Epiroc Deep Automation for underground drilling: integration notes for mine engineers
Reviewed by Tom Sullivan
First reported on International Mining – News
30 Second Briefing
Epiroc is expanding its Deep Automation portfolio to cover underground drilling and rock bolting, extending a platform previously focused mainly on autonomous loading and haulage. The updated concept spans the full automation curve, from tele-remote operation of drill rigs to higher autonomy levels with automated drilling cycles and bolt installation. For mine planners and engineers, this signals tighter integration between fleet management, drill-and-blast execution and ground support installation, with more predictable drilling patterns and support layouts in complex orebodies.
Technical Brief
- Deep Automation now orchestrates multiple underground assets via a single control platform, not rig-specific controllers.
- Tele-remote drilling and bolting are managed from surface control rooms, decoupling operators from high-risk headings.
- Data from drilling and bolting cycles feed back into digital planning tools for real-time pattern adjustment.
- Integration with existing autonomous loading/haulage enables end‑to‑end automated production loops in a single system architecture.
- System design targets predictable cycle times and repeatable hole/bolt placement to stabilise downstream blasting and support QA/QC.
- Safety functions are embedded in the automation layer, including collision avoidance and exclusion‑zone enforcement around active rigs.
- The portfolio is structured to let mines incrementally upgrade from manual to semi‑autonomous to fully autonomous modes on the same fleet.
- For complex orebodies, tighter drilling–support integration should reduce overbreak, dilution and re‑support interventions compared with siloed systems.
Our Take
Deep Automation sits alongside Epiroc’s recent push into digital mine planning (via the OreInventory integration) and semi-autonomous dozer control (RCT – Powered by Epiroc), signalling a deliberate build-out of an end-to-end automation stack from planning through to execution.
The new underground drilling capabilities complement Epiroc’s strategic partnership with SANY Group on rock excavation tools, which could make it easier to package automation-ready fleets for greenfield mining and infrastructure projects rather than selling stand-alone equipment.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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