Life-saving data: predicting mine collapses using world-leading technology

Abstract

Stop anybody on the street and ask them what can kill a mine worker, and chances are they will mention mine collapses or ‘cave-ins’. It is a hazard that has plagued us since the first humans dug tunnels in the earth in search of materials to grow our civilizations and our drive our technological advancement.

With research roots beginning at the University of Queensland, a small group of engineers and data scientists have grown a global business that specializes in the creation and analysis of monitoring data that can predict when a failure will occur on a mine slope, an underground tunnel, a dam, a landslide or a tailings dam. The company, GroundProbe, makes radars, lasers, software and sensors that combine robotics, mechatronics, control systems, embedded systems, data science, signal processing and software that are used all over the globe.

At this Industry Seminar you will learn about some of the challenges faced in data processing that has led to over 1,000 collapses being successfully detected. We will also cover the challenges we face in the future to ensure our mining and civil infrastructure remain safe, and explore the powerful role data will continue to play in this field.

Biography

Lachlan Campbell is the Vice President of Technology at GroundProbe Pty Ltd. He leads a diverse team of research and development engineers and scientists in a wide variety of disciplines. He is the inventor or co-inventor of 20 patents and provisional patents in the domain of Slope Stability Radar, Laser, signal processing and visualization. He lives in Brisbane and leads the company’s Directed Research Program with our partner institutions.