Underground mining inspection has always carried the tension between needing eyes on the structure and not wanting people standing under it. Ore passes erode unpredictably, raises shed material on schedules that do not match maintenance windows, and draw-points evolve every day as the muck moves. The Flyability Elios 2 collision-tolerant drone has changed which of those inspections still require a human to stand in the hazard zone — and which can be flown instead.
What the Elios 2 actually is
A 1.45 kg drone enclosed in a 400 mm carbon-fibre lattice cage. The cage isolates the propellers from contact, so the aircraft can bump against rock walls, equipment, beams and shotcrete without stopping flight. Positioning works without GPS — optic-flow plus IMU plus a lidar altimeter is the entire location stack. That single design choice unlocks indoor and underground operation that no other commercial inspection drone can match.
Where it lands in the underground inspection program
Ore-pass inspection
Ore passes are the cathedrals of an underground mine in the literal sense — tall, narrow, hazardous to enter, and the place where wear shortens the life of the whole haulage system. Traditional inspection alternatives are limited to scope-camera lowering (no oblique angles, no full geometry) or scheduled rehab campaigns (expensive, lost production). The Elios 2 flies the full length of an ore pass under pilot control, capturing 4K video and oblique still imagery of every wall surface, sliffing, brow erosion and impact damage. Output is a complete visual record of the pass that did not exist as a record-grade artifact a decade ago.
Raise and stope drawpoint assessment
Raises shed material unpredictably; draw-points evolve daily. The Elios 2 flies under a draw-point arch and surveys the back, sidewalls and bell at a distance that is unsafe for ground inspection during active mucking. The flight produces a defect-mapped video record the geotech team reviews offline, removing the need to halt production for a stand-back assessment.
Shaft inspection
Production and ventilation shafts carry conveyance equipment, services and rock support that all degrade. The Elios 2 inspects shaft sets, guide alignment, water inflows and rock condition without rope-access crew exposure. Particularly useful in the upper-shaft section where rehab crews most often hesitate to deploy.
Ventilation raise and bypass inspection
Ventilation raises rarely justify a dedicated entry budget but quietly degrade until something goes wrong. The Elios 2 surveys them at low cost between scheduled rehabilitation cycles, catching damage early. Same for service raises, bypass tunnels and disused workings whose ground condition is uncertain.
Post-blast and pre-entry reconnaissance
Before a crew enters fresh ground — post-blast, post-fall-of-ground, post-water-event — the Elios 2 flies a reconnaissance pass that maps the new geometry and identifies hazards the entry team would otherwise discover by walking into them. Especially valuable on the first re-entry after a seismic event.
What replaces what
The Elios 2 does not replace a geotech engineer's structural judgment, contact-required testing or the rope-access crew rehabilitating a confirmed defect. It replaces the early survey work that exposes those crews to ground that has not yet been characterized. The pattern that has emerged at Alberta and Western Canadian mines is to fly the Elios 2 as the first pass, then schedule rope access only where the drone identifies a defect worth contact assessment. That sequencing typically cuts rope-access exposure by 60-80% across the inspection program.
Deliverable from an Elios 2 underground flight
- 4K video walkdown of the inspected structure
- HD still photos at every callout location
- Optional radiometric thermal record on the Elios 2 RAD variant
- Marked-up defect map with severity ranking
- Written report keyed to the video timeline
- 3D point cloud where the carbon-fibre cage operates inside structured geometry
What it does not do
- Contact-required testing — ultrasonic thickness, bolt-load testing, ground sampling all still need an entry
- Sub-cm structural deflection monitoring — total station and laser scanning remain the right tools
- Continuous monitoring — the Elios 2 is an inspection tool, not a fixed sensor platform
Compliance footprint underground
Indoor and GPS-denied operation exempts the Elios 2 from Remote ID broadcast (no signal can propagate from inside rock). Transport Canada Advanced RPAS pilot certification still applies, $5M aviation liability still applies, ISN / ComplyWorks / Avetta registration applies to mine-site access rather than the aircraft. SORA documentation is rare for underground work because the operation envelope is well-contained, but UAV Imaging produces it on request.
How UAV Imaging deploys the Elios 2 underground
Two-person crew — pilot plus visual observer — with the operator providing a site-side liaison for radio coordination with the production floor. On-site time for a typical ore-pass or single-raise flight is 4-6 hours including setup, battery rotation and post-flight review. Multi-structure inspection campaigns run 2-3 structures per shift sustainably. Deliverable lands inside 5 business days from flight.