learn how the past and current experience in deep sea robotics from INESCTEC will positively impact the UNEXMIN project and the development of a new technology trend – to have a multi-robotic platform capable of mapping flooded mines that are currently inaccessible.

UNEXMIN team at Porto Follow-up meeting. Photo in front of INESCTEC lab building.

UNEXMIN team at Porto Follow-up meeting

UNEXMIN - Poster in international event in Brussels

UNEXMIN present in Brussels international event

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UNEXMIN project coordinator Norbert Zajzon has been in Brussels during the event ‘Exchange of best practices on mining policies and technologies: challenges in the current state of the global economy’, on the 28th and 29th of June. This event was a follow-up of the ‘EU-Advanced mining countries Raw Materials Diplomacy Dialogue‘. In addition to attendees from EU member-states, other countries attended, including South Africa, Australia, Canada, USA, Mexico, Peru, Brazil and Chile.

The main topics addressed and discussed during this international event were mainly about the challenges for the mining sector given the current global economy and commodity prices, mining waste-management, and ongoing EU actions on international co-operation on raw materials.

Norbert Zajzon, UNEXMIN project coordinator, presenting the poster in Brussels

Norbert Zajzon, UNEXMIN project coordinator, presenting in Brussels

The UNEXMIN team were invited to present a poster at this international event – and we gladly did: it was a perfect way to make UNEXMIN project noticeable amidst stakeholders. According to Norbert Zajzon ‘everyone was impressed by the poster and the brochures, there were good discussions, and many curious people who wanted to get more information on the project.’ So this was a great opportunity to show this recent and ambitious EU-funded project. UNEXMIN even garnered interest from international institutions present at the event, including the Mining Association of Canada and the Mexican Geological Survey, who asked to be kept informed on the project’s development and who will, from now on, follow-up closely.

UNEXMIN is growing and more and more people are becoming aware of the new technology trend that is being developed!

University of Miskolc (UNIM) doing some field tests for the UX-1 instruments

Field tests at Rudabánya open-pit mine

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The development and designing of scientific instrumentation needed for UX-1 has begun!

The first tests performed by the developer team from the University of Miskolc were carried out at Rudabánya, an open pit mine in northeast Hungary. Hitherto they have undertaken field missions at the old iron-ore mine, with more tests planned in the future. The main goals of these field tests are to investigate the ability, reliability, and application of different geophysical methods and equipment in underwater conditions similar to those UX-1 must overcome.

UNIM

Test measurement in the lake of the Rudabánya open pit done by University of Miskolc.

Lots of new and essential information and experience has been collected during instrumentation preparation, the measuring process, and the result interpretation and evaluation phase. The selection of measuring methods and the respective development work is continued on the basis of those gained experiences. Laboratory measurements and improvements occur at the same time, in parallel to the field measurements, in an evolving and interlinked process.

The field tests carried out by University of Miskolc are an essential part of the development process of the robot’s scientific instrumentation that ultimately will lead to the instruments the robotic platform will carry during its missions. This is one of the most important pieces of the puzzle that is constructing an autonomous underwater robotic system, capable of mapping underground mines and extracting valuable information from them!

UNEXMIN members visiting Sandvik Mining and Construction test mine

UNEXMIN at Tampere Workshop

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From the 24th to the 26th of May, UNEXMIN partners held a meeting in Tampere, Finland. The meeting, entitled “End-user requirement specification workshop”, aimed to define and specify the technical features of the autonomous multi-robotic explorer in order to best serve end-users who will enlist UX-1’s services in the future.

Discussions included everything from the robot’s size, weight, shape, its autonomy, navigation, survivability under harsh conditions such as underground mines, to the instruments it will carry for geological data collection and post-processing on its future missions.

During this meeting, six workshops were attended by the consortium members in order to discuss and decide the best solutions for the robot’s developments and construction. These workshops were:

Interactive discussion on one of the workshops

Interactive discussion on one of the workshops

  • Design requirement and environmental consideration
  • Navigation and tracking (including vision sensor configuration)
  • Structural layout and safety/survivability considerations
  • Structural and subsystems design
  • Essential means for successful geological data collection
  • Data processing and post-processing

Every topic of great importance for the project’s development was discussed in these workshops, so everything was covered to ensure things are going in the right direction.

On the last day, the consortium members visited a Sandvik Mining and Construction test mine in which drilling tests and monitoring are performed autonomously, similar to one of the technologies UNEXMIN is adapting and developing during the project lifetime. There was also a tour of the TUT laboratories, where the robot’s hull will be constructed.

One of the many laboratories in TUT – Tampere University of Technology.

One of the many laboratories in TUT – Tampere University of Technology.

This meeting allowed the UNEXMIN group to define a specific strategy for the robot’s developments, taking into account different factors such as end-user requirements, materials and instruments availability and navigation, autonomy and survivability constraints. In the end, it was a productive and enjoyable meeting which will get us closer to the final objective of creating an autonomous multi-robot platform!

UNEXMIN members visiting Sandvik Mining and Construction test mine

UNEXMIN members visiting the Sandvik Mining and Construction test mine

UNEXMIN meeting - UNEXMIN group studying actual conditions for UX-1 at Deep Ecton

UNEXMIN partners visit Ecton Mine

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On May 3rd, UNEXMIN consortium members visited the Deep Ecton mine, one of the copper mines located in Ecton Hill, Staffordshire (near Manchester), UK. Deep Ecton will be the last and most technologically challenging test site (from a total of four) for the UX-1 multi-platform robots surveying work.

The Ecton Mine produced predominantly copper with lead and zinc as secondary products, which is uncommon in the related mineral district. Mining at Deep Ecton lasted from the Bronze Age until the 19th century, at which time it was Britain’s deepest mine. Mining below river level ceased during the 1850s, and all production ceased in the 1890s.

With UX-1, the innovative multi-robotic system UNEXMIN partners are developing, we intend to map all tunnels and shafts of Deep Ecton. These flooded and currently inaccessible areas were last seen and mapped during the 19th century, meaning the data has not been updated for more than 150 years!

UNEXMIN group studying actual conditions for UX-1 at Deep Ecton

The UNEXMIN group studying actual conditions for UX-1 at Deep Ecton

Now, with UNEXMIN developing autonomous underwater submersibles capable of surveying flooded and deep-mine environments, it will be possible to get actual, precise, new data, which would otherwise be impossible to obtain. We will do this without disturbing the environment at Deep Ecton – it is a heritage Site of Special Scientific Interest – or putting human lives in danger.

In order to solve the technical and technological challenges which might arise from this particularly difficult test site, we have a group of robotic experts and technology developers working hard to find the best approach for the UX-1 robots so they can do their work in the best way possible.

During their deployment, the UX-1 machines will gather information of potential importance which might prove useful for the specific test-sites and Europe’s scientists and decision-makers.

UNEXMIN technical group discussing developments for UX-1

The UNEXMIN technical group discussing developments for UX-1

The Ecton Mines are great places to visit for a nice day out while learning and observing its geology, archaeology and beautiful landscapes – it is really worthwhile!

Landscape at Ecton Hill

The landscape at Ecton Hill

EMET (Ecton Mine Education Trust), one of UNEXMIN’s partners, and the institution in charge of the Ecton Mines, is doing a great job preserving and showing the mines to the team. We hope to go back to Staffordshire soon for UX-1’s pilot-test!