Information is power and data is key

Panu Oikkonen 

So Harri, our topic today is the present and future of VR in mining and tunnelling.  

Harri Sonninen 

I think this is going to be a long discussion! But let’s start with the high-level benefits that virtual reality brings to our customers. 

Panu  

The general message is that with our products we improve safety, sustainability, and productivity. But VR is a little bit different because we don’t consider the simulator itself a product like we would, for example, a concrete sprayer.

 Harri  

That’s true. From our perspective it’s the training that the simulator provides that gives those benefits. Safety first and through that the sustainability and productivity of the operations. 

Panu  

Exactly. Our VR simulators are first of all safe to use. One of the initial benefits of VR training is that it is done in a completely safe, controlled environment. They also increase safety in work environments because they train the operator to measure and identify good and bad practice, to understand how to maximise safety before setting foot in a tunnel. In concrete spraying especially, productivity and sustainability go hand in hand because material consumption is an issue. We automatically take care of those benefits when operators are trained to achieve a controlled spread of concrete.  

Harri 

Since we make it possible to reduce concrete consumption and still produce the underground structure to the highest quality, that brings cost savings along with the improved sustainability and productivity. And those savings start and continue throughout the training process, whereas previously it would also use resources, tie up equipment and so on, but now that’s been completely eliminated.  

Panu  

That’s of course the initial and general benefit of VR training, whatever the application is. Concrete spraying is the biggest customer process for us but we can use VR simulator training in other applications, too. Normet are currently working on a scaling simulator which is another area where safety is paramount. After blasting, scaling removes loose material from the rock surface. The whole point of scaling is to make the work area safe for the next phase of the cycle. There’s no production of anything during this process, but it is still vital to the overall operation. 

Harri 

And we have other equipment as well. So, if we think about charging equipment which deal with explosives and their transportation, for example, we can also integrate these processes into the simulator, and this ties into our full-process expertise and philosophy. I can add that from a practical point of view, the simulators themselves are easily portable so we can provide access to them for our customers anywhere in the world. 

Panu 

Especially from the point of view of my role in Normet, we’re trying to look at the whole customer process cycle. We need to completely understand the cycle and be able to support our customers throughout. This is really something that drives our development.  

Harri 

One thing about the VR simulators is how they tie into wider trends of digital technology. The scaling simulator R&D process was quite an interesting example. 

Panu 

Yes, we created digital twins to test several different scaling boom options in the VR environment by our own personnel and our customers. We could choose the best possible boom option without a hugely expensive and lengthy process of prototyping. And as a result of that process, we have an exact digital twin of the new scaling equipment which then turns into a training simulator. So, it’s an end-to-end process from R&D, through training our own personnel and to operator training. 

Harri 

Digital twins are incredibly useful because we can make mistakes, correct them, and learn from them even before we have begun manufacturing the actual equipment. In fact, we get a huge amount of data from our R&D processes, digital twins and VR simulators that we can use to assess all kinds of performance indicators. 

Panu 

Thinking again about sprayed concrete, everyone is interested in measuring KPIs, and it’s important to be able to calculate material usage and wastage accurately. But it’s very hard to measure wastage such as rebound in the real application. We know that it is there, and we might know the total amount of wastage, but we don’t know which parts of the process create the most. However, with the VR simulator we can measure them exactly and in real-time and show the operator how to minimise them. The simulator lets us improve those performance indicators which in an actual tunnel would be almost impossible to measure. 

Harri 

I think this topic of collecting and integrating data is fierce. When we’re collecting the data from the equipment, we can be more efficient with our equipment and related tasks like maintenance. We can really understand how the equipment is being used and how the process can be improved. The performance of the simulator informs the real machine, and vice versa. 

Panu

 Information is power, right? And data is king. If we collect information from the real application and the VR we can create a feedback loop where we can offer deeper analysis of production processes. In a digital ecosystem we can combine data from several tools to create a really powerful process improvement system. Because this data is constantly collected it also contributes to lifecycle management, which everyone is talking about. 

Harri 

And this would be not possible if we were not using the digital twins because they accurately predict how real-life components will work over time. The digital ecosystem you mentioned is fascinating. I think we’re moving towards an XR environment already, including VR, AR, and MR. This is important from an R&D point of view. In fact, we are investing quite heavily in studying and building this ecosystem through digitalisation. Where does automation tie in to all of this? 

Panu 

Automation in our industry is developing, but we haven’t reached full automation yet. At Normet we have developed, for example, automated spray boom control, and are moving towards automation of other processes too. Ultimately, I think we’ll have fully automated concrete spraying and charging, at least.  

Harri 

We’ve covered a lot of ground today. At Normet we’ve made significant advances in VR technology and how that can contribute to better safety and productivity. I think we can agree that there is much more potential to be realised to benefit us and our customers.