Inverness Park has been selected by Peck Tech Solutions Ltd. (a Caterpillar company) to deploy its dROS (Desktop Remote Operating Station) software at Chinalco's Toromocho Mine in Peru.

This deployment marks the second major mine site for dROS, following its successful implementation at Quebec Iron Ore's Bloom Lake in 2024, after initial field trials in the Fall of 2023.

The Power of dROS and Remote Operation

The dROS software allows an operator to interact with all onboard systems on Caterpillar’s MD6640 large blasthole drill (formerly the Bucyrus Erie 49R). dROS connects to Peck Tech’s onboard Drill Control Interface (DCI), an autonomous drilling platform that acts as a machine-specific layer between Caterpillar’s Autonomous Drilling System (ADS) and non-OEM drill platforms.

This dROS-DCI interaction allows an operator to remotely operate the drill in difficult terrain in the event that the ADS cannot complete its autonomous missions. Key operational highlights include:

"Ideally, the operator should only ever need to set up ADS missions and then just sit back and monitor progress. But difficult terrain will often stop ADS and require direct intervention by the operator."

— Stephan Marcotte, Founder of Inverness Park

From UI Mockups to Field Success

In 2020, Inverness Park was hired by Peck Tech to design and develop the dROS office-side software, starting from nothing more than initial user interface mockups. True to its reputation for rapid development and field deployment excellence, Inverness Park produced the functional prototype in just three to four months.

Despite project delays during COVID-19 and market fluctuations at Bloom Lake, the project received the go-ahead in summer 2023. By November 2023, the team successfully operated a drill remotely inside the 300m–1000m blast safety zone for the first time in the mine's history.

The Next Phase: Remote-from-Distance

The Toromocho deployment effort is scheduled to start in late June and reach completion in August. Starting in September, the next phase will consist of deploying dROS in Lima, roughly 200km away from the mine site.

"dROS was designed for remote operation in modern networks."

— Stephan Marcotte

Setting the New Standard

Moving the Remote Operating Station 200 kilometers away to Lima is more than a successful contract — it is a powerful validation of next-generation remote operation. It proves that the future of heavy industrial drilling can be safer, more efficient, and independent of geographical constraints.