S. Thrun, S. Thayer, W. Whittaker, C. Baker, W. Burgard, D. Ferguson,
D. Haehnel, M. Montemerlo, A. Morris, Z. Omohundro, C. Reverte, and W.
Whittaker
Autonomous Exploration and Mapping of Abandoned Mines
IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine, 11(4), 2005
Abstract
Abandoned
mines pose significant threats to society, yet a large fraction of them
lack accurate maps. This article discusses the software architecture of
an autonomous robotic system designed to explore and map abandoned
mines. We have built a robot capable of autonomously exploring
abandoned mines. A new set of software tools is presented, enabling
robots to acquire maps of unprecedented size and accuracy. On May 30,
2003, our robot "Groundhog" successfully explored and mapped a main
corridor of the abandoned Mathies mine near Courtney, PA. The article
also discusses some of the challenges that arise in the subterraneans
environments, and some the difficulties of building truly autonomous
robots.
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Bibtex
@ARTICLE{Thrun05MineMapping,
AUTHOR = {S. Thrun and S. Thayer and W. Whittaker and C. Baker and W. Burgard and D. Ferguson and D. H\"{a}hnel and M. Montemerlo and A. Morris and Z. Omohundro and C. Reverte and W. Whittaker},
TITLE = {Autonomous Exploration and Mapping of Abandoned Mines},
JOURNAL = {IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine},
VOLUME = 11,
NUMBER = 4,
YEAR = 2005
}