An affordable, robust mining inspection robot

Abstract

Mining accidents claim hundreds and perhaps thousands of lives throughout the world every year. Despite rapid progress in the development of robotic systems, a robot has never been successful in saving a human life in a disaster situation. Factors that have contributed to the failure of deployed robotic systems include reliance on a tether, reliance on expert operators, significant cost and failure due to moisture ingress. We have designed a low cost, robust mine inspection robot with a novel system of mobile communication and sensing nodes. Locomotion is designed to be non-complex and resistant to snagging. Equipped with a range of sensors, this system is easy to use and at can be deployed at an order of magnitude lower cost than current systems.