"Digging tunnels like a mole".. KAIST develops Molbot

[Asia Economy Reporter Junho Hwang] Domestic researchers have developed a robot that mimics the biological structure and digging habits of a mole. This robot is equipped with equipment divided into drilling machines, pipelines, and pumps, and is expected to be efficiently utilized for underground, extreme environment, and space planet exploration.

The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) announced on the 4th that a research team led by Professor Myunghyun from the Department of Electrical Engineering (Future City Robotics Laboratory) developed the 'Mol-bot'.

This robot was created by mimicking the biology of a mole. It is equipped with a drill modeled after the chisel-like teeth of the mole that scrapes soil. It also has a device that mimics the special shoulder structure of the humeral rotation mole, which uses large and powerful forelimbs to dig and remove debris. Additionally, it has a waist structure that allows 360-degree free directional changes underground, similar to a mole's waist. The size is 25cm in diameter, 84cm in length, and weighs 26kg.

The research team also installed a sensor system and algorithm that can measure the robot's position underground. It can recognize the robot's location by measuring changes in Earth's magnetic field data. Since the underground environment is composed of rocks and soil, it is difficult to use wireless communication signals. The interior is narrow and dark, making it hard to use vision sensors or laser sensors.

In particular, compared to existing world-class robots, Mol-bot showed more than three times faster drilling speed and more than six times improved directional angle estimation performance. The maximum drilling angle was 38 degrees per 100 feet, the average root mean square error of position recognition was 6.03cm, the drilling speed was 1.46m per hour, and the directional angle estimation error was measured at 0.4 degrees.

The research team explained, "We developed a robot that mimics the digging habits and biological structure of a mole for efficient drilling and exploration in shallow drilling areas. It can explore various regions without limitation through free movement within the ground, does not use mud containing various compounds during drilling, thus eliminating environmental pollution concerns, and by not using additional pipelines or auxiliary equipment, it can save resources and manpower."