Behind the Solutions: Laura Anico at PMAP

Laura Anico, PMAP’s Mechatronics Technician, shares the story of how a personal hobby evolved into a career building autonomous systems for safer, smarter mining operations. With a background in mathematics and robotics, Laura spends her days solving problems that don’t yet have a blueprint—designing navigation, avoidance, and safety systems that allow PMAP’s autonomous vessels to operate with minimal human input. She also gives an inside look at the rover she built to replicate boat behavior indoors, enabling rapid testing of GPS, obstacle detection, and adaptive navigation without exposure to contaminated water. Her work brings autonomy from theory into real-world impact.

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