Project objective and strategic importance
For high-performance underground mining operations a 24/7 days operability of the shafts is essential for the success of the mining operation in terms of cost, performance, efficiency and safety.
Therefore, mine companies have serious interest in cost and time efficient, as well as safe technologies to monitor, inspect and maintain their shafts.
In addition, mining companies are obliged to carry out monitoring and control of their shafts as a mandatory part of the operational permissions by the mining authorities.
The project will enhance already existing technologies (TRL* 5) towards a fully automated process of shaft inspection, which will finally be integrated into the overall control process of an autonomous mine.
It is planned to establish a system prototype and to demonstrate this prototype in an operational environment, in this case an active mine shaft (TRL 7).
*TRL = Technology Readiness Level
Impressions from existing technologies
DMT (as leading partner) has already developed systems and services for monitoring and remote control of vertical mine shafts, which have already been validated and demonstrated successfully in relevant environments. However, the existing products and services are highly-specialized technologies operated by experts and need further developments towards fully automated shaft inspection.
