Standard GPS positioning falls short in mining operations that rely on autonomous robots. Oinride harnesses Europe’s Galileo satellite system to deliver centimetre-level accuracy in harsh industrial environments.
Positioning data is now used across many industries to operate equipment and vehicles. Yet conventional GPS accuracy – typically five to ten meters – is not precise enough for certain applications. Mining is one of them.
Signals degrade underground and positioning errors quickly translate into risk. High-precision alternatives exist, but they usually depend on fixed Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) base stations that are expensive to deploy and maintain.
This is the constraint that led Oinride to develop NavCore: a high-precision navigation solution with centimetre-level accuracy. Supported by the European Space Agency’s Business Incubation Centre (ESA BIC), the Finnish company uses data from Europe’s Galileo satellite system to process positioning signals in real time.
“Galileo has the data, but it’s not easy to take that data and get the actual coordinates. This is the work we’ve done through the ESA BIC project. NavCore delivers centimetre-level positioning without relying on local RTK base stations,” explains Ahmed Abdelazim, Founder and CEO of Oinride.
Abdelazim has more than 20 years of experience in industrial automation, including several years developing systems for Swedish mining-equipment giant Sandvik. “I saw autonomous vehicles becoming the norm, but inspection work was still being done manually. I wanted to build something that would close that safety gap,” he says.
From robotics to precision navigation
When Abdelazim founded the company in 2022, the initial focus was on developing an all-terrain inspection robot called AutoJoe®. Designed to operate in hazardous underground mining environments, the fully electric vehicle can perform tasks ranging from post-blast inspection and gas detection to 3D tunnel mapping.
Oinride equipped AutoJoe® with LiDAR, thermal imaging, gas sensors and advanced vision systems. As these technologies were integrated, the limits of GPS became clear. For inspection data to be usable, each measurement has to be tied to centimetre-level geographic coordinates.
“With standard GPS, your position could be anywhere within a five-to-ten-meter circle. That’s not precise enough when every measurement has to be geo-referenced,” Abdelazim explains.
Oinride had already been accepted into ESA BIC to work with Galileo technology for AutoJoe®. As the company’s geo-positioning capability matured, the team began to see applications beyond the robot itself.
“ESA forced us to be precise – both technically and commercially. We realized we had built something that could stand on its own. So we productized it and NavCore was born,” says Abdelazim.
Expanding across industries
NavCore remains closely linked to Oinride’s core mission: making hazardous work safer through automation. Mining is still the primary market, but the company is also looking at applications in civil engineering, surveying, industrial automation and several other sectors.
The system was validated in a pilot project with Spectral Industries, which integrates laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) for real-time rock analysis. Mounted on AutoJoe®, the LIBS sensor required every laser sample to be tied to a precise geographic coordinate as the robot moved.
“This would not have been possible with standard GPS accuracy,” explains Abdelazim. “NavCore works anywhere with satellite visibility and does not require RTK base stations. This makes it especially relevant in locations where infrastructure is sparse.”
“Mining was the starting point. But once we saw how well NavCore performed, it was clear the solution could be applied in many other sectors too,” he adds.
Oinride is currently seeking additional pilot customers and commercial partners, with Australia, South Africa and parts of Europe identified as key regions. What began as a mining solution now has the potential to revolutionize how autonomous vehicles navigate in the world’s harshest industrial environments.
- More about Oinride: oinride.com/en
- More about ESA BIC Finalnd: esabic.fi
About ESA BIC Finland ESA BIC Finland, coordinated by the Aalto University Startup Center, is a business incubator that propels space-related entrepreneurial ventures through strategic support, networking, and funding.
