The METS Ignited Mining Innovation Part 1: Imperatives and Barriers (March 2017) identified one of the sector’s key challenges as“innovators find it difficult to access sites to prove up results and resources companies are averse to trialling/introducing innovation without proven results”. The Living Lab @UWA aims to address this challenge. We have developed a pre-test facility, support team and process that:
is easy to access for the innovator, notably small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SME);
supports completion of industry-equivalent HSE and risk assessments; and
provides a realistic pre-mine site testing environment.
Our Partner Roadmap for Derisking Site Trials is a comprehensive testing plan that assesses your product from design intent through to final test results reporting.
Product Opportunity
Understanding your company and product needs: The first stage allows us to understand the needs of your company and the product you are keen to test, and for you to understand the mission and capabilities of the Living Lab team.
Open communication: Secondly, signing a non-disclosure agreement so that you can communicate details with us in confidence.
Understanding your product: Thirdly, for us to understand in detail what your product does, its functional specifications and the environment in which it will be deployed.
Forming a collaboration team: We will form a joint team to work on developing the test procedures. This is done in a collaborative, online environment enabling ease of communication between team members. Once drafted the test procedures are approved and executed, results are rapidly shared with the team members and a final report is co-drafted by the team.
Function and Safety Standards
Your functional requirements and product readiness will determine the nature of site trial to be conducted. Where there are Standards to be met, we will assist in identifying those standards and provide an opportunity to replicate the on-site experience to de-risk future site trial opportunities. There are several regulations and standards such as electrical regulations used by UWA and resources sites in Australia. For ease of access we have made some of these available here.
Site Trial
The University of Western Australia has significant industrial scale infrastructure on its campuses. Examples of equipment on the Crawley campus include large air compressors, cooling towers, tanks and 90KW pumps associated with the Chilled Water facility as well as numerous equipment, protocols and support functions associated with managing a complex facility. The Shenton Park Field Station campus, located 10 minutes away, has 67 hectares of outdoor and agricultural field activities with numerous tanks, piping and pump infrastructure as well as mobile equipment such as tractors.
We have the ability to place sensors onto industrial scale campus equipment in order to measure asset health, performance or other asset related features.
No interruption to facilities critical to the operation of the University is anticipated, and access to and installation of all equipment will have to pass appropriate safety and risk assessments. This will be managed as part of the Living Lab onboarding process in compliance with campus industry-matched risk and safety management systems. The electronic equipment anticipated for testing includes novel thickness, noise, vibration and similar transducers, robotic inspection units, and energy harvesting, wireless Internet of Things (IoT) devices. There is potential to explore control, robotic maintenance and other options with non-critical campus equipment.
Site Trial Proposal
This document is co-developed by the team which includes representatives from the company and the Living Lab team.
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We have a proven track record of designing testing equipment and tests. By sharing our highly developed systems and processes with innovators we’re perfectly placed to support WA-based businesses.