National SCADA Conference session – “Communications challenges in underground SCADA networks”

Nathan Williams is a design engineer at Caterpillar Underground Mining in Burnie, Tasmania. He has 6 years’ experience with the design, product support and implementation of various underground mining automation operations within Australia and in the Americas.

Nathan has recently attained a team leader role within Caterpillars “Command for Underground” autonomous Load Haul Dump (LHD) product line specialising in WiFi communications and safety infrastructure. His experience has included involvement in concept design, to field trial through to production release of underground mining standard parts and systems including safety SCADA implementation to allow autonomous machines to work in this environment.

Prior to university studies from 2000 to 2006, Nathan served in the Australian Army as an Avionics Technician where he maintained the Army’s fleet of Kiowa 206B-1 reconnaissance helicopters. Nathan specialised in the maintenance of the electrical, instrumentation and communications systems onboard.

Nathan has a Bachelor of Electrical Power Engineering with Honours and is a member and committee chair of the North-West Tasmanian Engineers Australia branch.