A Sudbury company hopes to have a working prototype of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) ready for testing in an underground mining environment next year.
The company, Tesman Incorporated, has been awarded a $50,000 grant by the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation and has a commitment for matching funds from an unnamed industrial partner to develop the miniature UAV.
The initial application of the vehicle would be to identify the cause and location of ore pass obstructions, said Tesman president Rod Steel.
"It would be able to fly into an ore pass, stabilize itself below the obstruction," and transmit video to mine operators. The information collected would then
be used "to come up with a strategy for unblocking the ore pass, which may or may not include a need for the vehicle.
"Blocked ore passes are common throughout the industry and cost companies a lot of money every year," said Steel, a mining engineer employed in Sudbury.
Using an unmanned vehicle to investigate ore pass blockages would help to keep miners out of harm's way.
There are several methods used to unblock ore passes, including the use of explosives. Legislation specifically bans miners from exposing themselves at the bottom of an ore pass opening to view the source of a blockage, "but there's a lot of frustration in dealing with the problem, so at the end of the day, I wouldn't want to hazard a guess as to what a miner would do," said Steel.
"You have a heck of a lot of energy stored up there in the ore pass and when this very heavy material falls down, it could be dangerous."
The development of the UAV began with the design of the vehicle itself and the development of a communication system. Also required is the creation of
semi-autonomous flight control software to control the vehicle if it is out of communication range.
The Tesman UAV could also be used to support rescue teams responding to emergencies and for reconnaissance of abandoned mine workings.
Steel has been working on the development of a UAV for several years and has had assistance and support from the Northern Centre for Advanced
Technology (NORCAT), the federal government's Industrial Research Assistance Program and the Canadian Mining Industry Research Organization (CAMIRO).
