Optimizing Ground Support: Clear Data for Safer Underground Operations

Ground support is essential to ensuring the safety and longevity of underground excavations. Whether managing blocky ground, high-stress conditions, or large spans, effective support design depends on accurate characterization of rock mass behavior.

RockMass Eon is helping engineers close the gap between field observations and design assumptions by delivering detailed, high-resolution structural information from the face to the engineering office, faster and more consistently than traditional methods.

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Industry Challenge

Underground ground support designs are often based on incomplete or outdated structural data. Manual mapping is slow, spatially limited, and subject to variability between mappers. This can result in support decisions that are either overly conservative, driving up costs or not tailored to site-specific failure mechanisms, increasing risk.

Without current and comprehensive structural data, engineers may find it difficult to:

• Calibrate support classes
• Validate assumptions in empirical tools like the Q-system
• Perform reliable kinematic analyses

The absence of high-resolution, site-specific data limits the ability to design effective, cost-efficient support strategies.

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GroundedAI Approach

RockMass Eon combines mobile LiDAR scanning with automated structural mapping to deliver detailed discontinuity data in minutes. Deployed directly in active headings, the device captures the true-scale geometry of exposed rock faces and instantly extracts critical parameters such as discontinuity orientation, persistence, and spacing.

This structural dataset integrates seamlessly with ground support design frameworks, enabling site-specific optimization based on actual failure modes and ground behavior.

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Workflow Example

• Capture high-resolution point cloud and structural mapping data underground
• Digitally map structural and geological features
• Interpret dominant failure modes, such as wedges
• Integrate data into numerical models for kinematic analysis (DIPS, Unwedge)
• Optimize rock support design using real-time ground condition insights to avoid overdesign

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Key Benefits

• Collect high-resolution structural and rock mass classification data in minutes
• Digital capture eliminates transcription errors and delays
• Apply the right support in the right place, reducing material costs and install time
• Precisely identify wedge or block instability zones to prevent support failures or unexpected ground falls
• All scans and datasets are archived for compliance reporting, back-analysis, or team training

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Ready to raise your mine’s safety standards? Contact GroundedAI to see how Eon can strengthen your ground support design.

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