Space Engineers - Automated Mobile Drilling Rig/Refinery Concept

This mobile mining/drilling platform concept is my solution to harvesting the deep planetary/moon ores that exist in the game without tethering too many pistons.
Using a projector and welders to weld loops of "drill bit extenders" that use merge blocks and connectors, i'm able to extend the drill bit down into the deep voxels where the rare ores reside. Then, once the drill bit has penetrated to that depth, the side pistons activate and gather ore in a radius of 7 large blocks (over 35m diameter) underground circles.
This is still a concept and needs to be refined further. Future functionality for this machine is grinding the drill bit back into the rover for portability and reusability in different spots without wasting components used on the drill bit extenders.

[@tekablade6755]

I know this video is old, but I keep coming back to look at it. I am a beginner at SE and have to say that what you made is a masterpiece. I wish I could do something like that, but I know I don't know anything about doing so.

[@armastat]

If you want us to see the smooth and fine movements of the drill head (and we would) it works better if u pick a POV and then STOP TWITCHING. if you are trying to give us 60 seconds of cool appreciation of your work, please dont spend 55 seconds of that trying to find the most perfect angle to do that from.

[@jsmith42690]

Very impressive design. I'll have to eventually upload mine, the concept is very similar.
Mine isn't mobile, persay, but it can come back to the surface on it's own, and it can be carried elsewhere by a drop ship. It leaves behind it's merge ladder, though, whereas yours is made as an extension to the drilling vehicle.
Very ambitious, I'll definitely want to see how the retraction works when you finish developing it.

[@sfields9246]

This. Is. Amazing. Great job

[@nzscruffy7171]

This is very similar drill setup, but very different extension system to what i was thinking. must be fiarly expensive on power to grind and well all those blocks. Also, add a second drill above the extension ones to drill more/faster sideways

[@Nadrojian1551]

if you set the timer and programmable blocks up further it could be the ideal silo driller

[@beltranwhite]

You must be a mind reader because I was thinking the same thing the other day! It carves out a pretty nice looking hole.

[@Omlet221]

You can refine the stone into ores. I would refine the stone and eject the gravel.

[@beltranwhite]

Yea, they added the survival kits now that refine stone now, right? Wow I need to refamiliarize myself with the game.

[@Omlet221]

hiddenmosquito yeah but you can also use a basic refinery that might be quicker

[@beltranwhite]

Cool! So now when you refine stone in refineries, it gives you trace iron/nickel/silicon ingots like the survival kit does?

[@hpmc7426]

Sorry i just stumbled upon this vid, do you mean this whole truck was custom built from those tiny cube blocks and programmed by you to do this task? I kept thinking this was a whole vehicle bought ingame that was made like this, until it didn't feel quite right.

[@beltranwhite]

Yes, Space Engineers is a Sandbox video game on PC (similar to Minecraft) where you can design your vehicles block by block and program your vehicles to behave or communicate based on time/sensors/internal information/etc. You can design your own vehicles (like in this vid) or subscribe to others' creations on the Steam Workshop to use and/or gain creative inspiration from.

[@hpmc7426]

@@beltranwhite I have no idea why I haven't seen this game before. And the C# coding part, holy shit. I played Factorio, No Man Sky (mostly base building) and recently Satisfactory. I graduated from software stream ages ago, although I already work in another sector of IT, this shit is like the best hobby.

[@eoffsock]

That's nice. How do you retract drilling head back?

[@beltranwhite]

I was experimenting with the retraction in creative. This grid has an advanced rotor with the welders/grinders on it. I reverse the rotor and set that rotor to 160 degree limit (which positions the grinders a little to the right of the drill bit) and slowly grind right to left while the landing gear has a hold of the bottom of the drill bit. Then once ground down, the piston/landing gear brings the drill bit back up and merges it back on to the side merge block. I plan to get that sequence on some timer blocks and post a video in the future, but I think it's gonna work just as great as the drilling part.What i'm excited about the most was this video was captured in vanilla 1x1x1 (1x welding speed & inventory). The real test is multiplayer.

[@randyelliott2494]

i guess it's pretty off topic but do anyone know of a good site to stream new tv shows online ?

[@juanasa636]

@Randy Elliott Flixportal :P

[@randyelliott2494]

@Juan Asa Thanks, I signed up and it seems to work :D I appreciate it!

[@juanasa636]

@Randy Elliott No problem xD

[@migm16]

i want work shop too so i can look at how u have the auto building part set up im trying to make a rig ti dig into the planet.

[@SternenruferinPatchouli1]

Workshop pls! its cool!!

[@twistedsmoke8800]

do u happen to have this on Workshop?

[@Linrox]

Tutorial build please.

[@twistedsmoke8800]

any updates on this rigg?

[@FritzHugo3]

How can you play with this loud sound smile. But realy nice build that you have here. Great job.
But buy an Mikrofon for 10$ or so.
my finger go up.