The UNEXMIN project was present at the EU Industry Days 2019!

/in , /by

The UNEXMIN project was one of the 28 projects that were invited to be present at the EU Industry Days 2019, in Brussels. This unique event aimed at bringing together personalities from the most diverse sectors of industry within the EU and to showcase projects that are having impact on the EU’s industry panorama.

During the 5 and 6 of February the UNEXMIN consortium was invited to showcase its results in the event “EU Industry Days 2019” in Brussels. The project had the opportunity to have a unique stand from where three persons and one robot provided information to the participants about UNEXMIN and its development. The UX-1 robot, shipped from Porto on the sole purpose of this occasion was the star, not only of the UNEXMIN stand, but also of the exhibition. A blinking robot – its lasers and many cameras – makes wonders.

Overall, the UNEXMIN stand received a lot of interest from the passersby. In total, around 60 persons over the course of the two days dropped by the stand to discuss the robot and the technology attached to it. People were interested in learning more about the different techniques employed and the many uses that the innovative UNEXMIN solution can have in different sectors. From energy, to mining, to fishing, to underwater caving exploration, the UNEXMIN solution has aroused the interest of the crowd. Some people even approached the project team with a commercial interest – it is always great to see that the technology interests the stakeholders.

  • The UX-1a robot

  • The UX-1a robot with cameras on
  • Explanation of UX-1
  • Overview of the UNEXMIN stand
  • The vice-president of the European Commission, Jyrki Katainen, visiting the UNEXMIN stand
  • The UNEXMIN team at the EU Industry Days 2019

The UNEXMIN consortium would like to thank EASME for inviting the project to be present at such an important event. The consortium also thanks all the interested people that went to the stand to learn more about the UX-1 robot and the project itself – after all this technology is made for you.

UNEXMIN at EMRA 2018

/in , /by

Back in June, the UNEXMIN project was presented at EMRA 18, the EU-funded Marine Robotics and Applications workshop to a specific group of stakeholders, important for the UNEXMIN project development: the robotics community. UNEXMIN receives an heavy influence from state-of-the-art robotics and benefits from discussing the project with experts.

EMRA 2018 took place in Limerick, Ireland, during the 12 and 13 of June 2018. The UNEXMIN project was showcased to the audience on the 12th with a talk that focussed on the overall development of the project, with special focus on the robotics part, and on the field trials. The presentation was entitled “UNEXMIN: Underwater Explorer for Flooded Mines”. Partner RCI was responsible to attend and share the UNEXMIN project with the attendees.

Photo taken from EMRA 2018 website.

Photo taken from EMRA 2018 website.

The UNEXMIN hopes to be back next year for more fruitful discussions and to present more data on the trials with the innovative technology provided by the multi-robotic platform.

UNEXMIN present at the European Researchers’ Night

/in , /by

From Portugal to Hungary, to other parts of the European territory, the UNEXMIN project was shown during the most recent European Researchers’ Night. This event has the objective of bringing the research that is being created throughout Europe to the general public and the UNEXMIN project could not miss the opportunity.

On the 28th of September – the last Friday of September in which the European Researchers’ Night takes place – the UNEXMIN project was showcased to the communities of Porto, Portugal, and Miskolc, Hungary. The local partners INESC TEC and University of Miskolc were responsible to make the bridge between the project and the general public in an accessible way, in an event that they classified as important to “share our research with the public”.

The dissemination and communication activities of the UNEXMIN project are growing around Europe (and even worldwide) as the project gets into the last part of its development and the trials with the UX-1 robot are on the way. The UNEXMIN project hopes to be present again on next year’s edition of the European Researchers’ Night, and who knows, maybe with a robot to showcase the innovative UNEXMIN technology!

The UNEXMIN project team would like to thank the organizers of the events of the European Researchers’ Night.

UNEXMIN present in the IROS 2018 robotics conference

/in , /by

IROS 2018, the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems – one of the major robotics conferences in the world -, is happening this week in Madrid, Spain. The UNEXMIN project was part of it with some presentations and talks about the project.

From the UNEXMIN project, robotics developer teams (UPM, INESC TEC and TUT) were present in the IROS 2018 conference to showcase their work on the UNEXMIN project, specifically in the development of the UX-1 robot. Focus was on the autonomy, control and movement aspects of the technology.

These UNEXMIN-related presentations, talks and discussions were part of a special session entitled “Raw Materials, Tough Robots”, that aimed at bringing together discussions on the use and development of robotics designed for raw materials exploration and extraction.

List of presentations related to the UNEXMIN project:

  • Mechanical Subsystems Integration and Structural Analysis for the Autonomous Underwater Explorer
  • UX 1 System Design – a Robotic System for Underwater Mining Exploration
  • Design, Modeling and Control of a Spherical Autonomous Underwater Vehicle for Mine Exploration

The UNEXMIN project is currently developing a multi-platform robotic system, after having produced and tested the  capabilities of the first UX-1 robot in two flooded mine sites in Europe.

HORIZON 2020 RDI & CAS Project Cluster Conference, Brussels

/in , /by

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.