| The most common mining drone, the Spider Drone, is manufactured by Ishukone. The brainchild of Chief Foreman Jaartu Mediuri in the early days following the first Caldari-Gallente war, the first mining drones were little more than immense strip-mining factories which were deposited on the surface of an asteroid to chew through the surface and process useful minerals until their belly holds were full, then sending an alert to the foreman for uplift and unloading. It wasn't until advances simplified the operation of the mining laser that Mediuri proposed automating a laser and attaching directional thrusters. The project was shelved indefinitely after the initial models failed repeatedly, but after Ishukone headhunted the prodigy roboticist Vayan Hemitaru from Sukuuvestaa, the programme restarted with renewed energy and interest. Eventually a self-powered, mobile mining laser was produced. Some contention was held over its need for basic guidance from an operator, but Ishukone argued that full autonomy was unnecessary, particularly since use of capsule-controlled ships had become common and a capsuleer controller could, through experience and training, more than accommodate for the lack.
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