Franco Prins joined the programme’s 2026 student cohort with an undergraduate mechanical-engineering project on road-condition monitoring.
Research direction
Underground road condition affects ride severity, vehicle loading, travel speed, tyre interaction and the repeatability of production cycles. A monitoring method could turn measurements already available on a moving machine into a map of where the operating environment is deteriorating.
The topic connects naturally to RAMMS work on visual odometry, vehicle dynamics and terrain-aware traction. Localisation can associate a measured response with a place; vehicle models can help separate road input from machine behaviour; and repeated traversals can show whether a section is changing over time.
Current stage
As an undergraduate study started in 2026, the project is at an exploratory stage. Its immediate purpose is to define a feasible sensing and analysis approach while contributing a focused component to the programme’s longer-term vision of data-informed mechanised mining systems.