UNEXMIN at the Real-Time Mining Conference

During the 10th and 11th of October, the UNEXMIN project was present in the Real-Time Mining conference, in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. UNEXMIN was invited as one of the co-organizers of this conference, together with other three EU funded projects – ¡vamos!, SOLSA and Real-Time Mining – which provided a great opportunity to communicate the project, make contacts with stakeholders and establish valuable synergies for the future.

During the two days that the conference lasted, the present UNEXMIN partners made three presentations centered in the project: (1) an overview of UNEXMIN, (2) the development of the multispectral camera unit and (3) the development of the magnetic field unit.

The first presentation provided an overview of the project to the participants, focusing on the goals and impacts to be achieved and giving a view on the past, present and future developments in UNEXMIN, in particular regarding the development of the UX-1 robot. This presentation raised a lot of interest in the project, fact proven by the high amount of questions asked. The presentations about the multispectral and magnetic field units, more specific talks, related to the development of two of the most important scientific instruments for the robotic system, kept the interest on the project alive with even more questions. The engagement with the conference participants continued after the presentations, extending itself through the breaks.

The Real-Time Mining conference can be considered as a success for UNEXMIN: a lot of new interest was raised in the project; contacts and synergies have arisen with other projects and people; the conference participants praised the idea that the UNEXMIN consortium is trying to put on together and promised to have a closer look and follow the project in the future. These are all objectives of the UNEXMIN project and achieving them during a conference can only mean that is was a great success.

Right now, there is no autonomous underwater system capable of surveying and getting geological data from flooded mines and the UNEXMIN consortium is building the first to solve this major bottleneck. The first UX-1 prototype will be ready by mid-2018, in time for the Kaatiala trial in a real life environment! Be sure to follow the news!