Engineers testing waters in deep-mining technology.

Engineering and mining gurus from Greater Sudbury are developing an underwater wireless communication system to transmit information to and from a submersible robot hundreds of feet under water.

"We are doing our first test in the next few weeks," says Greg Baiden, chair of Penguin Automated Systems Inc, and Canadian Research Chair in Robotics and Mine Automation at Laurentian University.

"The research is about as leading edge as you are going to get in the world today," says Baiden.

The intention is to create an underwater mining environment using communication systems and submersible machines, which will be manipulated from the surface by researchers using telerobotic controls.

As companies reach greater mining depths, rock bursts are common due to the mounting pressure and higher temperatures. The combination of pressure and heat could transform rock from a solid to a liquid state, so mining at great depths requires new methodologies. Workers could not possibly function in that environment, says Baiden. In order to mine at these depths, companies may have to consider "flooding the mine with water," he suggests. This would stabilize the rock and reduce the heat. Instead of miners, robots would be used. Operators on surface, using control devices and a wireless optical communication system, would manipulate the robots.

Baiden, director of Laurentian University's school of engineering, two other post-secondary school instructors and seven graduate students are experimenting with underwater laser communications as a first step to underwater mining. Telerobotics requires a tremendous amount of bandwidth to transmit high-quality video from a submersible to an operator on surface. Baiden and his team are testing the communication system from a specially built pontoon boat on Long Lake, southwest of Greater Sudbury.

"We can get 10 megabytes over this laser system," Baiden adds.

"This would be equivalent to running a medium-sized business computer network."

An acoustic communication system will also be studied as part of the research project.

"We found that you can create a wireless optical communication system that will work at the speed of a normal computer network," Baiden explains. "What we will be figuring out next is what kind of distances and ranges we can get underwater. That is the next big thrust."

As the project matures, researchers will study the technology at greater depths.

Baiden's team has already spent an estimated 12 months on the project's first phase, establishing the communication network. By this fall, he plans on testing the communication infrastructure with a submersible robot. An operator sitting on the pontoon boat will manipulate the robot from a telerobotic chair. Eventually, two robots will be built and tested. Once they are sure the communication network is effective, instruments like drills and buckets will be added to the robots to determine the feasibility of underwater mining.

The development of such a communication system has implications throughout the world and beyond. It will make communication in space more effective, and help develop guidelines for buoyancy in the solar system.

"Working in an underwater environment with this kind of communication system allows you to experiment with drilling in a weightless or low-gravity environment," Baiden adds.

Development of the technology in Sudbury will help to reinforce the city's status as a mining cluster, he says.

"Clusters are clusters when they can spin off technology into other areas. We are not doing that right now."

"It's wonderful to talk about Sudbury being a mining cluster, but we're not quite there yet," he says.

"This research and development will catapult the city into really being a cluster and, without it, I don't know how you would see one."

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

An estimated $575,000 price tag is attached to this project, with funds coming from Communications Information Technology Ontario ($150,000), Materials Manufacturing Ontario, ($100,000) Penguin ASI ($50,000) and FedNor ($92,000), plus $100,000 in in-kind contributions.

A major mining company has expressed interest in the project; however, nothing is formalized on paper.

The fact that Sudbury mining professionals and engineers are developing this technology puts Laurentian University on the radar and enhances the reputation of the institution, says Baiden.

"You know you're on to something good when (other) universities want to come and work with you."

www.penguinasi.com

www.mmo.on.ca

www.fednor.ic.gc.ca

KELLY LOUISEIZE

Northern Ontario Business