Telemining firm goes global. (Special Report: Sudbury).

Greg Baiden used to head the mining automation department at Inco Ltd., but now he has decided to put everything he learned there into practice with the start of his new company, Penguin Automated Systems Inc. (Penguin ASI).

The company specializes in tele-remote technology, in which an individual can sit in a seat with a joystick in hand and control machinery from a distance. In fact, the technology allows an individual to control machinery from almost anywhere on the planet.

"The work that I was doing at Inco at the time, and the work now is still probably leading the world," says Baiden, the chairman and chief technology officer of the company. "We worked on tele-remote technology (at Inco), we put it into application and production, and now we are working on improving on that technology and putting it into operations around the world."

"The-ability to do multiple machinery tele-robotics is not really done anywhere else, but in the work that I have done," Baiden adds. "Some people have done it, but nobody's done it in production."

Baiden, who is also the director of the school of engineering at Laurentian University, explains that he started the business in September of 2001 to apply tele-robotics technology to mining. By having mining machines being operated by individuals running them from a distance using joystick controls, Baiden believed it would provide for a safer workplace and greater efficiency.

"I thought there was a big market because mining companies all around the world were starting to work on that technology," he says. "You can go to Australia and see people were working on it, you can go to Africa and see people who were trying it and even in Finland and Sweden, and people were working on it here too."

However, Baiden points out that the company has already expanded its customer base to include companies involved in many other fields, including the space business. The expansion has come as a surprise to Baiden, who did not expect the company to grow so quickly.

"We started this off to be in the mining business and I did not expect it to grow out of the mining business as quickly as it has," he says. "I guess it is because the idea of tele-robotics technology is something that is independent of mining. There are other people in the world that are very interested in it."

"You can see potential for underwater work, for aviation-type work and space work," he says. "You could even go into things like nano-robotics, where you can have somebody sit in a chair like this and make a machine small enough to inject the human body with."

Rather than offering a variety of different products, Baiden explains that his company is more of a systems integration organization.

"We are as much a systems integration organization and how it fits into a mining operation," he says. "So, the product lines are more around getting the tools for people to use in their fields, and partnering with a lot of people who have tools available that can fit in to the kind of systems that we are putting in place overall for mining companies to run their operations."

Baiden indicates that the company has been doing consulting engineering work around the technology with at least four undisclosed mining companies. He also says the company is looking towards getting the first pieces of that work implemented within the next quarter. In addition, he indicates that the company is working on applying the technology to smaller machines so that the company can have more of the technology and more types of it to expand it with new kinds of control systems.

The company has already carried out business with major mining companies in Australia, Africa, the U.S. and Europe.

"We have been talking with and have done work for one of the biggest mining companies in the world and have discussions ongoing with two of them," he says. "With medium-sized companies, we have had discussions that have gone on with three of them and work that has gone on with two of them."

The company will soon begin conducting studies for various mining companies, taking a look at how the technology can be applied within a specific company. He adds that the company's long-term plans include the implementation of those initial plans for mining companies, as well as for other companies. He also indicates that they are going to be looking to inject time delays into their system, as well as opening up locations around the world.

"As time goes by, we will probably open up in a few different areas in the world, probably in Australia and Africa, and maybe Europe.

"The business is off and running and growing rapidly and some of the biggest mining companies are sitting at the door step," he says. "I see it as a pretty significant thriving business in a couple of years."

The company is looking to open up an office building in Sudbury by spring. Currently, they have six employees, but no real office space.