EIT RawMaterials-supported Digital Mines project kicks off in Italy

Autonomous monitoring and control system for Mining Plants

First AMICOS meeting was hosted in Italy by Fondazione Bruno Kessler

The raw materials industrial sector is increasingly implementing innovative techniques to improve productivity from existing assets and infrastructure leveraging on continuous innovations in sensor technology, machine connectivity, robotics and Artificial Intelligence. However, the potential of digital transformation needs to be translated into the successful implementation of these new technologies in the raw materials industry.

AMICOS project supports digital transformation of raw materials sector

On 11 February 2020, the kickoff meeting of the EIT RawMaterials-supported project AMICOS was held in Trento, Italy, at the premises of the research centre Fondazione Bruno Kessler, leader of the project.  AMICOS (Autonomous monitoring and control system for Mining Plants) is a new project awarded almost EUR 2.5 million over three years by EIT RawMaterials. The main project’s objective is to support the digital transformation of the raw materials industry with an innovative asset management solution that will increase the market adoption of digital technology in mines.

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AMICOS end-to-end solution is composed of three main concepts: 

• innovative physical devices deployed and used in the field, which are able to collect sensitive information regarding the usual operations in mines
• a set of software tools able to integrate heterogeneous source of data
• a list of smart services able to provide extended benefits to the mining ecosystem, that will be defined from the end-users needs (mine entities in the project consortium) and validated in real use cases.

Focus on tailings dams monitoring

Digital mines use technologies developed by the so-called Industry 4.0 (Fourth Industrial Revolution) for more efficient, sustainable and safer operations.

Most of these innovative and emerging technologies are included in AMICOS. The project's main objective is to offer an end-to-end solution that enhances the monitoring of mining operations. Special focus is placed on improving tailings dams and pipeline monitoring, as well as on the predictive maintenance of mining equipment, such as conveyor belts.

We are going to be working with Internet of Things (IoT) technology, drones, autonomous ground and aerial vehicles, advanced data analytics, and decision-making tools based on Artificial Intelligence, to name a few. The use of these advanced technologies will mean key benefits for the mining operators: improve workforce safety, reduce maintenance and monitoring costs, and create more sustainable mines. We are tackling the issues raised by the mining industry itself.

Denis Guilhot, Senior EU Project Manager at Worldsensing

Direct involvement of mining groups as project partners

AMICOS is built upon a strong team of experts that includes research organisations, technology providers and mining companies.

In AMICOS the direct involvement of mining groups, like ArcelorMittal, Atlantic Copper and KGHM, as project partners ensure the relevance of the project outputs. Nowadays mining groups are very ambitious with their technological aspirations to manage risk in operations. We are very excited about this new EIT RawMaterials project and look forward to contributing to sustainable mining and environment protection with our technology.

Andrea Bartoli, Head of Innovation at Worldsensing

Worldsensing key contributions to the AMICOS innovation project

Worldsensing participates in the AMICOS innovation project as key industry and technology provider of operational intelligence solutions to the mining industry. Worldsensing’s contributions to the project will be:

• provide its Internet of Things (IoT) based wireless sensor technology (low-power devices Loadsensing) and real-time software solutions
• define the architectural requirements of hardware IoT products, software applications and an operational platform for the different usage scenarios
• contribute to the integration process of all the innovative components developed by the project into a Decision Support System (DSS) Platform for Mining Plants based on autonomous monitoring and control systems
• lead the execution of the field tests in the real-world environment selected use cases and validate the proposed solution from the technical and business point of view
• construct a reliable commercialization launch plan and coordinate the execution of the market introduction of the outcomes throughout and after the project completion