Dwyka Mining Services today launched Boston Dynamics’ Spot Enterprise robot to the South African market as an authorised reseller of the technology. Spot is an agile mobile robot designed to navigate all types of terrain, allowing for organisations to automate routine inspection tasks, capture data securely and safely, and allow for streamlined operations in complex and dangerous environments. In collaboration with Dwyka Mining Services and Deep Tech Solutions, Spot is available for purchase as of November 2021 in South Africa.
“Spot is designed to ensure safer, more efficient and more predictable operations across different environments and requirements. We are excited about extracting value from ‘no-go’ and ‘fly low’ mining areas typical at the majority of narrow reef mining operations in Southern Africa where the use of enterprise drones are limited,” says Jamie van Schoor, Managing Director of Dwyka Mining Services and Deep Tech Solutions. “This is great news for African industry and the mining sector and a first for the continent, bringing next-generation innovation and intelligent automation capabilities to local organisations, that will transform safety and remote data capture for improved mine design and planning.”
Spot is capable of navigating multiple environments with agility and unprecedented mobility. The robotic innovation can be used as a powerful inspection platform with purpose-built cameras and turnkey integration, delivering high resolution data capture and enhanced operator experiences. The solution can be used to reach inaccessible areas, perform lengthy inspection tasks and go on data collection missions reducing personnel in the high-risk zones of underground working areas. Spot can go into areas where no other human or robot can go and can be combined with market-leading technology solutions and platforms to extend range, reach and remote sensing capabilities in challenging mining and non-mining environments.
“We are very excited to welcome Spot into Trevali. Being an early adopter of the Spot Enterprise platform is aligned with our focus on being the future of mining. As technology is one of Trevali’s key pillars, we will be leveraging this platform to collect more real-time data and further automate our processes in our underground mines to ensure a safer, more efficient and more predictable environment for our teams. We look forward to continuing our partnership with Dwyka and sharing more about Spot on our various communication platforms,” says Derek du Preez, Chief Technical Officer at Trevali.
The launch of Spot took place at Gold Reef City in Johannesburg, South Africa on Thursday 18 November 2021 at an exclusive VIP event for industry and media with extensive COVID-19 precautions. For more information about Spot, contact Jamie van Schoor from Dwyka Mining Services or email [email protected] or [email protected].
“We are excited to have our key mining clients like Trevali Mining Corporation, early adopters of the Spot Enterprise platform, spend a morning with us to meet our new best friend Spot. This launch of such an exceptional technology provides a platform for us to share knowledge and prioritise industry use cases with feedback from our clients and is set to put South Africa, and Africa, at the forefront of global innovation in this sector,” concludes van Schoor.
