From Emergency Tool to Underground Resident: How Persistent Robotics Is Replacing the Inspect-or-Produce Trade-Off

06 May 2026
Presentation , Tech Innovation Stream

Underground operations face the same costly compromise: stop production to inspect or accept data gaps. Australian Droid + Robot’s Explora XL ecosystem was born from crisis, executing the deepest post-collapse inspection in history, and evolved into a permanent underground presence across Pilbara operations. This session traces that journey honestly, including what failed along the way. Learn what persistent autonomy actually looks like in practice, how it removed 12 workers from fatal-risk exposure, and whether your operation is ready for it.

Assess your operation’s inspection-production trade-off. identify the highest-risk manual inspection tasks that could be candidates for persistent robotic deployment.

Speakers
Dr. Dawid Preller AAusIMM
Dr. Dawid Preller AAusIMM, Chief Product Officer - Australian Droid and Robot (ADR)