Finland Times

The system can be deployed as a complete solution by any of the consortium members or purchased in parts from the consortium partners, said a press release.

The consortium also has prepared a demo of the system which will be running at Fennoscandian Exploration and Mining (FEM).

The venture is driven by the toughening global competition, where lower prices and fluctuating exchange rates compel countries to innovate in order to reach new levels of productivity.

The release said vendors in the mining industry have been updating their ICT solutions to improve productivity. This trend has resulted in ‘information silos’, where the information management system is not effectively communicating with other systems. I.e. the communication within the information silo is vertical, making it difficult to create an overall real-time picture.

The consortium’s approach adapts to humans and associated human errors. Horizontal data collection and sharing enables a unique understanding of the many and often surprising contextual factors that can lead to improved productivity as well as prevention of safety hazards and failures.

The tough competition between mining vendors has further instigated protectionism of information in the industry. The consortium is offering a vendor-independent platform, which can be used to collect and share information between vendors, without compromising confidentiality.

The solution works by excluding the sharing of business critical information between competing vendors while providing an open platform to gather new information sources and communication solutions. The platform further provides solutions for the workforce to acquire and collect information in the field.

The system is also capable of guiding and instructing the service personnel as well as any other personnel working in mine to adjust and service the air conditioning system, further increasing safety and enabling cost savings.

The demo of the system prepared by the consortium will be running at Booth C19 of FEM. The demo will show a wireless sensor connected to the mine’s infrastructure where under various situations the personnel in charge of the maintenance operations will be able to perform pre-configured inspections. For example, using the same method and technologies as shown in the demo, the system could control the entire air conditioning and ventilation system of the mine, forcing it to operate only where it is required and to shut down where it is not.

This, the consortium feels, will be the latest justification of why the City of Oulu is called by many ‘The Wireless Valley’, one of the most important and advanced technology communities in the world.