Miniaturisation of drone technology over the past two years has been a rich source of innovation at Ausdrill. Advances in the capability of cameras capturing thermal imaging and geological survey data, together with a huge reduction in the cost of the drones that carry them, has opened up a wide range of new uses for commercial drones in the mining industry.
Innovation first, technology second to solve customer problems
In his role as Innovation and Technology Manager, Clint Ricetti is responsible for developing mining solutions as required by exploration or drill and blast production operations, as well as rolling out new technologies such as UAVs and RealWear assisted reality headsets.
Clint’s team will typically focus their efforts on identifying and thoroughly defining an existing industry problem, then seeking the appropriate technology to solve it. He considers the primary role of his team to be the delivery of service innovation, rather than technology research.
In recent years, Clint has identified an increasing number of business applications for UAVs, due to the rapid increase in the sophistication of thermal imaging and LiDAR cameras, at the same time as a significant reduction in cost.
As a mining contractor, Ausdrill has operations in most states in Australia, primarily focusing on drill and blast activities, but also conducting exploration drill work.
Clint describes Ausdrill as an agile and dynamic company that is always looking for new solutions to carry out work safer and more efficiently. His team also looks for better and safer options to deliver field training.
Looking beyond aerial surveys to discover new use cases
Although UAV technology is still somewhat new, Clint knows of other WA mining companies who have also invested in drones, and are carrying out common tasks such as photogrammetric surveys of stockpiles and pit surfaces. However he finds that there are not a lot of operators extending outside typical applications.
“We knew what drones could do, but our question really was, what else could we get them to do for us? So we started looking at how we could apply the technology to other problems we have in drill and blast production operations,” Clint recalled.
With their drone equipment, the Ausdrill UAV team offers base level services, such as filming of blasting activities, return to work site inspections, and safety incident reviews. More complex services include site inspections to create LiDAR point clouds, pit wall scanning for structural integrity, identification of wall access points for rope access teams, thermal imaging to identify hazards on fixed plants, and site flora mapping to inform accurate rehabilitation.
Clint explained that their customers typically approach them with a business problem requiring a custom solution, rather than simply choosing a service that is a standard billable hour. “It's more a question of, we have this problem. How do you propose we solve it with drones? Which is where myself and Carol will sit down, we'll have a look at the available technology and we'll see what fits best in that scenario.”
Cameras capturing 3D geology, thermal images and subterranean voids
Clint provided the following definition, “LiDAR stands for light detection and ranging. Essentially, it's a series of lasers that are fired out from a sensor where they bounce off the object and return. The internal processing then determines the amount of time that that took and then assigns a point and a distance to that. That's the process with how we build what's known as a point cloud in the surveying space.”
LiDAR cameras are capable of putting out over 100,000 points a second up to 1.2 million points a second. So compared to a surveyor walking around for hours on end to collect a few single points, drones can build a much more saturated, and accurate 3D point cloud of a stockpile in a fraction of the time.
Thermal cameras create images by measuring infrared radiation emanating from objects and assigning a colour palette to particular temperatures. Thermal cameras are often used concurrently with a standard optical camera to provide the option to switch between standard RGB images and thermal images. When reviewing the resulting footage, operators are able to more quickly identify issues such as the source of a heat stress.
Thermal imaging is more of an inspection tool, and can help with extensive surveys on fixed plants, with machinery such as conveyor belts and rollers. Objects with a large footprint that takes significant time to inspect. Such inspections can be completed faster and more efficiently with a thermal scan from a drone.
Ground penetrating radar cameras used to identify subterranean voids, can also now be mounted on a UAV. These cameras had previously only been used terrestrially, either on trolleys or behind vehicles. They can now be used more extensively to discover dangerous voids in blasting areas with the potential to swallow a vehicle or piece of equipment.
There are many applications of UAVs that are improving safety and reducing risk at Ausdrill. Carol Crane shared, “For me, the use of drones on mine sites is a real safety win. The more we can replace dangerous tasks with technology, and so drones, the better off we're going to be.
“If we can send a drone in to do an inspection of a potentially dangerous area, rather than have a person hanging off a rope to inspect it, that's a win for everybody.”
Keep across evolving technology by reaching out to industry specialists
UAV hardware has significantly advanced in the last two years. Third party LiDAR camera solutions previously cost around $120K and required a ground base station. There are now native LiDAR cameras, with no base station requirement, capturing improved data quality, and only costing around $40K.
There have been many other technical improvements. Camera payloads that were previously custom built for a specific drone, are now better integrated, and quickly transferable between different models. Most LiDAR and thermal cameras now have built in RGB optical cameras. File formats captured by the cameras are standardised and can be more easily processed by industry software solutions.
Whilst there are now more advanced payloads, better integration and standardised file formats, Clint points out that there is also a lot of cross collaboration currently occuring between the industries of mining, oil and gas and agriculture. So an existing solution may already exist outside an operator’s existing network.
“There's a lot of technology out there that isn't mainstream, and the solution may be already there. It may not be from the industry that you're in.
“So definitely speak to someone that has helped solve some of these problems previously. It may be the same payload with a different software. Have a look for what's available from the people that know, before you start looking at reinventing the wheel.”
Opportunities for new technologies to solve old problems
With rapidly evolving technology and many new tools becoming available, Ausdrill’s Innovation and Technology team is busy finding new ways to solve old problems in the drill and blast industry.
Advances in drone camera technology, reduction in hardware costs, interoperable components and standardised data formats are all making it easier to develop commercial drone solutions.
“I like the innovation. I like the problem solving. There's always something new to develop and give out to the industry as a new way of doing things.
“Probably the most exciting thing is the miniaturisation of technology. And what's exciting about that is, I don't know what it's going to be next”, Clint said.
With so much opportunity, he also advises, “Definitely ask someone that's in the industry before you go and spend thousands of dollars on something that may not work, or work the way you want it to.”