When mines extract oil or ore from different supplies, they usually generate liquid waste generally known as tailings. This waste is saved in tailings ponds, which must be repeatedly monitored – and that is the place the omnidirectional, amphibious Helix Neptune robotic is designed to return in.
Manufactured by Canadian robotics firm Copperstone Technologies, the battery-powered Neptune does not have wheels or treads, however as an alternative strikes alongside in all instructions on 4 screw-shaped pontoons. As these pontoons independently rotate, they transfer the robotic throughout dry soil, mud, and the floor of the water in tailings ponds.
While such a screw-drive system is not a typical sight, it is actually additionally not unprecedented. Over the years, we have seen it utilized to the whole lot from land-going yachts to hill-climbing snowboards to Titan-exploring rovers.
As the Neptune travels onto and throughout the ponds – both autonomously or by distant management – it makes use of onboard sensors to assemble water knowledge comparable to chemical and oxygen content material, together with turbidity and salinity. If it is decided that sufficient of the pollution have settled to the underside of the pond (forming a sludge), a number of the remaining water might be reclaimed for reuse within the mine.
Copperstone Technologies
Additionally, the robotic measures the depth of the water. This is a vital piece of data, because the water types a “cap” that covers the poisonous sludge beneath. Needless to say, that cap must be saved at a given minimal depth, to maintain the sludge out of contact with the encompassing setting.
The Neptune can even acquire water/sludge samples, each on the floor and at quite a lot of depths, utilizing a powered winch … however could not people carry out all these duties?
“In some ponds, it’s doable to ship an individual in a ship. It’s an enormous operation, as a result of it’s a must to have a backup boat, and there are all these security issues,” Copperstone co-founder Nicolas Olmedo advised us. “When one thing occurs and someone will get damage, it isn’t allowed anymore, in order that they must search for different options – and that is the place we’d are available.”
That stated, the robotic does produce other functions. Equipped with an ice drill, for example, it may be used to verify the thickness of probably treacherous ice roads on frozen lakes. It is also used to carry out surveillance or reconnaissance in difficult-to-reach places.
Copperstone Technologies
The Neptune was first launched a yr in the past, and has since been utilized by quite a lot of shoppers in numerous nations. Copperstone is at the moment providing the expertise in robot-as-a-service kind, whereby operators will are available and carry out duties for shoppers, as an alternative of getting them purchase a robotic of their very own.
This Thursday within the metropolis of Montreal, the corporate acquired a Mitacs Outstanding Entrepreneur Award in recognition of its robotics system. Mitacs is a government-funded non-profit group, which seeks to foster technical innovation in Canada.
You can see the Helix Neptune in motion, within the video under.
HELIX Neptune Amphibious Robots Screw-propelled automobile
Sources: Mitacs, Copperstone Technologies