UFR at Komatsu: Transform Mining

Last weekend, from Friday 23 – Sunday 25 February 2018, Universal Field Robots MD and Founder Jeff Sterling, Robotics Engineer Rhys McKercher, Undergraduate Engineer Gabriel Olszewski, and Undergraduate Mechatronics Engineer Mitchell West took part in an Unearthed hackathon with a twist: Komatsu: Transform Mining at co-working and tech hub River City Labs in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley.

Team UFR joined 13 other mining technology startups comprised of over 50 innovators from both national and international destinations to see how they could best engage with Komatsu.

Team UFR at Komatsu: Transform Mining hackathon. From left: Jeff Sterling, Mitchell West, Rhys McKercher, and Gabriel Olszewski.

On opening night, startups pitched their existing technologies to Komatsu, and then over the weekend, the entrepreneurs worked closely with Komatsu mentors and personnel from across the business, who offered insights into their current operations, technology gaps, implementation, integration, and future vision, with a view to finding the most accelerated path to direct collaboration.

Jeff Sterling doing the UFR elevator pitch on Friday night at Komatsu: Transform Mining

The UFR team worked tirelessly across the weekend to see how to best apply their industrial field robots technologies to one of four of Komatsu’s major mining challenges: how to efficiently define and deliver low impact ore extraction.

On closing night, Jeff pitched their adapted solution: an autonomous downhole excavator that logs XRF (x-ray fluorescence) and computer vision surface mapping, and then feeds this information into an app where it is analysed via machine learning AI and exported into a high definition ore map, all in real time.

“Komatsu: Transform Mining was an amazing experience. We thoroughly enjoyed working with Komatsu and the other startups over the weekend and learnt a great deal. The Komatsu mentors were extremely open and generous in their interactions with us, and we made invaluable connections, not only with Komatsu, but with their partners, and members of the Brisbane eco-system,” said Jeff Sterling.

Universal Field Robots would like to thank Unearthed and Komatsu for the opportunity, and our congratulations go to the winning startups: PETRA Data Science, Team Ad Hoc (Canaria), InDiMin and Modulr Tech.

UFR-eye view. The team watching Komatsu Deputy GM, Mining Product Planning Development Takashi Ishihara’s presentation on opening night of Komatsu: Transform Mining