A mining inspection drone profile limits a collision-tolerant drone to underground inspection: flying into stopes, ore passes and cross-cuts after blasting to map voids with LiDAR, locate ore-pass hang-ups and detect over-break or loose rock in GPS-denied, dusty conditions. It is not trained to make blasting, re-entry or ground-support decisions. It decides its flight path and re-scans on its own, and escalates hang-ups, over-break beyond design, gas readings or a lost link to the mine engineer.
The mission profile
| Profile element | This robot |
|---|---|
| Mission | Map stopes, ore passes and cross-cuts after a blast; locate hang-ups and over-break |
| Operating envelope | Underground, GPS-denied, dusty, low light — inside no-entry zones |
| Trained for | LiDAR mapping, collision-tolerant flight, hang-up location, over-break and loose-rock detection |
| Not trained for | Blasting, re-entry clearance or ground-support decisions |
| Autonomy level | Acts alone on flight path and re-scans; engineers own every safety call |
| Escalates when | Ore-pass hang-up found, over-break beyond design, gas reading, lost link or battery limit |
| Learning loop | Engineer-confirmed findings label scans for the next model |
Why a drone — and why only inspection
After a blast, the questions are urgent and the spaces are dangerous: Did the stope break to design? Is the ore pass hung up? Is the brow stable? Historically answering them meant drilling, waiting or putting people near the void. A caged, collision-tolerant drone can fly in instead.
Glencore’s Kidd Operations in Timmins, Ontario — the world’s deepest base-metal mine — uses Flyability’s Elios 3 to survey ore-pass hang-ups, evaluate stope conditions, calculate blast effectiveness and inspect raise bores. Flyability reports that tasks that took days, including drilling to locate problems, became scans of about 15 minutes, without taking production loaders offline. The Elios 3 combines LiDAR with visual-inertial odometry to fly in GPS-denied spaces, with features such as smart return-to-home and resume inspection.
What it decides, recommends and escalates
| It decides alone | It recommends — a person approves | It stops and escalates |
|---|---|---|
| Flight path through the void | Scheduling a follow-up survey | Ore-pass hang-up located |
| Re-scanning a shadowed area | Flagging a stope for geotechnical review | Over-break or loose rock beyond design |
| Returning on low battery or lost signal | Recommending a hang-up clearing method | Gas reading, lost link or battery limit |
Where decision intelligence fits
From point cloud to decision
The scan becomes a comparison against the design, a risk score and a recommended next action for the right engineer.
Keeps humans on the safety calls
Re-entry, blasting and ground support stay with qualified people — the profile makes that line explicit.
Plans the next flight
Which stopes and passes to survey first, based on blast schedule, production impact and past findings.
Improves with every confirmation
Engineer sign-offs turn each scan into training data for better detection.
- The drone goes where people shouldn’t; people keep the decisions.
- Underground autonomy needs LiDAR, collision tolerance and GPS-free navigation.
- Minutes of flight replace days of drilling and waiting.