Terrainability of Mobile Robots in Underground Mining

Abstract

Coal is conventional and cheapest source of energy and is being used as major energy resource in power plants, steel industries, cement industries and other industries in India as well as in other coal rich countries of the world. To meet energy requirement of the industries, production of coal is increasing day by day. For this reason the number of mine related accidents is also increasing. To increase production of coal with reduced risk, now-a-days mobile robots are being deployed to assist mining operations. Such robots are used for various purposes, such as, exploration of geo-mining atmosphere, mine mapping, deployment of explosives, drilling and transportation of coal. While developing a mobile robot for mine application, special attention has to be given to the terrainability aspects as mine condition poses a serious challenge to the design of such robot. Mobile robots cannot perform their works if they are not specially design to negotiate adverse condition of the mine floor. In this paper terrainability of mobile robots and their performance have been studied. This paper also describes one such mine robot developed by CSIR-CMERI for use in hostile condition of Indian coal mine environment.