A3R Is The First Commercially Available Autonomous Aerial Robot for Underground Mine Mapping And Inspection

Exyn Technologies has announced the commercial availability of its Advanced Autonomous Aerial Robot (“A3R”), which the company says is the first and most advanced fully autonomous aerial system for data collection in GPS-denied environments.

Dundee Precious Metals (“DPM”), a publicly traded Canadian-based international mining company, selected Exyn as its technology partner to advance its initiative for digitization and automation of its underground gold mining operations.

“The Exyn A3Rs allow frequent and hi-resolution mapping of underground environments while reducing risks to personnel. We are very excited at the results of the maps we are seeing,” says Theophile Yameogo, Vice President Digital Innovation, DPM.  “As we further integrate the A3Rs into our workflow we anticipate a transformation of operations compared to today’s models.”

Exyn’s A3Rs are driven by the Company’s proprietary software, exynAI™, the most robust commercially available software platform enabling full autonomy for aerial robots. Exyn has deployed its A3Rs as a service for customers in the United States, Latin America and Europe.

By utilizing Exyn’s aerial robots to automate mapping and surveying, DPM is transforming its underground operations in three vital areas:

Improving the quality of mapping data captured when compared to traditional surveying techniques.
Improving safety by reducing the amount of time spent underground by human operators.
Increasing operational efficiency by having more accurate and up-to-date information for mine planning.

Exyn’s A3Rs operate without the need for a human pilot and in GPS-denied environments. They are fully self-contained, intelligent systems designed to operate without the need for any prior information, persistent communication, or GPS. With all intelligence on board, the vehicle is capable of carrying out high-level missions in complex and completely unknown spaces.

Exyn’s multi-sensor data fusion pipeline allows each robot to optimally assimilate measurements from a variety of on-board sensors including: 3D LIDAR, cameras, and inertial sensors to generate a robust state estimate of itself and surrounding environments.  When married with Exyn’s real-time navigation software stack, its robots can safely avoid collisions with both stationary and moving obstacles during requested missions.  Moreover, its robots are also able to do real-time Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (“SLAM”) to enable highly accurate map generation.

(Source: Exyn news release)

FMI: www.exyn.com