Funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation program, the ROBOMINERS project began in 2019 and had an approximate duration of 48 months, culminating last November 2023. With this first phase completed, the researchers announce that it will still be some time before the prototype can be commercialized.
“Europe has around 30,000 closed mines that still contain raw materials such as chromium, copper, gold, iron, and zinc, crucial for industries like energy and electronics,” explains Claudio Rossi, lead researcher of the project at the UPM. Recovering these materials with robots in an environmentally friendly way would prevent humans from having to go to dangerous places and would reduce the need for imports.
“The ultimate goal is to provide Europe with sustainable domestic sources of raw materials that are used everywhere, including in mobile phones, computers, and cars. To achieve this, the most logical option is to send robots,” Rossi adds.
ROBOMINERS combines the creation of a new mining ecosystem with innovative ideas from other sectors, particularly the inclusion of disruptive robotics concepts. The prototype developed has been inspired by the movements of fish, insects, and worms. Capable of tunneling through flooded mines, this type of intrepid explorer would enable ultra-deep mining and the extraction of deposits that would otherwise be uneconomical for companies and dangerous for people.
According to Rossi, in environments between one meter wide and three meters long, the prototype developed by the researchers allows for precision excavation and reduces waste. Furthermore, it would be capable of self-repair and would operate using sensors and artificial intelligence.
Capable of recreating the mine in 3D
The robot's final design includes whiskers, similar to those of a mole, which allow the machine to touch walls and obstacles to build a 3D model of the workspace. "It can tell us that there's a wall here, a rock here, a tunnel to the left," explains the UPM researcher. It also has sensors that allow it to determine the rock composition in order to decide which direction to excavate.
The prototype has been tested in Estonia and Slovenia, where underwater drilling has been carried out with good results. “Most of the robot’s key components have been tested at a water pressure of approximately 100 bar. That means the machine would be able to work at depths of up to 1,000 meters, which is more than enough,” Rossi stated.
A promising start
Despite having completed the first part of the project, the researchers are aware that much remains to be done. “It will still take another three or four years to integrate artificial intelligence into the robot, around a decade for it to be fully functional, and perhaps 20 years before this prototype can be commercialized,” explains the researcher from the ETSI Industriales.
Led by the Automation and Robotics Center (CAR) of the Polytechnic University of Madrid and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), ROBOMINERS also involved a consortium of 14 partners from 11 European countries, encompassing a wide range of stakeholders and specializations. These included research centers covering both mining and robotics, as well as non-governmental organizations and other agencies
