Datamine Labs and Yonder explore Lidar technology

Datamine has software solutions for every stage of mining and has been a pioneer at the forefront of digital mining technology. The company first began working with Yonder in 2016. In the mining industry, digital transformation continues at pace, and the latest mobile phones offer technological advances that could be very interesting for this vertical.

So, Datamine Labs, the company’s innovation hub, and Yonder put their heads together to combine innovation power during the Lidar Technology Hackathon. They came up with three ideas to explore.

The Lidar Hackathon

During a 48-hour period, the Datamine Yonder team, joined at intervals by Datamine Australia, would hack away investigating the possibilities of Lidar technology for the mining industry. A dedicated 2 days without interruptions by business as usual to focus on creating innovative mobile solutions for field geologists.

To get the creative juices flowing, we decided to have the hackathon in a new location near the Turda salt mine. The proximity to Turda meant that we could test the proof of concepts in a real mine.

Creating three PoCs

The featured technology of our investigation is lidar, light detection and ranging, or as it is sometimes called the 3-D laser scanner. And we came up with  three proofs of concept:

• A depth map using your phone to measure depths
• Scanning 3D environments and recreating the 3D mesh
• Measuring distances within scanned environments

A successful 2-days full of innovation

The hackathon was a success for both companies. Datamine is thrilled to have 3 prototypes that they can show their clients. Their Datamine Labs proved to be the innovation hub they had envisioned; they looked at new technology, ensuring they could offer clients new solutions over time.

And for Yonder professionals, it is always exciting to experiment with new technologies, especially one as cool and full of possibilities as the Lidar technology. They feel like kids in a candy store on a mission to help their clients.

Are you interested in lidar technology? Or perhaps you are interested in other technologies such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, RPA? Or are you considering innovations while using a more mainstream technology? Then reach out and get in touch with us.

Watch the video to find out more about what we did using lidar technology.