HORIZON 2020 RDI & CAS Project Cluster Conference, Brussels

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The first HORIZON 2020 RDI & CAS Project Cluster Conference

On the 19th of April, the UNEXMIN project was represented at the first Horizon 2020 RDI & CAS Project Cluster Conference, held in Brussels. This conference, organized by  Geokompetenzzentrum Freiberg, partners of the H2020 FAME project, intended to gather the Horizon 2020 projects that are related to “the valorisation of domestic European resources” and to discuss the exploitation measures of the projects’ results. The final and transversal goal to all the projects is to achieve a bigger impact on the interested stakeholder groups (mining companies, policy makers, scientific community, etc.).

The one-day event had talks from technical and non-technical case studie projects (FAME, INTMET, METGROW+, SLIM, among others), that shared their experience in best practices in clustering to engage exploitation to reach a bigger impact. This event was based on the principle of networking, with the projects sharing experiences and ideas among them, fostering present and future collaboration to solve Europe’s dependency on the import of raw materials.

Project exploitation is essential to foster discussion

Best practices were presented

The first Horizon 2020 RDI & CAS Project Cluster Conference was the perfect opportunity to discuss the raw materials topic. Responsibles from EU institutions such as DG Grow and EASME were also present and gave their own view on the efforts made by the European Commission and the Horizon 2020 funded projects.

UNEXMIN, now over the first half of its lifetime, is trying to maximise the impact of the project’s results by reaching all its stakeholders with the most recent and adequate flow of information and results from the project development.

Girls’ Day at University of Miskolc

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The engineering faculties of University of Miskolc organised the Girls’ Day for the sixth time on 26th April, with the aim of raising the interest of young girls for STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and the engineering careers. In total, 250 girls from different secondary schools across Hungary attended the event.

One of the activities during this day occurred at the Institute of Mineralogy and Geology, where about 80 girls, divided in three groups, visited the mineral exhibition. Then, Eva Hartai, coordinator of the CHPM2030 project spoke about the running H2020 projects, UNEXMIN and CHPM2030. After a short introduction, overview videos of the two projects were presented.

Girls’ Day at University of Miskolc

The UNEXMIN project, with its innovative technology, aroused great interest from the girls in the UX-1 robot, which will soon be able to work in water, deep underground. There were several questions regarding its size, material composition and functions, showcasing their interest in the project.

Presentation of the UNEXMIN project during the Girls’ Day.

During this day, the girls were informed that interested students are involved in these projects, which provides them with an opportunity to join international working groups, making them very interested in making a career within fields historically dominated by men.

Bringing more women into the sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics fields is an important step.  Who knows if the next series of underwater robots to explore underground flooded mines is not coming from one of those minds?

First UX-1 prototype assembly is on the way!

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The assembly of the first fully-operational UX-1 prototype at INESC TECs lab

The moment for the first field trial in UNEXMIN is fast approching. In order to do the proper testing, the UNEXMIN team needs a working robot. For this reason the technical teams involved in the robot development travelled to Porto for the assembly of the mechanical parts of the first fully-operable UX-1 robot.

The UNEXMIN project’s main goal of developing an autonomous robotic system to deliver 3D mapping and exploration of European underground flooded mines is now close to a reality. Representants from TUT, INESC TEC, UPM, RCI and UNIM got together in INESC TEC’s facilities for the assembly of the first UX-1 prototype, after more than two years of hard work with a lot of development and testing to what the mechanical parts concern. Now that the assembly of the mechanical parts that constitute the robot, including all the necessary instruments for movement, control and geoscientific instruments, are produced and incorporated into the prototype, it is time to further test the robotic system.

The following step in the robot’s development will consist in testing UX-1’s software for movement and control in a relevant environment, together with the collection of geoscientific data (using water samples, imaging units, among others). For this, the technical developers of UNEXMIN will use INESC TEC’s pool, where they will replicate an environment similar to the ones of underground mines to test the robot’s capabilities before the first real field trial.

Next stop? Kaatiala mine, Finland, in June, for the first real trials in the UNEXMIN project!

UNEXMIN at PDAC 2018, Canada

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The EU-funded Horizon2020 UNEXMIN project will be featured in the “Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada” – PDAC, in a exclusive European Union booth specially dedicated to showcasing some of the European Horizon 2020 projects focussed on exploration and mining. The PDAC conference is held in Toronto Canada, and this year it will happen between the 4th and 7th of March.

PDAC International Convention, Trade Show and Investors Exchange is considered to be one of the main global events towards mineral exploration and the mining sector. The conference will count with a large number of companies and personnel from the mineral exploration and mining industry, seeking knowledge and opportunities. It is expected that the UNEXMIN project and its future technology will raise some interest, bringing forward the exploitation of the project’s results –  culminating with the technology being available for market purposes in the year 2020.

If you are going to be present at the PDAC 2018 conference, make sure to pay a visit to the European Union’s booth and have a look at the UNEXMIN project!

First UNEXMIN consortium meeting in 2018. Bled, Slovenia

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The UNEXMIN project consortium partners got together in Bled, Slovenia, during the 31st of January and 1st of February, to discuss about the many current project achievements and future prospects for the development of the autonomous UX-1 robot and its innovative technology to explore and map flooded mines.

UNEXMIN consortium partners present in Bled

The two-day event started with the always necessary welcome speech and practicalities to which followed a general introduction of the UNEXMIN project. This point was of particular importance due to the presence of new members on the audience – three new advisory board members and the EFG Linked Third Parties members. In order to keep everyone connected to the most recent developments in the UNEXMIN project, the 8 main work packages (WP) were presented. The main themes for each presentation were as follows:

  • WP1 – Robotic functions validation: advancements on the robot’s hull manufacturing and the tests on basic robotics’ functions;

  • WP2 – Scientific instrument design and adaptation: discussion and display of the sensors developed specifically to the robot, as the water sampler and sub-bottom profiler;

  • Wp3 – Autonomy for mine exploration and mapping: planning for the development of the first version of UX-1 software tools for spatial awareness and navigation;

  • WP4 – Multi-robot platform development: assembly of the robot before the first field test with UX-1 – assembly in April; trial in June;

  • WP5 – Stakeholder mobilisation: stakeholder engagement by the consortium partners and development of the European database of flooded mines;

  • WP6 – Post-processing and data analysis functions: status of the post-processing software tools and data management;

  • WP7 – Demonstration/pilots: trial in the Kaatiala mine (June) and mission planning procedures;

  • WP8 – Dissemination, technology transfer and exploitation: communication activities done by the consortium partners, plans for the future research roadmapping and technology explotation tasks.

The meeting proceeded with two important sessions: the Advisory Board and Steering Committee meetings. On the first, discussions were driven by the comments of the 6 advisory board members present – their objective is to help the project improve, making helpful suggestions from their vast expertise in the robotics and raw materials fields. The steering committee was the place where the partners could discuss important topics and take crucial decisions. At the same time as these meetings were held, there were parallel technical discussions on the development of UX-1 and the preparations for its assembly during April. A virtually reality set that created a lot of expections to a feature that is still to be developed for UNEXMIN by the project partners, together with some of the developed sensors were also shown around to participants.

The second day was reserved to technical discussions, mainly focussing on the first trial for the UX-1 robot, and the UNEXMIN technology. This first test will happen between the 11th and 25th of June in the Kaatiala pegmatite mine, Finland. It intends to give the first field results on the exploration and mapping capabilities of the robotic system. Feedback from this trial will then be used by the technology developing partners to further upgrade the robot. This process will make the robotic system ready for the second trial at the Idrija mine, in Slovenia, to happen at the beginning of September this year. Following the discussions, the consortium held an interactive debate regarding the future exploitation of the results – that will be translated into the creation of a company offering the UNEXMIN services to the market.

In the end, and after all the debates regarding the past, present and future state of the UNEXMIN project, the meeting in Bled was very rewarding!

The UNEXMIN consortium thanks the participation and good advice given by the advisory board and all other members.