What traits does a wi-fi community want to attach transferring property? Reply: it will depend on the stakes. Occasional lapses in connectivity and slightly latency is perhaps okay should you’re catching up on e-mail whereas using a bus, however not should you’re remotely controlling a 100,000-pound bulldozer on a steep dam slope. That’s why Aterpa, a Brazilian engineering firm employed to decommission Brazil’s tailings dams, makes use of Cisco Extremely-Dependable Wi-fi Backhaul (URWB) to remotely management heavy gear like bulldozers and excavators.
Distant management of unmanned programs can’t tolerate community latency
Following dam collapses in 2015 and 2019, giant mining corporations dedicated to stopping future catastrophes by launching packages to decommission tailings dams (tailings are mud-like byproducts of ore mining) constructed utilizing the identical building strategies because the failed ones. It’s harmful work as a result of heavy equipment wants to maneuver throughout unstable floor, and missteps can result in accidents. “Dam decharacterization, or decommissioning, is a comparatively new subject,” explains Rodrigo Campos, contract supervisor at Aterpa. “You have to take away the tailings within the dam, however you possibly can’t enable folks to enter due to the protection points.”
To securely decommission dams within the Brazilian state of Minas Garais, Aterpa determined to make use of unmanned programs. The plan: operators working in a central command heart would view real-time digicam feeds and sensor knowledge from heavy gear like excavators to remotely management these programs over the community. The tough half was organising a wi-fi out of doors community with the mandatory reliability, low latency, and seamless handoffs. Current mesh options and even the newest Wi-Fi variations aren’t designed for these calls for as minimal jitter and latency can affect operations. If a video feed is delayed by even half a second, for instance, an operator won’t see an impediment in time to maneuver round it or brake, probably sending the gear toppling down the dam slope.
Extremely-reliable wi-fi for transferring gear
Aterpa discovered its reply in Cisco URWB, which supplies the ultra-low latency (, and uninterrupted connectivity wanted to remotely management transferring property in high-stakes environments. “In our operations heart we’ve recreated the expertise of a traditional car cab, full with a steering wheel and controls,” says Campos. Operators see what they’d see in the event that they have been sitting within the bodily cab on the slope, permitting them to soundly steer gear and take away tailings. “With Cisco URWB, when the distant operator points a command, the gear responds immediately,” Campos provides.
Between September 2022 and April 2025, Aterpa eliminated roughly 1.7 million cubic meters (2.22 million cubic ft) of waste with teleremote operations over Cisco URWB. The communities close to the dams are now not threatened. Operators are safer and the surroundings is cleaner. “After virtually three years of unmanned operation over Cisco URWB, we’ve seen that when the community is dependable, the operation is dependable,” says Campos. “Our working mannequin has develop into a benchmark for the trade.”
3 ways Cisco URWB stands aside
What set Cisco URWB aside from different wi-fi applied sciences for high-stakes operations like this one? First, URWB delivers near-zero (
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Examine Cisco Extremely-Dependable Wi-fi Backhaul.
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