Rajant Corporation, the pioneer of Kinetic Mesh® wireless networks, and Epiroc, the major equipment supplier & productivity/sustainability partner to the mining and infrastructure industries, have announced successful validation for both semi-autonomous and autonomous drilling. As part of the validation, deployment best practices guidelines were created to support the deployment of Epiroc drills with Rajant BreadCrumbs®.
Epiroc has a permanent deployment at their test facility in South Africa to demonstrate semi-autonomous and autonomous drills using Rajant BreadCrumbs. Rajant is deployed on dozens of semi-autonomous and autonomous Epiroc drills globally, some of which include semi-autonomous drills at Anglo American’s Sishen (iron ore), Mogalakwena (platinum) and Los Bronces (copper) mines plus autonomous drills at Exxaro’s Grootegeluk coal mine.
“Improving the operational safety and productivity of mining operations is the byproduct of Rajant Kinetic Mesh. It is the only industrial wireless network enabling machine-to-machine (M2M) connectivity and mobility in markets like open-pit and underground mining,” shares Geoff Smith, EVP of Sales and Marketing for Rajant.
“Unlike other wireless networks that are dependent on fixed infrastructure, Rajant mobile BreadCrumbs can communicate with each other allowing machines to interconnect which adds additional layers of connectivity and redundancy while Rajant networking software InstaMesh® is self-optimising to overcome the constant environmental changes, data loads, interference, and on-the-move requirements of modern mines.”
Adds Brian Doffing, Epiroc’s VP of Integration: “Rajant’s unique technology offering has been instrumental in allowing our joint customers to scale their autonomous solutions. This includes not only Epiroc drills but opens the door for all connected equipment at the mine site.”
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