Accurate stope geometry and volume assessments are critical for optimizing production and ensuring structural integrity in underground mining. However, limited access, safety risks, and data collection challenges often stand in the way.
Emesent’s Stope Reconciliation solutions overcome these obstacles with safe, accurate and fully autonomous data capture, delivering complete insights into inaccessible voids. Operators can verify design conformity, assess ore dilution, and improve blasting efficiency—maximizing profitability while keeping personnel and equipment safe.
The challenges faced
A Cavity Monitoring System (CMS) is a common tool for assessing underground voids, but its bulky equipment, manual handling, and significant setup and scan time pose challenges. More critically, personnel must remain close to the stope opening, exposing them to risk. Plus, the requirement for stationary scanning can lead to shadowing, leaving gaps in the data.
Drones offer a safer and more comprehensive alternative—provided the stope opening is wide enough. However, many drone-based solutions face limitations BVLOS (Beyond Visual Line of Sight) and require additional communications infrastructure, restricting capabilities. In the worst case, a loss of communication could mean losing the drone entirely.
Emesent’s Stope Reconciliation solutions overcome these obstacles with safe, accurate and fully autonomous data capture, delivering complete insights into inaccessible voids. Operators can verify design conformity, assess ore dilution, and improve blasting efficiency—maximizing profitability while keeping personnel and equipment safe.
The challenges faced
A Cavity Monitoring System (CMS) is a common tool for assessing underground voids, but its bulky equipment, manual handling, and significant setup and scan time pose challenges. More critically, personnel must remain close to the stope opening, exposing them to risk. Plus, the requirement for stationary scanning can lead to shadowing, leaving gaps in the data.
Drones offer a safer and more comprehensive alternative—provided the stope opening is wide enough. However, many drone-based solutions face limitations BVLOS (Beyond Visual Line of Sight) and require additional communications infrastructure, restricting capabilities. In the worst case, a loss of communication could mean losing the drone entirely.
Map hard to access underground excavations – efficiently and accurately
Emesent’s stope reconciliation solutions allow geotechnical engineers and surveyors to efficiently and accurately map hard to access underground excavations to ensure compliance to design — quickly and safely, whilst minimizing impact to production. Hovermap’s unmatched versatility sets it apart, while offering multiple deployment options that maximize ROI from a single device.
Drone mounted capture
Hovermap’s fully autonomous navigation integrated with next-generation drone platforms delivers fast, reliable data capture in the most challenging environments— without the need for GPS.
Powered by Emesent Cortex, featuring AI powered autonomy, Hovermap enables autonomous flight beyond visual line of sight and communications range, making it ideal for mapping hard-to-reach or previously inaccessible areas. Whether you’re dealing with tight spaces, heavy dust, or high humidity, Hovermap’s industry-leading SLAM technology ensures accurate, confident mapping every time.
Entire missions—from takeoff to landing—can be executed using just a tablet, keeping operators at a safe distance. Live point cloud streaming via the Commander app provides real-time visibility, while onboard processing delivers instant insights, as well as optimizing the data for rapid network transfer and ease of manipulation with third-party analysis tools.
Hovermap also offers three flexible operating modes, so you can tailor the level of autonomy to your needs—from Pilot Assist, which blends human control with automated safeguards, to fully autonomous missions for maximum efficiency.
LHD mounted capture
See further with Hovermap LHD. Easily mounted to an LHD via a purpose built mount, Hovermap transmits data to the surface via the site network. This enables operators to remotely scan the working face and visualize results in near real time, providing context and enabling analysis while keeping personnel safe. With a 300-meter range and 360° field of view, Hovermap delivers a complete map of the stope, even in total darkness. Operators can identify loose rock, structural hazards, and rill angles in minutes. Its plug-and-play design means crews can perform accurate stope scans anytime, day or night, without the need for significant training.
Hovermap LHD puts an advanced 3D analysis tool in the hands of operators so they can make faster, better decisions as they go, while allowing safe and efficient LHD operation from the surface and removing personnel from potential harm. It can also be deployed on any other equipment or vehicle.
CMS boom mounted capture
Capture more detailed, accurate 3D data in less than half the time of traditional CMS in hard-to-access underground voids not suitable for a drone, such as very small openings. Attached to a CMS boom or pole, Hovermap captures a highly detailed and dense point cloud of a stope in just 1-2 minutes – allowing more accurate volume calculations and geotech structure mapping that improves mine engineering processes.
Unlike traditional CMS, which requires stationary operation, Hovermap can be moved during scanning, providing better coverage per scan with minimal shadowing.
Drone mounted capture
Hovermap’s fully autonomous navigation integrated with next-generation drone platforms delivers fast, reliable data capture in the most challenging environments— without the need for GPS.
Powered by Emesent Cortex, featuring AI powered autonomy, Hovermap enables autonomous flight beyond visual line of sight and communications range, making it ideal for mapping hard-to-reach or previously inaccessible areas. Whether you’re dealing with tight spaces, heavy dust, or high humidity, Hovermap’s industry-leading SLAM technology ensures accurate, confident mapping every time.
Entire missions—from takeoff to landing—can be executed using just a tablet, keeping operators at a safe distance. Live point cloud streaming via the Commander app provides real-time visibility, while onboard processing delivers instant insights, as well as optimizing the data for rapid network transfer and ease of manipulation with third-party analysis tools.
Hovermap also offers three flexible operating modes, so you can tailor the level of autonomy to your needs—from Pilot Assist, which blends human control with automated safeguards, to fully autonomous missions for maximum efficiency.
LHD mounted capture
See further with Hovermap LHD. Easily mounted to an LHD via a purpose built mount, Hovermap transmits data to the surface via the site network. This enables operators to remotely scan the working face and visualize results in near real time, providing context and enabling analysis while keeping personnel safe. With a 300-meter range and 360° field of view, Hovermap delivers a complete map of the stope, even in total darkness. Operators can identify loose rock, structural hazards, and rill angles in minutes. Its plug-and-play design means crews can perform accurate stope scans anytime, day or night, without the need for significant training.
Hovermap LHD puts an advanced 3D analysis tool in the hands of operators so they can make faster, better decisions as they go, while allowing safe and efficient LHD operation from the surface and removing personnel from potential harm. It can also be deployed on any other equipment or vehicle.
CMS boom mounted capture
Capture more detailed, accurate 3D data in less than half the time of traditional CMS in hard-to-access underground voids not suitable for a drone, such as very small openings. Attached to a CMS boom or pole, Hovermap captures a highly detailed and dense point cloud of a stope in just 1-2 minutes – allowing more accurate volume calculations and geotech structure mapping that improves mine engineering processes.
Unlike traditional CMS, which requires stationary operation, Hovermap can be moved during scanning, providing better coverage per scan with minimal shadowing.
The Emesent Solution
When more than a single scanning technique is needed, the versatility of Hovermap allows multi-platform deployment throughout the mine – drone, vehicle, handheld, backpack, pole – providing greater ROI from a single device
Greater ROI
Autonomous and remote data collection keeps personnel from harm, while providing reliable, detailed data capture in hazardous environments
Safer operations
With proven reliability in the most challenging environments, Emesent’s world leading SLAM delivers advanced autonomous navigation and collision avoidance without the need for GPS
Full autonomy
Eliminate guesswork with data capture of previously inaccessible areas and accurate, high density point clouds to confidently reconcile stope volumes
Confident decision-making
Longer flight time, extended range and greater field of view allows faster data acquisition over larger areas, improving efficiency, especially for large stopes and larger scale projects
Faster data acquisition
Automated georeferencing saves time and improves accuracy by eliminating manual and error prone processes
Improved efficiency
Process and align scans directly in Emesent software.
Data processing
Using third-party software
Analysis
Hovermap
Capture
Rapid capture of detailed geotechnical data to optimize mine design
Single device is easily switched between multiple deployment platforms
Versatile deployment
Safer, more confident flying even in heavy dust environments
Dust filtering
The drone will return to home if communication is lost
Return to home
A tiered warning and notification system keeps you informed of any necessary action required during your scan to keep the mission on track
Built in fail-safes
Provides a virtual safety bubble, allowing the drone to fly safely in complex GPS-denied environments
Advanced collision avoidance
Automated georeferencing
Improves accuracy and eliminates labor-intensive and time-consuming processes
Proven reliability in challenging environments where other SLAM systems fail
World-leading SLAM
Preview the point cloud as you scan to ensure complete data capture
Real time visualization
Delivers advanced navigation that enables deployment beyond communications range and BVLOS with no additional infrastructure required, with or without GPS
Full autonomy
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