A Search-and-Rescue Robot System for Remotely Sensing the Underground Coal Mine Environment

Jingchao Zhao; Junyao Gao; Fangzhou Zhao; Yi Liu

doi:10.3390/s17102426

A Search-and-Rescue Robot System for Remotely Sensing the Underground Coal Mine Environment

Sensors (Basel). 2017 Oct 23;17(10):2426. doi: 10.3390/s17102426.

Authors

Jingchao Zhao^{1

2}, Junyao Gao^{3

4}, Fangzhou Zhao^{5

6}, Yi Liu^{7

8}

Affiliations

¹ Intelligent Robotics Institute, School of Mechatronical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, 5 Nandajie, Zhongguancun, Haidian, Beijing 100081, China. jch_zhao@bit.edu.cn.
² Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Intelligent Robots and Systems, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China. jch_zhao@bit.edu.cn.
³ Intelligent Robotics Institute, School of Mechatronical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, 5 Nandajie, Zhongguancun, Haidian, Beijing 100081, China. gaojunyao@bit.edu.cn.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Biomimetic Robots and Systems, Ministry of Education, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China. gaojunyao@bit.edu.cn.
⁵ Intelligent Robotics Institute, School of Mechatronical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, 5 Nandajie, Zhongguancun, Haidian, Beijing 100081, China. fzzhao@bit.edu.cn.
⁶ Key Laboratory of Biomimetic Robots and Systems, Ministry of Education, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China. fzzhao@bit.edu.cn.
⁷ Intelligent Robotics Institute, School of Mechatronical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, 5 Nandajie, Zhongguancun, Haidian, Beijing 100081, China. YiLiu@bit.edu.cn.
⁸ Key Laboratory of Intelligent Control and Decision of Complex System, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China. YiLiu@bit.edu.cn.

Abstract

This paper introduces a search-and-rescue robot system used for remote sensing of the underground coal mine environment, which is composed of an operating control unit and two mobile robots with explosion-proof and waterproof function. This robot system is designed to observe and collect information of the coal mine environment through remote control. Thus, this system can be regarded as a multifunction sensor, which realizes remote sensing. When the robot system detects danger, it will send out signals to warn rescuers to keep away. The robot consists of two gas sensors, two cameras, a two-way audio, a 1 km-long fiber-optic cable for communication and a mechanical explosion-proof manipulator. Especially, the manipulator is a novel explosion-proof manipulator for cleaning obstacles, which has 3-degree-of-freedom, but is driven by two motors. Furthermore, the two robots can communicate in series for 2 km with the operating control unit. The development of the robot system may provide a reference for developing future search-and-rescue systems.

Keywords: coal mine; explosion-proof; manipulator; remote sensing; robot; search-and-rescue.