Australia’s Motum Simulation will look to build a presence in a crowded mining simulator training market on the back of its progress at gold junior Alkane Resources’ Tomingley mine in New South Wales.
Alkane CEO Nic Earner says Motum’s underground mine truck simulator and digital twin scenario training is delivering tangible trainee gains and overall solid returns on the company’s investment in the technology, which was launched last year at the IMARC event in Sydney.
Motum was founded in 2016 by automotive and racing engineer Steve Hoinville who wanted to improve high-fidelity motion simulator technology for motorsport, defence, aerospace and industrial applications and also basic driver training. The company’s patented Motum True Motion “Neutral Balance System” is said to deliver six degrees of freedom (6DOF) as a complete motion profile in a fully immersive VR environment.
In April this year Motum got a slice of the Australian Government’s A$3.9 million Heavy Vehicle Safety Initiative (HVSI) funding.
Hoinville said this week working with Alkane had enabled the company to tweak its software and improve its driver safety program.
Alkane’s Earner said a Motum True Motion Simulator that replicated the experience of driving an Epiroc MT65 underground mine truck in Tomingley mine conditions for operators had been used to introduce more than 50 recruits to the mine’s workflows and environment.
“This represents a significant cost saving as much of the training is now done without tying up assets such as our underground mine trucks which operate 24 hours [a day] 363 days a year,” he said.
“This delivers us a significant cost saving, not only through the reduced wear and tear on our trucks, but it allows the whole fleet to remain in operation longer, delivering a huge improvement in productivity.
“ROI on the total cost of this project has been delivered in just a matter of months and more importantly this part of our training program is now done objectively, repeatably and in a 100% safe environment.”
In combination with VR headsets, the Motum simulator gives users a 360-degree view of a digital mine from the truck’s cab, enabling a range of training scenarios to be performed in complete safety.
Motum says its immersive motion simulation platform can be customised for any application.
“For future builds of Motum World any driven vehicle, AI vehicle, mine features, surrounding buildings, structures and landscapes can be developed to simulate real-world conditions and processes within any given mine site,” the company says.
