Mining-RoX

In the project “Mining-RoX” we explore a further frontier for autonomous robots: underground mines. Reasons for robots going underground are plenty. Heat and humidity make underground mines a strenuous work environment for humans, especially as future mines will become increasingly deeper and, thus, hotter. In such environments, robots can help to reduce mining costs, as expensive ventilation is unnecessary when no humans are present. Another concern is safety. In disaster cases, rescue robots could help finding missing personell. Unmanned mines operated by robots would not endanger human lives at all.
Starting in fall 2014, a first focus of the project are information gathering robots. The goal is the creation of mobile robot technology to facilitate the autonomous exploration of underground mines while providing detailed 3D scans and monitoring environmental conditions, such as air and water quality. Therefore the project team assembled the research robots "Alexander" and "Julius".