SURFACE DRILLING ground conditions. The Decision Engine automatically detects down hole issues and triggers control responses that correct the detected issues before they become significant problems whilst simultaneously filtering the false positives associated with the protection-biased tuning philosophy. The AI in the Decision Engine and Genetic AI Algorithm acts like an expert digital operator, providing exceptional machine protection while optimising productivity.
The solution’ s algorithms were created to calculate the hardness of the ground being drilled. Similar in philosophy to the decisionengine technology, the hardness index is based on rules rather than direct measurements. All relevant sensors are monitored simultaneously, and rules are applied to determine a hardness value between 0( very soft – think air) and 5( very hard). The AI hardness index seeks to eliminate the operator-induced errors that are present in the existing solutions.
The big difference with Drill Assist is that today there is still an operator on board the drill – primarily to carry out tramming, moving the drill from one drilling area to another once the autonomous sequence is completed. That on average takes only 30 seconds to perform – compared to the autonomous drilling itself which is anything from 30 minutes to an hour. Curtis Stacy, Senior Product Manager- Autonomous Drills at Hexagon told IM:“ We feel there is still limited value in autonomous drill tramming from point A to point B unless the whole area is unstable and there is an extra element of danger, or the operation is somewhere where it is very hard to find skilled operators. That said, we will be moving to offering a 100 % autonomous option for customers that do want that. Today we are still automating 99 % of the drill cycle and improving productivity by at least 30 % and up to 50 % in some cases.”
Drill Assist progress to date
Hexagon today has a Caterpillar MD6290 multipass drill( using DTH) up and running with Drill Assist, along with Caterpillar MD6310 and MD6420 diesel rotary drills plus two tethered electric rotary drills – a BE59R and a P & H 320XPC – all running well and with different customers. Overall, the system is now in use at four different mine sites – one of which has two drills equipped and the other three with one drill equipped at each.“ So far we are very much exceeding expectations. New support staff have been hired in both Latin America plus the US and Canada to support existing and future deployments. The system is fully commercialised today and more installations are on the way.”
In the US, the system is being used in Arizona copper at Capstone Copper’ s Pinto Valley mine as well as in the Minnesota Iron Range in very hard taconite ground – significant production improvement is being seen there despite the challenging geology.
What has the customer response been like? Stacy says:“ The customers are very open to the idea of the technology once they understand what the AI is doing and how it works – and we have yet to make an install where we have not exceeded customer expectations. Conversations are now moving towards potential for it to be installed on whole drill fleets – and how it can potentially also allow customers to cut the number of drills in their fleets to achieve the same productivity.”
The customer in Latin America has also used other autonomous drilling systems so has been able to contrast Drill Assist with those in a direct comparison. The same is also true of the system in Arizona where it has been up against a drill OEM autonomy system and has been exceeding its productivity by over 40 %.
Drill Assist does not change anything about how the OEM delivers the drill, which Hexagon sees as a dramatic improvement in third-party drill automation systems; and this in turn reduces the amount of support required as there are only a few components to Drill Assist. As outlined in a presentation at the SME MINEXCHANGE 2025 event in Denver by Derek Cooper, VP, US / CAN at Hexagon ' s Mining division – Drill Assist can be retrofitted onto any make / model without voiding OEM warranty, plus you then can retain OEM and existing machine support with no additional training. Training operators can be done in one shift in minutes plus there is no change to existing site processes. If needed, the drill can be reverted to its original condition instantly.
No playing with parameters
As outlined earlier, the remarkable aspect of the system is that there are no parameters to adjust – to illustrate that, Stacy said that on the two electric drills, which prior to Drill Assist were using second generation OEM-supplied auto drill systems, operators were having to constantly adjust parameters like maximum pull down force.“ Drill Assist actually has no access to anything an operator can change to alter the way the machine determines how to drill the ground. The relative cost of Drill Assist is also lower than OEM systems, because it is driven by AI. The simplicity of the system also means it is much faster to install – a matter of days rather than weeks. While it is not being installed the customer can continue to operate the machine
and get value from it unlike other third-party options where the machine is completely down for a period of time.”
OEM systems where they are not factory supplied can be much more costly again. Drill
Assist also consolidates hardware – having fewer sensors also helps keep cost down.
Next steps for Drill Assist
The next step for Drill Assist will be combining it with Hexagon’ s fleet management system( FMS) OP Pro as well as OP Pro Machine Guidance, so it can integrate with these systems as a functionality add-on and deliver even more value to the customer. Stacy:“ This is a natural progression as it becomes more part of the wider Hexagon ecosystem- and in the future this will also mean integration with other Hexagon autonomous systems like autonomous haulage.”
Stacy said the Drill Assist data is already being integrated now and that users are looking at the imagery that can be created from this – automated graphical representation of the data. Working with clients on the Drill Assist data is another focus moving forward – helping them understand and interpret what they are seeing, how it is generated and now to analyse it.“ A good example of this is constantly tracking the status of the drill – was it propelling, collaring, drilling and levelling – and this can all be plotted. Then the downhole 3D data can be integrated with Dyno Nobel’ s ΔE2 for analysis of energy in the hole during blasting. We can tie that in with split fragmentation cameras and measure actual results after the blast so you receive almost realtime feedback on how well the drill and blast plan went.”
Komatsu’ s emerging drilling capabilities
At MINExpo 2024, Komatsu showcased a new capability within its drill automation package: non-line-of-sight drilling for the blasthole drill line. This breakthrough allows operators to remotely control drilling operations from off-site locations within the customer ' s network, offering increased flexibility and safety. Komatsu ' s drill automation technology is designed to reduce operational variability, leading to improvements in blasthole quality and fragmentation through precise execution of drill patterns. Customer benefits include more consistent production output, reduced machine wear from less experienced operators and improved downstream process efficiencies.
“ Komatsu ' s drill automation technology portfolio is designed to provide flexibility and support our customers’ growing need for remote and autonomous drilling. Non-line-of-sight teleremote operation is our next exciting offering, expanding upon our existing capabilities to provide more operational freedom, safety and productivity,” said Jesse Dubberly, Vice President of Surface Drilling at Komatsu.
Komatsu has a mix of the established and widely used 320XPC, a robust electric rotary drill
APRIL 2025 | International Mining