Nerospec SK:
System solutions for automation in underground mining with ROS 2

Nerospec SK is a leading company in the field of Industry 4.0 for underground mining and offers communication and automation solutions for heterogeneous fleets. Its vision is to increase the safety of mines, machines and miners through digital machine solutions, while at the same time increasing efficiency. The goal of launching a new generation of automation technology for underground vehicles in underground mining made them realize the potential of robot technology. The difficult environment and hydraulically controlled machines continue to pose major challenges for traditional mobile robots.

Situation

With a state-of-the-art library and the latest tools, the experienced mining team at Nerospec SK wanted to make sure they were heading in the right direction from the start. They needed someone with relevant experience in the field to bring the existing automation technologies up to date. For their manufacturer-independent solutions, freely accessible technologies have always been of great importance. For this reason, they chose DDS and ROS 2 as pioneering programs to take mining automation to the next level. With their personal and pragmatic approach and the experience they brought to the table, the team immediately convinced Stogl Robotics Nerospec SK to work with them.

Problem

Result

After the initial contact, the goal was defined - the Stogl Robotics team was to share their development experience with ROS 2 and create both a sketch and a roadmap for the future architecture. Before starting work, Stogl Robotics visited Nerospec SK for a workshop on the requirements of mining applications and to share experiences on the possibilities of state-of-the-art robotics solutions. After a short time and based on their experience, Nerospec SK expanded the scope of work for Stogl Robotics to other areas: Software architecture for complex robotic systems, possibilities of localization and navigation of vehicles with ROS 2, integration of heterogeneous sensors and designs for control of mining vehicles using the Ros2_control framework.

Solution

The assessments and reports for Nerospec SK indicated where their team could achieve success most quickly. After this initial project, Stogl Robotics continues to advise and coach the internal team at Nerospec SK to expand their in-house expertise. This enables the company to continue to develop their solutions using the latest technologies.