Robot sensors placed to make mining more efficient

Australian start-up company NextOre has spent the past decade pioneering the use of magnetic resonance (MR) in the mining industry. 

Instead of its more common use in imaging machines for disease detection, their world-first MR analysers can quickly and accurately analyse the content of valuable minerals in ore in a mining truck or on a conveyor belt.

“Our technology is a leap forward from the conventional ion-radiation scanning systems used in mining – providing accurate, bulk grade measurements with higher speed, accuracy and safety,” says Shivika Singh, Chief Operating Officer at NextOre.

“CSIRO, the national science agency in Australia, developed the MR technology for mining and has been collaborating with us on research and development. However, we soon realized that extensive automation, controls, and programming were required to implement the technology on mine sites, so we reached out to UTS. “ 

Getting a scanner into line

NextOre’s newest product line includes a seven-metre-diameter disc-shaped MR device that is held above 180-tonne mining trucks, scanning and analysing the load for ore quality. 

This means trucks can be scanned close to the source to determine the quality of ore and decisions made on whether to process the load or put it back in the ground, saving on costs and environmental impact.

“The challenge NextOre had was where to position this large MR sensor to maximise coverage and get the most accurate readings, while also coordinating automated actions between large cranes and heavy vehicles,” explains Associate Professor Gavin Paul from the UTS Robotics Institute.

With a large and expensive piece of equipment being moved around by crane, they also needed to avoid accidently hitting rock piles and other machinery.”

With a background in robotic vision, artificial intelligence and control engineering, Gavin and his team of academics and students were perfectly positioned to help NextOre solve these issues.

“We integrated CSIRO’s lidar sensors into our prototype to scan load volumes, identifying the highest points and contours. We computed the optimal sensor placement, positioning one at the front, one back of the load, and another tracking the truck as it approached,” Gavin says.

“Once we knew the robot vision worked, we added in control of the crane. The system was able to send control commands to the crane to automatically move it into position. Now, you didn’t need a person to painstakingly position and orientate the MRI sensor manually in three-dimensions.”

The first prototype was developed at NextOre’s warehouse at Silverwater in Sydney’s west. By the time of the final prototype, it was being tested at First Quantum’s Kansanshi copper mine in Zambia, Africa – the highest capacity ore sorting plant in the world.

Students drive the partnership

The partnership between NextOre and the UTS Robotics Institute has extended to several other projects, including the development of dashboards to help consolidate and interpret operations data from around the world.

“Previously we had to go through four different processes just to view a dashboard where we could see and monitor our systems. UTS developed a platform which is just one click and you can see everything. That entire tedious process was eliminated, allowing us to further develop the technology and make it accessible to clients.,” Shivika Singh says.

The key to the success of the partnership has been the dynamism and can-do attitude brought by UTS undergraduate and PhD students.

“Students can be more flexible about finding new solutions to a problem. They aren’t overly committed to an approach they may have used in the past, and this can get us to a solution more quickly. For a company like NextOre, we have clients and deadlines so we don’t have that luxury of time,” Shivika says.

“Students are highly enthusiastic, eager to complete their work quickly and move on to the next project. In a university environment, they are constantly learning new concepts, which they actively apply to the projects they undertake with us,” Shivika says.

"When they graduate, they start looking for jobs, and we've hired several students who worked on our projects. This has made transitioning the technology seamless, as the same individuals who helped develop it are now part of our team."

Hung Thai is one of the UTS Robotics Institute graduates who is now working as a mechatronic engineer at NextOre.

“When I started my robotics degree, I never imagined I’d end up in mining but through the university’s collaboration with NextOre, I got to jump from coursework theory to actual application, where I saw how Robotics, AI and control automation from simulation and lab comes to real life,” he says. 

“The experience completely transformed my perspective on engineering, and now I'm proud to be part of a team developing technologies that make mining cleaner, smarter, and more efficient.”

From the classroom to the coalface

With the partnership now spanning three years, its value cuts both ways. Gavin Paul explains its benefits to students’ education.

“NextOre is a fantastic partner and very supportive on the education side. For us, we had to build up skill-sets, equipment and trust. But most important, we had to understand their real-world challenges to be able to deliver something that was useful,” he explains.

“We have a kind of family tree of mentorship in place. I am mentoring PhD students, who are then mentoring undergraduate students, who are also trying to recruit new students to work on the projects.”

“NextOre’s openness has helped our students see a pathway from graduation to working in industry on real world problems. Then our graduates have come back to the classroom and shown our students the career pathway.”

At the end of the day, this partnership between has helped everyone build their capability to address technical and research problems. As well as delivering world-class solutions for the mining industry.

“This kind of system doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world. It’s not as if we’re doing a cheaper version of something, it’s excitingly brand new,” Gavin says. 

“All the partners – NextOre, CSIRO, UTS and the client companies implementing the technology in their mines – have all worked together beautifully to make this happen at the cutting edge of possibility.”