Investigation Robots for Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine, UNESCO's World Heritage

There are some 600 mine shafts, called “mabus, ” in Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine. Most of mabus have not been well investigated because some dangers such as cave-in and lack of oxygen have prevented one from entering them. In this research, we have focused on the two mabus whose names are the first mabu and the 82nd mabu respectively. Each of them has distinct characteristics. The first mabus is one of the oldest mabus, which is said to have been mined in the late 16th century. The 82nd mabu is located in Kamaya mabu area, which was discovered and mined in Edo era, the heyday of the Silver Mine. We have developed a six-wheel robot for the first mabu and a crawler type robot for the 82nd mabu. Each robot mounts a video camera to get interior image of the mabus. In addition, the crawler robot equips with a laser range sensor to get interior shape data of the mabu. As the results of the actual investigation, we have successfully unveiled the interior structure of these two mabus. We have also found that the result of our investigation coincides with some old records in terms of mining age and method.