A black box with input and output ports

Enclosed in a ruggedized casing, the SymBot is a customized computer that enables data collection in underground mines. — Photo courtesy Symboticware

Symboticware started manufacturing its core product, the SymBot, in 2008. The SymBot was created and deployed to carry out environmental assessments in the rugged and harsh conditions found on Baffin Island, but the company soon realized there were even more opportunities for its use in another equally harsh and rugged environment—underground mining.

“Because of the lower grade (of ore) found in many of these open-pit operations, there’s been more of a general movement to go underground where grades are generally higher,” said Kirk Petroski, president and CEO of Symboticware. “But obviously, underground (mining) has difficulties in trying to get the same production levels as you would in an open-pit environment, due to challenges with energy, emissions, communications and so on.”

That, said Petroski, is where the SymBot is uniquely suited to answer the challenges. Offering a small industrial computer in a rugged casing that provides a real-time monitoring system for data collection and transmission, the device fits with the growing trend in mining to look to technology for solutions.

“The drivers towards change in mining are about increasing mining intensity, using automation to drive better productivity and utilizing information-communication technology to make more data available in order to improve decision-making,” said Petroski. “The real-time hardware-software platform the SymBot provides can meet the needs of the underground mining sector for the purpose of gathering real-time data, analyzing that data and transmitting that data into a mine-management system.”
Smarter mining

These days, people rely heavily on having up-to-the-minute data available at their fingertips, said Petroski, through their smartphones or other such devices.

“People’s need for data for decision-making is increasing exponentially with people’s familiarity with smartphones,” he said. “The SymBot allows a mine to have that data in a number of different applications.”
Customize the bot

From improving fleet productivity and maintenance to improving workers’ health and safety, the SymBot can be integrated into the online systems—including some proprietary systems—of fleet vehicles, thanks to the relationships with equipment manufacturers that Symboticware has been working hard to build.

Because of its modular-based system, the SymBot allows end users to swap in a number of site-specific customized software systems as required; it even has an operator component that comes complete with the touch-screen system many users are familiar with. Replacing antiquated paper-based reporting systems with the real-time data solutions provided by the SymBot has allowed companies to speed up their workflow processes.
Taking the technology underground

How the SymBot is uniquely positioned to meet the challenge of real-time data gathering, however, is through Symboticware’s development of a Wi-Fi-capable system that operates independently of other satellite and GPS technologies. Having an open-based system, an ability to adhere to standards of automation and an ability to recognize data standards are all requirements set forth by the product’s co-developers—which include Vale, Xstrata and the Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation. With all these features combined, the SymBot is now ready to be marketed right across the industry. Working with sales channel partnerships that include Mining Technologies International (MTI)—which has incorporated the SymBot as standard issue on its equipment—as well as with Continental Mine & Industrial Supply (CMI) out of Saskatoon and through direct contact with many mining companies, Symboticware continues to grow and develop, constantly improving on its products and services. The company also has partnerships in Chile and the U.S.

“We’re really focusing on data solutions and providing the supporting infrastructure,” said Petroski. “We’re also focused on providing the necessary software to represent, visualize and report that data on a unique underground-mining platform that is expandable, flexible and modular.”

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Four simple words have been used a lot in recent months to describe the future of mining. Simply stated, they are: the future is Symbot. This sentiment has been echoed at MINExpo 2012.
The Symbot was developed by Sudbury-based Symboticware. It acts as a hub on each piece of equipment to standardize real time data for delivery to a central management system.
By adding several connectivity options, the Symbot allows machines to communicate through wireless technologies like wifi, cellular or satelite . This networking of equipment gives real time access to above ground reporting stations, resulting in greater efficiencies, better timed maintenance and a safer working environment.
According to Kirk Petroski, President and CEO of Symboticware “the symbot addresses a void in mining equipment, which is the ability to collect real time data so that companies can it use make decisions.”
He continued that historically this information was provided by operator feedback, which can be inaccurate or slow to make it to decision makers. With the Symbot on board, that data is transmitted instantaneously and can thus can be translated into solutions to improve productivity and safety.
Relatively speaking, Symboticware is the new kid on the block. However, the use of this type of technology is quickly becoming commonplace with partners including Vale, Xstrata, and Mining Technologies International adopting it.
Petroski anticipates that as a new generation of tech-savvy labourers enter the mining supply field, we will see even more technology integrated into mining processes moving forward.
If the future is Symbot, then the future is now.

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Small Solutions to Big Problems

The focal point of Symboticware’s new developments is a modest little black box, dubbed the SymbotTM, which acts as a network hub or platform for all manner of data streams. Designed to function in environments as harsh as the Arctic Circle or two kilometres underground, the Symbot streamlines data collection from sensors and transmits the information back to operators and management in real-time. This means management can make informed business decisions knowing that they have current and reliable data.
Kirk Petroski, President of Symboticware, explains, “With our product, company management can look at the engine data of a vehicle and see that it’s been idle for 30 or 40 per cent of the time and doesn’t have to come in for preventative maintenance. This allows the company to keep the asset in production longer.”
The type of information transferred from a Symbot can be as simple as the ambient temperature or as complex as the engine data from a 10-ton mining truck – it all depends on what sensors you plug into it. The platform was designed to be versatile and is ideal for use in environments where conventional equipment commonly malfunctions.
Kirk said, “What we’ve done is created a centralized hub where we integrated sensors and then we handle, through a satellite connection, all the data on what we call a Symsite. This Symsite or webpage allows the customer to view all their data in real-time.”
This interoperability is a key feature for companies that need to track a diverse range of sensor data. Université du Québec has begun using the Symbot to conduct carbon capture studies in northern lakes — they’re recording data about the acidity, temperature, salinity and oxygen content of the water. Baffinland Iron Mines and Peregrine Diamonds, two Canadian mining firms, are also using this platform to conduct baseline environmental tests at mining sites located on Baffin Island.

Built on a Rock and Tested in a Hard Place

Symboticware’s successful development of the Symbot, and subsequent success as an industrial automation and environmental monitoring firm, is rooted in solid management. Kirk Petroski, current company President, merged his own consulting company with Symboticware in 2008, jump starting development of the new interoperability platform. Symboticware had the technical know-how and expertise while Kirk utilized his communications savvy and business acumen to build a network of interested clients.
The initial business plan was to create an information platform for environmental monitoring that could withstand year round exposure on the Arctic tundra while providing real-time data streams for climate, water and air quality. This core idea turned out to be a perfect fit for NOHFC assistance and an application was approved through the Emerging Technology Program.
Kirk said, “The NOHFC’s program was well situated for Symboticware. If you look at 2008, the Ontario government had the foresight to look at and focus on innovation as one of the key drivers of the economy. The funding from the NOHFC really helped to support our development salaries and job creation.”
In addition to getting support from the NOHFC, Symboticware gave a presentation to the Centre of Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI) that opened further possibilities for their products. Working with partners like CEMI, Vale and Xstrata, Symboticware took what it learned from its Artic surface trials and applied it to production mining equipment. The company hopes to improve worker safety and productivity while becoming the industry standard platform that mining companies use to gather information in the work environment.
Kirk said, “Basically we started with one remote project in the far north on Baffin Island and looked at a system that could withstand some of the harsh conditions of the Artic. Now, 90 per cent of the business we do now is for mining. It’s really just taking the same concept of remote and rugged and applying it underground.”

Expansion on the Horizon

Being situated in Sudbury has been extremely beneficial for Symboticware as the close proximity of mining sites and industry partners has provided ample opportunities for testing their products to which competitors don’t have access. Northern Ontario recently reached record levels of mineral exploration investment and filling a niche in the industry is an excellent business opportunity for young and innovative companies.
Kirk said, “If you find an industry where there’s an opportunity, put yourself in a position where you can build a network from that and don’t be shy about participating in that community.”
Symboticware’s little black box might not be the infamous ones used on planes but it still has Kirk flying around the globe. Interest in their product has grown in some of the world’s emerging mining markets, including companies in Chile and South Africa. While delighted to have international interest, Kirk is making sure the Symbot is ready for that kind of exposure before he promises anything.
Kirk said, “Based on my successes with my first company, I knew it was important to make sure that you deliver on what you say. Part of my role as President of the company is to create awareness and begin sowing the seeds that take time to develop into an actual opportunity. For 2012, we can’t physically take on anymore projects based on the resources we have and the maturity of our product, so these activities are really for 2013 and 2014 and beyond.”

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Innovation – Symboticware from Daniel Thomson on Vimeo.

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The Symbot is a ruggedized, cube-shaped industrial computer that bolts onto an LHD or utility vehicle, but Symboticware president Kirk Petroski reaches for his smartphone to explain the role it plays in underground mining.

“It’s a standardized platform much like an iPhone that has the ability to integrate multiple applications onto one device,” said Petroski. An iPhone serves as a phone, a calendar, a camera, an alarm clock, an iPod, and a source of news, while the Symbot collects and transmits engine performance and exhaust emission data, bucket weight and production statistics. Adding to the functionality of a Symbot isn’t as easy as going to the App Store, but that day may come, too.

Just as you wouldn’t want to walk around with your pockets stuffed with a phone, an iPod, a camera, a calculator and an alarm clock, you don’t want to cram multiple devices on an LHD.

“You can buy point solutions to collect engine data or you can buy something to do location tracking or emission monitoring, but I believe we are uniquely positioned with our platform to handle the integration, which is the big part of trying to install a system,” said Petroski. “When you want to add another application, it’s just a matter of adding a piece of software.”

There are other systems on the market that serve as an integration hub, but most of them are geared to surface operations “where they have GPS, open transmission and it’s all real-time,” he said. Developing a system for the underground environment where you’re limited to Wi-Fi and you can lose your connection is much more challenging.

“That’s where the Symbot’s onboard intelligence comes into play,” said Petroski. “All of the data is time-stamped and synchs up as soon as there’s a Wi-Fi connection available. That’s where we have an advantage over other systems on the market.”

Sudbury-based Symboticware has worked closely with Vale and Xstrata Nickel on the development of the Symbot, and is poised for takeoff.

“It’s no longer a matter of doing one Symbot for a project,” said Petroski. “It’s how do we replicate that for 100 units or 150 units.”

Both mining companies have bought into the concept of a standardized platform and are deploying the technology at several of their mines in the Sudbury area.

The Symbot, explained Petroski, is OEM-agnostic, meaning it can collect engine performance data from Atlas Copco, Sandvik and MTI equipment, all of which use the standard J1939 communications and diagnostics protocol. Caterpillar was more of a challenge because of its proprietary MineStar system, but Symboticware and Toromont CAT are also working together to help miners such as Vale manage their multiple vendor fleets with a common data collection system.

Symboticware started with engine monitoring, but is also capturing equipment safety and maintenance reliability data from ruggedized touchpads mounted in operator cabs.

Until now, equipment operators filled out forms on a piece of paper, recording production data and safety-related information from circle checks.

“The operator would give the piece of paper to the shift boss, the shift boss would review it and give it to the general foreman, and he would give it to a data entry clerk, who would give it to a geologist,” said Petroski. “There were obvious accuracy and timeliness issues with such a system, so we developed an interface that sits inside the operator cab.”

The data is collected by the Symbot and transmitted to the data management system.

“Now, mine management is able to make decisions in a more timely manner based on more accurate information, positively impacting on productivity, safety and maintenance reliability,” said Petroski.

The Symbot also collects data from a Loadrite onboard weighing system, providing mine management with real-time information on the volume of material moved in a given shift.

The capture of load weight data also has implications for safety and equipment maintenance, said Petroski, because “overloads” can blow cylinders and hydraulics.

Last year, Symboticware worked with the Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation on a ventilation-on-demand research project to capture emission and air quality data from LHDs at Vale’s Coleman Mine and Xstrata’s Nickel Rim South Mine.

The company currently has 10 full-time staff and contractors, but plans to ramp up to 20 or 25 employees within the next two years. It recently opened an office in Toronto, hired a vice-president of product development, and has an advisory board chaired by technology entrepreneur Robert Lane.

Symboticware is also expanding its client base through partnerships with MTI, CAST Resource Equipment, Continental Mine and Industrial Supply in Saskatoon and U.S.-based TEC Systems Group.

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The turmoil in the markets in recent days and the debt crisis in the United States won’t derail Vale’s plans for its Greater Sudbury operations, a senior company official said Tuesday.

“We are staying the course,” Steve Wood told members of the Sudbury Area Mining Supply & Service Association at the group’s monthly meeting Tuesday. “We have our vision to be the biggest and the best (global mining company) and these projects have built up well situationally, as well.

“We don’t see any changes.” Wood is Vale’s vice-president of mining and milling for its North Atlantic operations. A Greater Sudbury native, Wood provided a 20-minute update of the global mining company’s plans for its Greater Sudbury operations.

In a scrum with reporters following his presentation, Wood reiterated that the bad economic news won’t affect the company’s Greater Sudbury operations or planned projects.

“Right now, our plans haven’t changed here in Greater Sudbury,” he said. “It’s too early in this set of events to speculate on that.”
Wood updated the association’s membership on Vale’s ambitious $3.4-billion upgrading and environmental projects planned for its Greater Sudbury operations over the next five years, including improvements to the Copper Cliff Smelter that will see 80% of the sulphur-dioxide now being emitted eliminated.

A $200-million Challenging Ore Recovery (CORe) flotation project at the Clarabelle Mill, which will recover more metals Vale processes, is already underway.
Wood said those plans “bode well” for both Greater Su dbury’s long-term future and the local supply and service sector.
“This is significant good news for Sudbury’s economy, and especially for the members of the Sudbury mining supply and service sector,” he said.

He said that in 2009 and 2010, 90% of the mining supply and service purchases for Vale’s Greater Sudbury operations came from Ontario, a total of $384 million and $471 million being spent respectively.

In the first six months of 2011, noted Wood, those purchases for the Sudbury operations had already reached the 2009 total.

“That number is truly staggering,” he said. “There is no doubt we have one of the best mining supply and service sectors here today,” he said. “Having one of this level in our backyard gives us a significant advantage, especially when circumstances require us to be nimble.

“For you, this definitely translates into great opportunity. I mean it when I say we can’t be successful without you, the (Sudbury Area Mining Supply & Service Association) members.”

Along with touching on plans to open Totten Mine, the company’s first new mine locally in 40 years — which will employ about 130 — Wood also surprised some by noting that Vale will shift back to a focus on both copper and nickel, from primarily nickel.

“We will have a new copper strategy to respond to increasing global demand in foreign countries,” he said. “Sudbury will play a pivotal role, including the Victor and Capre properties in Sudbury …

“It is not going to displace nickel. It’s not an either/or. Given the growth of these countries — Brazil, China, India and Russia — there’s more need to build infrastructure. We are growing our copper production around the world.

“Victor and Capre are places that have some potential for us. The best place to find ore is where you have already found some. We believe there’s still quite a bit here.”

Copper produced at Vale’s local operations is sold as concentrate to other mining companies. “Our plan is to continue to produce the copper (concentrate),” Wood said. “And it allows us to produce our nickel better. It doesn’t mean we are not going to produce copper.”

When asked where he thought world demand for nickel was headed, Wood said he saw a huge need for it.
“We see the demand for nickel continuing to grow as some countries like Brazil, Russia, India and China continue to build their infrastructure,” he said.

“There will be some bumps along the way. (But) we see supply as tight.”

Wood added the company’s $2-billion Clean AER project at the smelter will “result in cleaner air for the community and significant economic spin-offs for Northern Ontario.”

The project’s feasibility study is now in its final stages and is expected to go before the Vale board by the end of the year.
“There will be 1,400 additional workers on site at any time (during the project),” he said.

Wood told Sudbury Area Mining Supply & Service Association members the decision to rebuild the No. 2 flash furnace at the Copper Cliff Smelter earlier in the year was the right one, not just for safety reasons, but productivity and efficiency, as well.

While the smelter operated with just one flash furnace for much of the first half of the year, with a loss of 5% of its planned 2011 world nickel production (15,000 tones), some of that lost production is expected to be recouped through the now more-efficient No. 2 furnace.

Wood also said that Vale will have its work cut out in the years ahead as it adapts 21st century technologies into 20th century mines, including going down as far as 10,000 feet at Creighton Mine, where mining is now going on at 8,000 feet.

“We are no longer focused on keeping our eye on the competition across town (Xstrata Nickel), but across the world,” he said.

hcarmichael@thesudburystar.com

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Symboticware is exhibiting its mining applications at the Precarn T-GAP Event in Ottawa today at The Westin Hotel, 11 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, Ontario. During this event, Symboticware will be highlighting our Open Sensor Network application. The objective of this application is to address two major requirements for wireless infrastructure in the underground environment: maximizing connectivity and providing sufficient bandwidth for data transfer. This Integrated Open Wi-Fi® / ZigBee® Sensor Network for Process Automation in Underground Mining application was recently featured as a technical paper at the CIM – MEMO 2010 conference in Sudbury.

The Precarn T-Gap event provides a unique opportunity to:

• Engage Canadian entrepreneurs, their R&D collaborators and customers as they showcase novel ICT technologies that are creating powerful new capabilities in life sciences, energy, environment, manufacturing, public safety and defence, aerospace and natural resources;
• Participate in demonstrations and experience Canadian-designed ICT technologies ‘at work’ in products that aim to boost productivity and innovation across many industries, and address specific global market opportunities;
• Gain new perspective about how these projects contribute to the development of a digitally skilled workforce that is well equipped to exploit on the opportunities these technologies provide.

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Via OEM Off-Highway
by Chad Elmore

A new device for data management enables the intelligent monitoring of mining equipment and other applications. Packaged in a rugged IP-65 rated enclosure, data collected by Symboticware’s SymBot platform is processed and standardized on-board and relayed out for maintenance scheduling, warning alarms or virtually anything else needed by an operator or foreman.

In situations where real-time data collection is critical, the SymBot platform can be used for monitoring engines (using CAN bus), production, maintenance, emissions and air quality and maintenance. Using the Wi-Fi-based communication systems that are becoming prevalent in underground mines, SymBot has bi-directionality and remote configuration capabilities, opening up the possibility for future dispatch systems in an underground environment.

An idea in search of a market

Symboticware Inc. is a 2008 startup located in Sudbury, the heart of Ontario, Canada’s hardrock mining production. From the beginning, the firm focused on creating a ruggedized platform that would standardize and manage remote data collected from a number of different systems.

“We took that initial concept and went into the industry to find applications that could build on the platform,” says Kirk Petroski, president and CEO, Symboticware. In the middle of a deep recession, one of Sudbury’s largest mining companies was mired in a long strike. “The company’s process automation group was looking for technology to standardize data and increase their efficiency.” The firm has since become a partner in the development of the technology, helping to define the requirements.

Symboticware has also developed relationships with Sudbury-based OEMs, equipment dealers, and distributors that individually provide equipment information as well as a way to market SymBot.

Symboticware’s goal is to get the platform accepted mine wide. From there, end-users, maintenance, production, and health and safety departments can start building on the platform. For mobile equipment, Petroski feels underground loaders (load-haul-dump, or LHD) make the most sense, followed by drills and utility vehicles. An OEM can sell it as an option and program it for a specific machine.

Like the iPhone, SymBot is a platform onto which specific functions—apps—can be easily installed. Customers will not have to discard any business programs that had been used above ground; any software that is unique to the Symbot is contained within the mine-hardened enclosure.

Symboticware has several test units underground now and anticipates being ready for full commercialization by Q1 of 2011. Where possible, SymBot is built with MilSpec and extended commercial off-the-shelf components with design, assembly and QA in Sudbury. “The most important part is our supplier relationships—we know where to source the components when large orders come in,” says Petroski.

In addition to the operating system and software, Symboticware has also developed the human-machine interface (HMI), an in-cab touch screen for inputting data. Many mines still use a paper system for the required pre-operation checklist. Using the SymBot, data is standardized and can be sent to the foreman in real time.

SymBot supports an industry-wide initiative called IREDES, (International Rock Excavation Data Exchange Standard), which is working to standardize data between mining equipment and office computer systems. SymBot can send information in an IREDES-based format. Through its projects, Symboticware continues to actively advance this industry-lead data standard.

Big R&D help

Symboticware has benefitted from its relationship with the Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI). Located on Sudbury’s Laurentian University campus, CEMI’s R&D efforts focus on research initiatives important to the mining industry.

“We are computer science engineers. The difficulty as a technology company is not having a deep knowledge base in a particular market vertical,” says Petroski. “CEMI helps us bridge between the gap in what we are doing and what the industry needs. Having access to the network of mining experts in Sudbury has been invaluable. We see ourselves as the technology enabler, and CEMI helps us bridge from idea to commercialization.” It also helps with funding, which is important to any chasm-crossing start-up.

Petroski believes large-scale implementation of the SymBot platform will happen in tandem with an organizational change. As local mining firms become part of global giants, such platforms will be key to creating standardized data applications for specific operational needs. The SymBot platform enables mass customization, and customer/OEM co-creation, allowing for customized data applications, while still taking advantage of economies of scale within a single on-board device.

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Via Boréal News Release
by B. Clément

At a press conference this morning on Collège Boréal’s main campus in Sudbury, Symboticware unveiled a new applied research partnership that is destined to improve practices in the area of productivity, maintenance and mineworker safety through the use of the latest innovations in wireless technology. This research project, initiated by Symboticware, will partner with renowned specialists in the mining industry such as the Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI), Laurentian University, Gareth Kennedy at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom and, representing the college sector, Collège Boréal.

Over the last two years, Symboticware has developed the SymBot intelligent real time monitoring system that provides a bi-directional platform for the collection, storage and re-transmission of standardized data. The platform enables optimal remote monitoring of various applications for which continuously updated information is crucial to informed decision-making (equipment, production, maintenance, environment, etc.) The applied research performed at Collège Boréal will include testing, quality assurance process documentation and refinement that will, at a later date, enable manufacturing to be automated.

Collège Boréal President Denis Hubert underlined the growing role of Ontario colleges in the field of applied research: “With their hands-on approach, postsecondary college-level studies are a natural fit for applied research initiatives that are aimed at resolving well-defined technical challenges encountered by small and medium-sized companies. This new partnership with Symboticware reinforces the positioning of Collège Boréal as a leading and innovative institution that is capable of responding to the present and future needs of industry.”

It should also be noted that Collège Boréal is a member of the Colleges Ontario Network for Industry Innovation (CONII). The resources of this 20-college Ontario network include many experts in a variety of fields, working towards a central goal of helping small and medium-size companies develop their products and become more competitive in the dynamic and constantly evolving global economy.

Symboticware President and CEO Kirk Petroski stated the reasons that led to the company partnering with Collège Boréal: “Symboticware is a company built on excellence and innovation, and we wanted to grow a relationship with a college institution that is both recognized by our high-tech mining partners and peers and shares these values. We visited the Collège Boréal campus, saw its ultramodern equipment and were extremely impressed by the expertise of the professors with whom we met. After visiting with the Boréal team, it reinforced the need to have them as an important partner.”

Collège Boréal Academic Vice-President, Daniel Giroux, confirmed that the teaching component is an important part of the new applied research initiative: “The partnership with Symboticware provides an excellent opportunity to involve our students in learning activities that have tangible academic and community benefits. Moreover, Collège Boréal sees as prerequisite the involvement of qualified teaching staff in this type of project, while offering its students the option of actively participating in each step of the research process. This procedure is also aimed at significantly enriching our student’s education by offering them an authentic and valuable learning experience.”

About Symboticware:
Symboticware Incorporated, located in Sudbury, Ontario, is a communication and information technology company that offers a real-time intelligent monitoring system. Its downtown office has a full time staff of eight, with a technology team including engineers handling hardware development supported by software developers.  With a PhD leading the research, Symboticware also engage researchers and domain experts for specific industry applications. The executive team focuses on applying its core competencies to meet current industry needs. Over the last two years, this company has been collaborating with industry and research institutions to address industry-specific needs, through the development of enabling technologies. Symboticware intends to build on the success of this approach for years to come.

“Promoting knowledge and a vibrant culture”
This is Collège Boréal’s vision, a French-language institution of postsecondary and skills training, established in 1995, which contributes to the growth and development of communities in Northern and Central-Southwestern Ontario. Having attained the highest graduation rate for the last 8 years and, for the 7th time in 11 years, the highest graduate satisfaction rate among the 24 community colleges in Ontario, Collège Boréal encourages the values of humanism, excellence and inclusion as well as an active awareness of environmental issues that affect our society. Collège Boréal is the first education sector representative officially designated by the government of Ontario under the French Language Services Act.

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In the complex, harsh world of mining, the SymBot, a new equipment monitoring platform that communicates by satellite, cellular network and Wi-Fi, is built tough and, as the name suggests, SymBot plays well with others.

The SymBot platform, designed to comply with open standards for industrial automation and systems interoperability, is a durable, energy-efficient hardware/software device that can be applied to monitor equipment information such as location, pay load data and emissions or operating environments.

The device hails back to 2008 when its parent company, Symboticware, received grants from the Ontario and federal governments to develop what was an R&D project into a full-fledged commercial product.

Above ground, a partnership was formed between Symboticware, junior mining firm Baffinland Iron Mines, the Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI) and Laurentian University. The project centred on a weather monitoring system on north Baffin Island. The challenge was not just extreme weather; the company’s co-founder and president, Kirk Petroski, explains that the monitoring stations are accessible by helicopter only, which makes in-person site visits difficult, costly, and subject to the vagaries of the local weather.

Hands on/hands free

To make site visits as infrequent as possible, Symboticware managed to cut power consumption on the SymBots down to as little as 10W, and used solar panels to keep the batteries topped up, making the unit almost completely self-sufficient. Also, SymBots’ satellite uplink means that the customers no longer have to visit the station to retrieve the collected data. But most important is that the satellite connection provides two-way communications and the SymBots’ operational parameters can be remotely controlled.

“SymBots allow the researchers or industry personnel to check the status and conditions around the station in real time and to change the parameters as needed,” explains Symboticware’s marketing and sales manager Bora Ugurgel. “So, if you’re sampling every five seconds, you can change that to every two hours in the winter months.”

The utility of up-to-the-minute information provided by these weather stations is clear, says Baffinland Iron Mines’ manager of sustainable development Matthew Pickard. “The data is important to us because it can tell us if we are expecting weather up there, but it can also be useful from the operational side. We have proposed mine infrastructure across a 250 kilometre strike width, so you don’t want a helicopter taking off and then turning around and coming back because it ran into bad weather. That can amount to thousands of dollars in costs to no useful end. Once we confirm the SymBots can work independently in the long, dark, cold winters of North Baffin Island, we hope to expand their use into other remote monitoring functions such as water quality monitoring.”

The Baffin Island project — which has since expanded to include Peregrine Diamonds, another advanced-stage exploration company — is going to be revisited this summer with a second phase. This time, Symboticware will be introducing a hybrid solar-wind power generation system to keep the SymBots charged up, but the software side will also see enhancements.

“We’re trying to reduce costs for our customers,” says Ugurgel. “Satellite data transmission costs are about $2 per kilobyte. With our in-house data compression system, we’d be able to compress the data by 70 to 80 per cent, significantly reducing airtime costs.”
In its underground projects, Symboticware sought out what Petroski describes as early adopters — mines in which a wireless communications infrastructure has been set up.

“The timing was paramount to the success of where we are today,” he adds. “Given that there was a decline in the economy and mining really took a hit, there was a period when a lot of the automation guys, for example the automation superintendent at Vale Inco, were looking for ways to do business better and to bring in a lot of new technologies.”

The SymBots are currently being used by both Vale Inco and Xstrata Nickel to monitor mobile equipment — most notably the two companies’ load-haul-dump (LHD) vehicles. Since the SymBots can draw power directly from the LHD machines they are monitoring, power management is not as much of an issue in this context, says Petroski. On the other hand, connectivity and constant vibration were a concern. There were also more direct threats to effective operation — being hit by large rocks, for instance.

“When you’re placing the SymBot on an LHD, you have to look in hard spots to keep your sensors safe and lasting as long as you can,” explains Ugurgel.

Enhanced information exchange

The need for mobile equipment monitoring is not new, and Symboticware had to contend with a wide range of existing solutions and devices already in place, which, in fact, was an advantage for the SymBot. As operator needs for data collection grew over the years, so did the number of specialized solutions in the driver’s cab — each with its own display, control system, and proprietary data standard. The growing trend for crowded cabs led to a push for open standards — common data formats that would allow for greater interoperability between all the disparate systems. When Symboticware approached them, both Vale Inco and Xstrata were already moving towards greater use of IREDES — the International Rock Excavation Data Exchange Standard designed to smooth the transfer of information between mining machines and office computers. It is no coincidence that the SymBots supported IREDES, along with OPC UA — a complementary, communication interface.

The idea is not to replace existing, proprietary systems, says Petroski, but to step in where these systems have gaps. Two projects currently being worked on at Symboticware are being demonstrated on Caterpillar 1700G LHD machines, “based on Caterpillar’s proprietary data system,” says Petroski. “In the context of these projects, we’re developing a protocol translator — taking Caterpillar data, running it through a translator and pushing it up to the surface in the format that the clients wanted; in this case an IREDES-based format.”

An open-platform solution

Look inside the SymBot enclosure and you are not going to see much in the way of custom parts. Symboticware tries to use as many commercial off-the-shelf parts as it can, says Petroski. In a marked contrast to the proprietary trend, Symboticware’s software OPIS(TM) (Open Platform for Intelligent Systems) facilitates an open platform environment, meaning anyone with the skill and desire can alter the programming, or write their own application for the platform.

This was the factor that compelled CEMI to partner with Symboticware, explains Allan Akerman CEMI’s R&D program director: “With closed systems you are tied in with one supplier; with open systems you can use the best of any supplier.” Added to that, he says there is also a cost advantage to meeting the single IREDES requirements rather than multiple standards. “The majority of mining equipment manufacturers are now on board with IREDES,” he says, and more and more mining companies are committing to the single standard as well.

“If I could use the analogy, we’ve developed the iPhone for the mining industry, and you’re loading applications onto this device,” says Petroski. “The money is in the applications. So we’re developing our own applications, but we’re also integrating third-party applications into our system and providing that to our users as per their needs.”

With five SymBots operating “in the wild” and 16 already on order for this summer’s projects, Symboticware is still a young, but clearly growing, company. Petroski says he expects the company’s eight-person roster to grow to 12 within a year, mostly adding technical sales and support staff. Capitalizing on the platform’s flexibility, the company has a number of new applications planned for the SymBot, ranging from an open WiFi-RFID (radio-frequency identification) reader and tracking system to a portable environmental monitoring station, which can be moved from spot to spot as needed, without requiring costly installation of fixed equipment.

For the time being, Symboticware is not looking to expand into other industries, although Petroski readily acknowledges that there are many other promising areas for the SymBot. “We want to succeed and excel in these two markets before we tackle others,” he says

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