Ultra-Wideband Radar for Robust Inspection Drone in Underground Coal Mines

Coal mines pose a high safety risk for human workers. An autonomous inspection drone would enable a coal mine operation to reduce this risk by minimizing the time spent by workers inside the mine. This inspection drone must be highly robust to the harsh and dangerous environment of an underground coal mine, with high levels of coal dust and humidity that can obstruct many conventional sensing methods. For high functionality, the drone must sense and avoid potential obstacles and as well as inspect and map the mining wall face. The objective of this paper is to present ultra-wideband (UWB) radar as a robust sensing solution to this challenging environment and validate its performance experimentally in the typical coal mine environment, both statically and dynamically.