Penguin Research Centre adopts former grade school.

It is not old school to think cutting-edge research can take place within the walls of a once inhabited grade school classroom.

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Dr. Greg Baiden, recipient of Canada's Research Chair in Robotics and Mining Automation along with a research team have been embarking on such endeavours at the new Penguin Research Centre, formerly known as Our Lady of Fatima elementary school.

The 40,000 square-foot facility located west of Greater Sudbury is now home to Baiden's telerobotic automation projects (TRAC). The facility relieves pressure to build a research centre on Laurentian University's campus in the immediate future and accelerates project growth, Baiden says.

Baiden, an engineering professor, is a gatherer of sorts and has managed to fill trailers with equipment parts and machinery, including the Canadarm, a space shuttle remote controlled grabbing device that has placed satellites into orbit and recovered malfunctioned ones. It can now be displayed in the gymnasium.

Inside the facility, machine shops, electronic labs and wood working rooms will become the building blocks for mock-down models. The former library will be used as the control centre for telerobotic operations.

Twelve research scientists, some Ph.D. students and others master's degree students, have moved into the classrooms to work on five projects that will enhance technological communication.

Student, Antti Saari, is working on Project Smart Rocks which is the creation of a three-dimensional underground fencing system to track rock flow. A ball, the size of a cantaloupe, possesses antennas around the outside. Inside a battery-operated, circuit-sensing board transmits the rock's location as it falls from the six-inch diametre borehole in-to the ore chambers. When completed, the device will be able to parlay how much ore is in the chambers to the operating centre.

"One of the innovative things about it is that we will have to get into micro-scale automatic clocks to be able to put them inside the Smart Rock," Baiden says.

"This (product) will be the equivalent of an underground GPS system."

The teleloader project investigates the process of loading trucks via a wireless system in an open pit. Baiden is working with Mining Technologies International and Rainbow Concrete to manufacture a down-scale load-haul-dump (LHD) prototype to help with research and to reduce transportation costs when exhibiting on the road.

Rainbow Concrete vice-president Boris Naneff says the research will, if successful, "improve efficiencies and improve operating costs in our quarry."

The cost of implementing such a system will be part of the research work. Initially Naneff intends to start off on a small scale, but build up as the research is proven in an open pit environment.

"Certainly the successes have been proven in the underground mining applications, so we are anxious to see how it can be applied to the surface."

As part of a master's thesis, Dean Lupini is working on a project to develop a moveable stem on a chair that will transmit wireless messages to an underground machine. As the operator sends these messages he or she will be able to "feel" the machine's response as it to travels through the underground terrain. A dome-like screen wraps around the operator's chair to give a peripheral advantage.

The construction of an uninhabited plane is another project priority.

Although in its formative stages, the aim is to modify a plane, so it can be flown from the ground using wireless optical communication devices.

Guided drilling is yet another project where a robotic snake is being developed for drilling. A large flexible cable carrying fibre optics would be attached to a drill that would secure a grip within a borehole. The application has potential in space and will undoubtedly find its way underground where the idea originated.

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The optical communication system project has by far consumed much of Baiden's time. He and coworker Ivan Filion are developing a wireless transmission device that provides real time data between an untethered underwater submersible and an operator on surface. There has to be nanoseconds or a blink of an eye response time to what the surface operator wants the submersible to do. Filion is now able to transfer light pulses through to an object approximately 30 feet away without any apparent time lapse.

If they can apply the same principles to the underwater submersible it may mean mining companies can gain access to high mineral resources from volcanic overflows underwater, he says.

"I think one of the futures is in underwater mining," says Baiden.

It just makes sense to mine underwater than in space because atmospheric pressure is necessary for mineral extraction. Not only will this have mining benefits but also it opens military defense doors, medical and space opportunities.

Any of these projects could reach commercialization and therefore a value-added component can be attached in the form of manufacturing, Baiden says.

Whether it is making movable stemmed chairs, developing micro-automatic clocks, or screen domes, it is necessary to have tertiary spinoffs to further diversify the mining sector. His aim is to provide a competitive advantage for Canadian companies.

As the above projects mature, the question remains; how can local service and supply companies contribute to the reality of the project.

The Canadian mining sector has been hesitant to embrace new technological changes Baiden says, but he is sure the industry will come around.

"Part of it comes down to change because it is hard to change," he says. "It is not that it cannot be done."

www.laurentian.ca

By KELLY LOUISEIZE

Northern Ontario Business