Advances and applications for automated drones in underground mining operations

Abstract

The development and current state of the Hovermap autonomous flight system in underground and GPS-denied areas is discussed, with examples obtained during the development and early adoption of the system. The current performance of the system and subsequent data interpretation suggest some scenarios in which Hovermap deployment is appropriate and have been proven. The examples focus principally on improving safety through a better understanding of the rock mass behaviour and failure mechanisms commonly encountered in deep and high-stress mining conditions, and from feeding these insights back into the design process. Recent and future developments in the hardware and software platforms and the associated data analytics are also outlined