GroundProbe has taken out Queensland’s top award at the Australian Engineering Excellence Awards (AEEA), hosted by peak industry body Engineers Australia.
The company received the award for its cutting-edge SSR-Omni technology. The SSR-Omni is the world’s leading Slope Stability Radar (SSR) technology for monitoring and detecting movement and potential collapses across open-cut mines and tailings dams.
GroundProbe’s Head of Product Development, Fernanda Carrea, said it was rewarding to be recognised by Australia’s leading engineering institution in Engineers Australia.
Our product development department is comprised of a world-class team of engineers across a breadth of engineering disciplines, all working towards a common goal; ensuring maximum safety for our customers through trailblazing technology,” said Ms Carrea.
“It’s exciting and humbling for our engineers to be recognised by their peers as experts in their field for their excellent work.
“The award is especially meaningful considering it’s across all engineering disciplines and industries, not just within our particular focus.”
GroundProbe is a global leader in real-time technologies that help manage risk, ensure safety and increase productivity across mining and civil projects. In 18 years, the company has grown from a PhD project at the University of Queensland into the global technology and innovation powerhouse it is today.
The SSR-Omni is GroundProbe’s full-coverage, high-resolution system.
Using embedded super-computing on a chip, the scan processes over 600MB of raw data down to a fraction of the size, while proprietary algorithms also predict the time of collapse and display the data in 2D and 3D visualisations. The day-night camera system can stream multiple video feeds at different zoom levels back to the user for real-time inspections.
GroundProbe’s VP Technology, Lachlan Campbell, said that GroundProbe has always been at the forefront of innovation but prides itself on adapting their tried-and-tested mechanical engineering experience to solve new problems.
“Due to catastrophic tailings dam failures resulting in devastating loss of life, the market was looking for a solution to ensure maximum safety for their facilities and surrounding communities,” said Mr Campbell.
“We developed a technology that covers the broadest of areas, detecting miniscule movement at the earliest possible time.
“In 40 seconds, the SSR-Omni scans 360 degrees and takes 37 million measurements in a 11.2-kilometre diameter, showing movement of rock and ground of 0.1 millimetre precision.”
GroundProbe’s SSR-Omni deployed in the field
The SSR-Omni has been successfully deployed to mining customers around the globe, including sites across Australia, North America, South America, and Africa.
Engineers Australia Queensland Division Manager, Stacey Rawlings, congratulated winners on their teamwork, innovation, and technical excellence.
“These Australian Engineering Excellence Award winners showcase the outstanding achievement in engineering and the invaluable contribution engineering makes to the economy, community and the environment,” said Ms Rawlings.
“The SSR-Omni pioneering approach has created a world leading solution for stability monitoring of pits and tailings dams and is a worthy nominee to represent Queensland at the national awards.”
GroundProbe has also been selected as a finalist for the Sir William Hudson Award – the highest honour for a project awarded by Engineers Australia. The Pinnacle Awards Ceremony will be held in November 2020 where the Sir William Hudson Award and National Engineer of the Year Award will be announced.
