intelligent

Currently , you tackle the tunnel from one end , meaning you are using anything but swarming – you ' re only tacking it on one face , sometimes two . But , even in Victorian times , they used to employ swarming technology – humans – and instead of attacking the tunnel from two ends , they created shafts down the length of the tunnel , dropped down into them and tackled the tunnel in either direction from the shaft . Creating as many faces as possible and managing to get them all to meet up increased the speed at which they could construct . This is the same approach we are taking , with our swarming robots .

You fully understand the potential of hyperTunnel , if you understand that for hyperTunnel the length of the tunnel is not the key determinant of the time taken to construct it . With in-situ tunnel building , you have a tunnel with a series of pipes and in those pipes are swarms of robots building the tunnel shell and constructing it underground . The tunnel is being constructed everywhere , at the same time , in multiple different places – and the construction of the tunnel is not limited by the length , simply by the number of bots you send down the pipes . As a result of this , costs and time decrease dramatically , there ’ s less impact on the environment and the whole process is much safer , as there ’ s nobody underground ; underground swarm construction in action .

What are some of the key challenges your customers are experiencing ?

hyperTunnel ’ s direct customers are the contractors that are building the tunnels for the end clients , so large contracting firms that are contracted by governments and the mining industry , for example . For all of them , cost is always a key challenge but speed is also an important factor because it affects cost Safety has become a better managed factor in the construction industry of late , although hyperTunnel is still safer because nobody is put at risk .

Then environmental impact – which has come to the forefront in recent times – is what drove us to integrate renewable energy concepts and solutions and it ' s what continues to drive us . Environmental impact , and how it can be minimised , is everything . If you compare the scale of the infrastructure required to build a tunnel today , it is enormous by comparison to what hyperTunnel requires . A bot is a mere two to three metres long , it ' s a tiny piece of infrastructure . That is just one example of how the hyperTunnel method will fundamentally unlock opportunities for more sustainable construction .

Can you share any examples of completed / ongoing projects and the benefits realised ?

We ' ve got to a stage where Network Rail has given us a contract to prove the application of our technologies to deliver new solutions to their challenges , and we have we are about 90 % of the way through the deliverables of that . They are extremely pleased with the progress that has been made on our test site .

Our next phase is the testing of the technology in multiple geologies in multiple locations with current and future clients . We have currently been provided with a list of 59 potential test sites around the world , however , we can ' t do all of them as we just don ' t have the resources and it wouldn ' t be a sensible focus . We are in the process now of talking to these major multinationals and we are whittling down the opportunities to a sensible number that they – and we – can best tackle .

We are also establishing a site within the UK as a commercial exercise , which will be our first on-site rather than a test environment – like we undertook for Network Rail . I think the best news is we don ' t have the problem of trying to find people that wish to use our technology or sites that wish to test it , we have to whittle it down and keep it manageable .

How important is technology to your own business for ensuring the ability to scale and how do you plan to grow the business further ?

The two are interrelated because our technology is scalable which means our business is scalable . It ' s also relatively easy because the constituent components of our technology are physically small . So , to package and spread the technology and enable others in different parts of the world to utilise it means the scalability of the organisation is relatively simple . Our inherent technology combined with our route to market is very important to our ability to scale . �

OUR INHERENT TECHNOLOGY COMBINED WITH OUR ROUTE TO MARKET IS VERY IMPORTANT TO OUR ABILITY TO SCALE .