ROBOMINERS: changing the ground rules

Nowadays we are faced with several challenges regarding mineral exploration and exploitation in Europe. The biggest accessible deposits have already been discovered and exploited, with some of those mines dating back of thousands of years. What remains now are the small and difficult to access deposits, leading to the needs of new and more sustainable mining methods. In the last years several projects like ROBOMINERS were started with the expectation to have relevant impact in social, technological, environmental and economical areas and aiming to help in (i) reducing EU dependency on import of raw materials, (ii) pushing the EU to the forefront in sustainable minerals surveying and exploration technologies and to (iii) improve resource efficiency and responsible sourcing. The main objective of the ROBOMINERS project is to develop a Bio-Inspired, Modular and Reconfigurable Robot Miner, equipped with selective mining perception and mining tools for small and difficult to access deposits. A consortium that includes geoscientists, roboticists and engineers is working to build a modular robot prototype (Technology Readiness Level 4 to 5), design a new mining system via simulation and modelling and to use the prototype to study and advance future research on different areas of robotics and raw materials alike (Lopez and al. 2020). ROBOMINERS will not reach its end-state by the end of the project. Therefore, it already prepares future development with visions for 2030 and 2050, coinciding with important EU targets (2030: reduce GHG emissions, more renewable energy; 2050: climate neutrality). These visions will impact the developments of robotics, selective mining and mining ecosystem. The considered methods and tools, although innovative at this point, will be continuously assessed, and compared to new technology developments in the relevant fields. The ROBOMINERS project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 820971. References. L. Lopes, B. Bodo, C. Rossi, S. Henley, G. Žibret, A. Kot-Niewiadomska, V. Correia, ROBOMINERS – Developing a bio-inspired modular robot-miner for difficult to access mineral deposits, Advances in Geosciences, Volume 54, 2020, 99–108

Proceedings