MAV Development Towards Navigation in Unknown and Dark Mining Tunnels

TL;DR

This paper introduces a low-cost, modular, and fully autonomous MAV platform designed for inspection in harsh, unknown mining tunnel environments, emphasizing ease of replacement and onboard data access.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel, cost-effective, and modular MAV design capable of autonomous navigation in challenging mining conditions without prior environment information.

Findings

Comparable navigation reliability to high-end platforms

Cost reduction through modular, consumable design

Enhanced customization with onboard data access

Abstract

The Mining industry considers the deployment of MAV for autonomous inspection of tunnels and shafts to increase safety and productivity. However, mines are challenging and harsh environments that have a direct effect on the degradation of high-end and expensive utilized components over time. Inspired by this effect, this article presents a low cost and modular platform for designing a fully autonomous navigating MAV without requiring any prior information from the surrounding environment. The design of the proposed aerial vehicle can be considered as a consumable platform that can be instantly replaced in case of damage or defect, thus comes into agreement with the vision of mining companies for utilizing stable aerial robots with reasonable cost. In the proposed design, the operator has access to all on-board data, thus increasing the overall customization of the design and the execution of the mine inspection mission. The MAV platform has a software core based on ROS operating on an Aaeon UP-Board, while it is equipped with a sensor suite to accomplish the autonomous navigation equally reliable when compared to high-end and expensive platforms.