A deep-sea mining apparatus for retrieving deep-sea nodules is provided. The deep-sea mining apparatus includes a buoyancy system, a payload hopper, an underwater autonomous vehicle (UAV), and a collector system. The collector system includes a controller system and a perception system communicatively coupled to the controller system and configured to track the deep-sea mining system as the deep-sea mining system hovers over ore nodules laying on a seabed. The collector system further includes one or more robotic arms controlled via the controller system, wherein each of the one or more robotic arms is attached to a bottom surface of the UAV and is equipped with a grasping mechanism configured to pick up the ore nodules from the seabed.

A buoyancy system for an underwater autonomous vehicle is provided. The buoyancy system includes one or more spherical pressure vessels with each vessel comprising two hemispherical pieces mechanically or adhesively connected together at a seam joint. Further, each vessel includes one or more bulkhead feedthroughs for connecting the vessels to external components and sensors of the buoyancy system. The buoyancy system also includes: (i) a primary pump connected to at least one of the one or more vessels to pump sea water from the one or more vessels; (ii) a pressure sensor connected to at least one of the one or more vessels; and (iii) a level sensor extending through all or a first subgroup of the one or more spherical pressure vessels to detect the level of sea water inside the one or more vessels.

A system and process for the robotic loading of explosives in underground mining, wherein the system can be operated autonomously, semi-autonomously or by remote operation. The system comprises: a positioning subsystem comprising means for moving the system by autonomous navigation; a subsystem for cleaning a base, which comprises means for removing unwanted elements that may obstruct the operation of loading explosives in the boreholes; a subsystem for scanning a loading surface, which comprises detection means for detecting boreholes in a drilled surface and assigning a location for each borehole; a borehole drilling subsystem comprising means for determining physical parameters of each borehole; a priming and loading subsystem comprising means for loading a booster, detonator and other explosive materials, placing them at the bottom of each borehole; a subsystem for loading the blasting agent, which comprises means for supplying a blasting agent once the explosives have been placed in each borehole; a borehole-sealing subsystem comprising means for covering each borehole once the explosives have been loaded; a detonation subsystem comprising means for detonating each borehole loaded with explosives; and a control subsystem that communicates with each of the other subsystems and controls each of the elements for loading and detonating the explosives.

Intelligent algorithms and systems (vehicles and/or mechanisms) locate and extract economic sound concentrations of e.g. any combinations of nodules, manganese crusts and/or sulphide deposit, and separate uneconomic matter from valuable minerals by applying differences in electric and/or acoustic properties to differentiate economically valuable minerals from cost bearing unprofitable other matters (e.g. mud, gravel, rocks, organic matter), thus providing added profitability compared to existing mining machines. Complex and multiple sophisticated technological fields, including, but not limited to Geophysics, Advanced sensor technology (acoustic and electric parameter detection), Signal processing (feature extraction and pattern recognition), Machine learning/AI (classification algorithms and adaptive systems), Mechanical engineering (precision collection mechanisms), Real-time control systems (feedback-based operation), Economic modeling (dynamic threshold determination) are combined. Both independent systems and add-on vehicles to existing mining machines have been developed. Environmental impacts are minimized by the nature of the invented technical solutions. MS and/or AI methods and algorithms can be incorporated.