What has already happened in the field

Iceland

World-first: 1 km into an Icelandic lava tube, alone

A drone explored and mapped more than a kilometer of a natural lava tube fully autonomously. No GPS, no link, no light, no map, no pilot. Nobody had done it before; nobody has repeated it.

Northern Sweden

Mapping failed ground before people went near it

After a roof collapse in an operating iron-ore mine in northern Sweden, the robot mapped and inspected the rockfall zone before any person was exposed to it.

NexGen SIMS

Straight down a vertical mine shaft, autonomously

Within the NexGen SIMS program, a drone explored a vertical mine shaft at full autonomy and returned a high-fidelity 3D reconstruction, in real underground conditions.

Published journal work

Re-entry timed by gas readings at the face

Autonomous post-blast gas-measurement missions in underground mines, published as peer-reviewed journal work: the robot samples the heading so crews wait exactly as long as the air requires.

Nordics and central Europe

Years of trials in real workings

Exploration, waypoint navigation, and routine-round patterns validated underground with Nordic mining companies, a mining-equipment manufacturer, and a European potash operator, across the PERSEPHONE, NexGen SIMS, and IlluMINEation research programs.