Resource World Magazine

A U G U S T / S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 8 www.resourceworld.com 61 MININGWORLD Kespry makes using drones simple and efficient for the resource industry by Kathrine Moore K espry, headquartered in Menlo Park, California, provides a unique drone and data solution to the aggregate, mining and construction industries. Kespry set out to make using their drones the most user friendly, painless experience possible while providing their clients with a wealth of data to be used, for example, to calculate tonnage and volume of stockpiles. The company states, "With Kespry, there are no joysticks to worry about. There are no SD Cards to fumble with. There are no complicated data conversion applications for processing. It's one complete solution from drone to data." Jason Nichols, the Product Marketing Manager at Kespry, spoke to Resource World about the company's innovative method of providing companies with the ability to easily gather, mine and present data. Kespry's "drone-based aerial intelligence platform" began serving the aggregate and mining industry in 2013. At the time, though drones were beginning to be used in the mining industry, adoption was slow. Today, Kespry serves over 200 min- ing and aggregate companies. Nichols said, "As the technology developed, Kespry was adapt- ing and taking it on." Kespry played a part in the advancement of the technology developing a lighter weight drone and computer systems that could be miniaturized and placed aboard quad cop- ters. The drones became more popular as their capabilities were made available on smaller models. Kespry uses quad copter drones rather than fixed wing drones as they have been proven in the industry. Nichols said, "It is the most versatile for this type of environment. Hand launched drones land on their belly and that is not ideal." Although fixed wing drones can cover more area the quad copters coverage is suf- ficient for most companies. The company provides two drone models: The Kespry 2 and the Kespry 2S. The Kespry 2 uses all of the same technology that the Kespry 2S uses but the Kespry 2S has an individual base sta- tion receiver that is set up on site for mine planning purposes. The positional accuracy required increases for mine planning when planning the layout of blasting patterns or evaluating the depth of stripping operations within 2 to 5 centimetres. "It is only possible to get that accuracy when you are flying using a base station receiver," said Nichols. Though the receiver itself is a third party, it is completely integrated. Kespry's accuracy for inventory management is within 1 to 3% compared to conventional methods that provide accuracy within 25%. Greater accuracy significantly improves forecasting capa- bilities and expansion opportunities. The service is provided on an annual subscription basis. The annual cost includes a drone which the company can fly as often as they like and all necessary software and customer service. The drone automatically delivers the captured data directly up into the Kespry cloud, without any sort of intervention. Nichols explains, "The drone flies by itself through an iPad application. … You just literally push a button and it takes off and goes out and captures the data for the mission created. When it lands all the data is automatically pushed into the cloud, you don't have to do any downloading or uploading. You drive back to the office and a few hours later you will be able to see all of the data." If the client is measuring stockpiles, it can be done in moments. The software for flying the drone and the software for mining the data, whether for mine planning or inventory management, is Kespry developed. Nichols said, "We work simultaneously with our customers to enable them with tools that are easy to use. The tools have CAD-like functionalities but you don't necessarily have to be CAD specialist. All of the features are basically point and click or drag and drop… It is just like what most of the world is used to on their smart phones and tablets." To create reports Kespry provides a seamless PDF application enabling customers to share materials. The data can also be exported to third party software systems. Kespry does provide onsite demonstrations but the system is so easy to use, most training is done remotely. Nichols said, "I have two daughters, nine and eleven and they have flown the drones. Looking to the future, Kespry is focused on expanding the cloud platform to absorb new data using direct insights from customers and technological innovations such as new sensors. Kespry's busi- ness model enables customers to benefit from the latest technology. Nichols says, "We are always looking at how we can integrate dif- ferent types of sensor data with the drones we provide." n The Kespry system enables companies to use drone data for all types of earthwork operations. The data is survey-grade accurate and is used directly with grade control equipment such as John Deere's Smart Grade Technology. Photo courtesy of Kespry.

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