Tech Students Dig into Mock Mine

	Virginia Tech senior Christopher Keesee tests mining robots at the university’s Center for Autonomous Mining Systems. Photo by Don Petersen

Robots don’t belong on volleyball courts, but for more than a decade Virginia Tech students had no other large, sandy place to test out mining robots.

It was “a real lost opportunity” that students didn’t have a dedicated space to work with mining machines, says Erik Westman, a professor and interim department head at Tech’s Department of Mining and Minerals Engineering.

Now students have a mock mining lab to study challenges facing the increasingly automated mining industry.

Built as part of a $73.5 million renovation of Holden Hall completed last year, the Center for Autonomous Mining Systems is a 1,200-square-foot mock mine with three large rectangular pits that can be filled with mined material like crushed limestone.

Before building the lab, school officials consulted mining companies about skills they’re seeking from today’s workers, Westman says.

“One of the biggest issues they’re dealing with is all of the data coming from the equipment,” he says. At the new center, students learn to analyze data from robotic equipment to make mining safer and more efficient.

 

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