RocketDNA’s autonomous xBot is being piloted at the Gudai-Darri Iron Ore Mine
RocketDNA has it’s deployed it’s autonomous xBot drone-in-a-box solution to Rio Tinto’s flagship Gudai-Darri mine in Western Australia, as a pilot project, to test the capabilities and resilience of autonomous drone docking systems in a practical mining environment.
Gudai-Darri is situated in the Pilbara region of Western Australia and is known for its extreme summer heat (reaching up to 50°C), magnetic red dust and cyclone-prone weather patterns. Gudai-Darri operates a fleet of autonomous haul trucks, drills and water carts across the site.
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Each xBot system is operated remotely via Starlink and is flown by dedicated remote drone pilots, based in Perth and Adelaide, who monitor the flights at all stages. The drone flies pre-programmed or ad-hoc missions and then returns to the drone docking station where it recharges and flies again.
The SurveyBot is one of RocketDNA’s xBot Drone-in-a-Box solutions and has been largely used on the Gudai-Darri site by the Survey and Mining Technical teams to help automate their daily aerial data capture requirements.
The use cases at the Rio Tinto Gudai-Darri have included:
- survey, mapping and stockpile volumetric measurements
- 360-degree panoramas of the pit and wider site
- live video streaming
- drill and blast post-blast capture of the muck pile
- inspections on berms and pit-walls.
The implementation of remote drone operations has helped to improve safety on-site by removing people out of a live pit environment, and because the system can perform a variety of different missions, fewer drones are needed in the air overall, making the airspace safer too, RocketDNA says.
In addition to improved safety conditions, the solution also gives surveyors and mining technical teams more time for data analysis and decision-making.