CANADIAN TECHNOLOGY
Jannatec ’ s SmartHelmet Generation 1
predominantly situated in South Africa where Level 9 is mandated , includes Anglo American , BHP Billiton , and AngloGold Ashanti to name a few . Now certified for the Americas , proof-of-concepts are now being planned for existing and new Jannatec clients .
“ Using a tried-and-tested solution for CAS places Jannatec at an advantage as we can deliver this solution quickly and in a timely manner . As BEVs ( battery-powered electric vehicles ) are introduced in underground mines , the awareness of these vehicles when approaching is reduced due to their quiet operation . Having both the workers and
machinery operators alerted of their vicinity to each other helps in the reduction of contact between them .” said Marc Brunet , Sales Manager , Jannatec Technologies .
Maestro heads for the IoT edge
Driving out capital expenditure and standardising IIoT infrastructure have been the two key pillars propelling Sudbury-based Maestro Digital Mine forward , and , 10 years after its formation , these two drivers were on show with its latest launches at the recent SME MineXchange Annual Conference & Expo in Salt Lake City .
Over the last decade , the company has become synonymous with improving underground mine ventilation safety as well as reducing blast re-entry times , with an offering that includes air quality stations , automated regulators , and “ fail-safe ” LED displays . Yet , Maestro ’ s core is IIoT devices and last mile digital networks for underground mines .
Michael Gribbons , CEO and Co-founder for Maestro , says the company ’ s production of “ IIoT solutions ” pre-dates the popular use of this acronym , with its big launch in Salt Lake City set to take Maestro into new “ edge-based ” territory that will allow it to cope with multiple communication protocols or artificial intelligenceled process miners look to leverage over the next decade .
He explained to IM : “ We have re-envisioned and redesigned both our hardware , be selected and applied instead of the typical embedded firmware and one-time custom engineering design and build external software to allow where individual components are collated and greater flexibility and customised on an individual basis . The main capabilities for today and advantages of applying modular construction is the future ; the platform , schedule acceleration and capital expenditure if you will .” reduction .” This current Gribbons sees the new platform – a hardware combination of hardware , user interface , onpremise and cloud-based software allowing data platform has , among other to be stored and trended by the customer as they things , choose – being able to take advantage of “ true underpinned edge-based technology ” to make better and the success of quicker decisions . its Vigilante AQS™ , which The new platform installed on the Vigilante was created to solve applications for mine
AQS , SuperBrite™ Marquee display , ventilation monitoring and control .
MaestroFlex™ regulator and ModuDrive actuator
“ Every year , Vigilante customers kept asking are on display at the SME conference . for different capabilities , and we have said yes to Looking past the fixed automation these requests until we couldn ’ t .” Gribbons said . infrastructure Maestro has made its name on , the “ We ran out of hardware space – we just couldn ’ t company is now embedding its expertise into do the things the clients were asking anymore , more mobile solutions that the industry has been forcing a major platform redesign that is now taking a liking to , namely drones and unmanned shipping .” robots .
This constant cycle of improvement has Also featured on the Maestro stand – and the already led Maestro into the realm of dust
Exyn Technologies stand – at the event was an monitoring and regulator control . It also saw the aerial drone with a Maestro gas monitoring IIoT company devise products and solutions that device fitted on it . eradicated the need for expensive PLCs ,
This new gas monitoring drone , which will customer panels and fabrication . Its plug-andplay philosophy , in turn , has reduced the amount ExynAero™ and ExynPak™ platforms , is ,
integrate critical gas sensors onto the
of engineering required to install and monitor effectively , the “ quickest and safest mobile gas these solutions . monitor on the planet ”, Gribbons remarked . “ The “ For example , legacy analogue actuators are drone is able to automatically launch and log now being driven out of the equation by coupling targeted gases directly on the point cloud in any ModuDrive™ actuators to automate regulators confined area without deploying mine rescue allowing significant capital expenditure personal with Scott Air-Paks . Again , we are reductions and improved diagnostic monitoring improving worker safety and accelerated time to by using edge-based embedded IIoT obtain accurate data in emergency conditions or technologies ,” Gribbons said . “ The mining for more granular data at the headings for industry is following other industries by applying reducing blast re-entry times .” modular construction where proven solutions can Powered by ExynAI ’ s multi-sensor fusion
Maestro Digital Mine is taking IIoT to another level in undergound mining
54 International Mining | APRIL 2022