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Published: October 23, 2026 |
As the U.S. looks to strengthen its domestic critical mineral supply chain, Virginia Tech researchers will help develop and test next-generation mining technologies as part of a $73 million initiative funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. Mine of the Future is a national effort designed to accelerate the development, testing, and deployment of advanced technologies for the U.S. mining industry.
The work, led by Innovative Wireless Technologies (IWT), a Lynchburg-based technology company, will establish a national proving-ground framework for testing wireless, tele-remote, and other advanced mining technologies in real-world underground and surface mining environments. The IWT-led project, which has a $25 million allocation, including an expected $4.6 million for Virginia Tech, is part of the Department of Energy’s initiative.
Researchers in the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Department of Mining and Minerals Engineering will work together to move emerging technologies from the laboratory into the challenging environments where they will ultimately be used. Electrical and computer engineering experts will focus on wireless networks that connect a mine, while mining and minerals engineering experts will lead development of a surface mining proving ground at the Virginia Tech Quarry.
DEVELOPING RELIABLE WIRELESS DEEP UNDERGROUND
For Nishith Tripathi, principal investigator and associate professor in electrical and computer engineering, one of the project’s central challenges is making wireless communication work reliably underground.
“Unlike wireless networks on the surface, where radio signals can travel relatively predictably between smartphones and cellular towers, mines can extend hundreds of meters underground and present very different conditions for wireless signals,” Tripathi said.
Tripathi and his team will design and optimize wireless communication systems based on 5G and 5G-advanced technologies, emphasizing reliability, low latency, and efficient use of power. They also will measure how wireless signals behave in mining environments and use those findings to improve network performance.
Key team members include:
• Jeff Reed, professor in electrical and computer engineering and renowned leader in wireless technology
• Harpreet Dhillon, W. Martin Johnson Professor of Engineering and associate dean for research and innovation
in the College of Engineering
Reliable, low-latency communication is essential for the next generation of mining automation.
“When we provide a very reliable and low-latency system, we can support a lot of automation in mines. Autonomous vehicles and robots need to communicate with their controllers, and those commands need to reach the autonomous vehicles and robots very quickly and be received correctly,” Tripathi said.
ESTABLISHING A MINING PROVING GROUND
The mining side of the project, led by Rohit Pandey, assistant professor of mining and minerals engineering at Virginia Tech, will use the Virginia Tech Quarry and the Center for Autonomous Mining Systems (CAMS) as the proving grounds for tele-remote and autonomous equipment, wireless testing, and training. The team will equip mining machinery with sensors and telematics; develop systems to help machines recognize people, equipment, and terrain hazards; and create digital twins that can help identify maintenance needs before equipment fails.
Key researchers from mining include:
• Emily Sarver, professor of mining and minerals and expert in respirable mine dust characterization and
monitoring
• Aaron Noble, professor and department head of mining and minerals engineering and interim department head
of materials science engineering
The project also will advance real-time monitoring of slurry pipelines used to move clay-rich rare earth ores, while supporting workforce development through hands-on training, certification programs, and collaborative research.
“A technology that works in the lab is not the same as one that works on a mine site with dust, vibration, uneven ground, and people working nearby. The CAMS and the Virginia Tech Quarry lets us close that gap on real equipment, and putting wireless engineers and mining engineers on the same team means the network gets designed around what the machines and the workers actually need,” Pandey said.
“This project brings together two areas where Virginia Tech has truly world-class capabilities: wireless communications and mining engineering. By combining those strengths, we can help innovate the mine of the future while fulfilling our land-grant mission to turn discovery into practical solutions that serve industry, communities, and the nation,” Aaron Noble, professor and department head of mining and minerals engineering said.
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