Development of DigBot for monitoring the underground environment

Abstract

A digging robot named “DigBot” has been developed by our laboratory for monitoring the underground environment and exploring the lunar surface. The purpose of this research is to develop the robot which can dig soil and sand automatically. When we build the building or structure, ground research is indispensable to know that if the ground can hold the building. In addition, conceivable application of DigBot is investigation of geological condition and ground pollution after disaster. Standard penetration test and Swedish weight sounding test are known as the general way of ground research and are frequently used. But these methods have faults. For example, high costs or large scale. In this proceeding, first, concept of DigBot is shown. As a basic research of developing DigBot, Contra-rotating drill is developed and made for trial purpose. And then digging experiment is carried out for verifying effectiveness through the Contra-rotating drill. It was proved that DigBot possess incomparably more power than ever before. This research suggest the way of solving faults by using the robot which can dig underground and research underground information.