Tata Steel has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Aarav Unmanned Systems, a Bengaluru-based start-up providing end-to-end drone solutions, for effective mine management.
The collaboration will develop end-to-end integrated solutions focused on the efficiency, safety, and productivity of open cast mining operations.
It will provide exclusive drone-based solutions, including mine analytics and geo-technical mapping, to Tata Steel group companies across mining locations in India.
The Vice-President (Raw Materials), Tata Steel, DB Sundara Ramam, said drone survey-enabled digitalisation and other technology, will assist in gathering impactful and actionable insights.
These end-to-end mining solutions are economical, demand fewer on-foot exploration requirements, and improve production, efficiency, and site safety, he said.
"We also intend to offer our learnings to other mining companies as a professional solution through the wholly-owned subsidiary Tata Steel Industrial Consultancy," he said.
Tata Steel has adopted a holistic business model that looks at the entire value chain of steel making, from captive mining of iron ore, chrome and manganese ore, to production and sale of ferro-alloys and minerals, besides equipment manufacture, bearings and agricultural equipment manufacturing.
The company is gearing up to meet its captive raw material requirements beyond 2030 by creating a sustainable mining business.
AUS has worked closely with the steel sector behemoth to provide modern drone technology to modernise its mining operations.
Founder and CEO, Aarav Unmanned Systems, Vipul Singh, said the accuracy, reliability and consistency of data is critical in the mining sector, and the drone solution will contribute to modernising mining operations.
AUS was the first start-up to build and deploy PPK (post-processing kinematic) GPS-based survey-grade fully autonomous drones in India. AUS is also the first company to get a small category drone certified by DGCA.