GE created a worm-like robot for underground drilling as part of a Pentagon program
Robots that dig underground are attracting significant attention from developers thanks to DARPA, the Pentagon's research funding agency. The latest example is GE's worm robot, which is part of the Underminer DARPA program.
DARPA has selected three contractors to develop technologies and solutions for the Underminer program that will surpass existing commercial drilling capabilities. Underminer aims to demonstrate the ability to quickly build tactical tunnel networks that provide secure logistics infrastructure for pre-positioning supplies or resupplying troops as they move across terrain.
Teams from the General Electric Research Center and the Colorado School of Mines will focus on developing an integrated solution for Underminer technologies and operational needs. A third group, Sandia National Laboratories, will research and integrate technologies to address current limitations in processes and systems.
All researchers will focus on tunnel passages, borehole sensing and operational concepts. Underminer seeks to combine advances in horizontal drilling, trenchless drilling technologies and robotics to create a set of systems that provide continuous access to underground sites.
“The Underminer program aims to develop and demonstrate the tactical use of rapidly created underground infrastructure in contested environments. The ability to quickly access tactical tunnels can help in emergencies, such as rapid ammunition resupply, rescue operations or other urgent needs”
DARPA is also working on participation in the SubT (Subterranean) Challenge, which "seeks new approaches to rapidly map, navigate and search underground environments during time-critical combat operations or disaster response scenarios". The final events of the virtual and systems competitions will take place in late September 2021.
GE's earthworm-inspired robot was born from biology. Researchers drew inspiration from the wriggling earthworm, so the robot is made soft, which places it in the class of robots without rigid external bodies. The worm robot is powered by fluidic muscles. It has already successfully passed tests during a demonstration period lasting a year and a half.
“This project has truly opened new horizons in the development of autonomous and soft robots. By creating a smaller footprint that allows it to handle extreme turning radii, and to operate autonomously and reliably in harsh, extreme conditions, we are opening up an entirely new world of potential applications that go far beyond commercially available technologies”
A prototype robotic earthworm, which has already dug a 10 cm diameter tunnel, autonomously dug underground at GE's research campus in New York State, reaching a distance comparable to available trenchless excavation machines.
According to Trivedi, the ability of GE's robot to operate reliably in harsh, extreme conditions is the main priority in the design of soft robots. A military-funded earth-digging worm sounds intimidating. But DARPA emphasized the need to develop drilling technologies ahead of SubT.
As underground facilities become increasingly important for global security, innovative and advanced technologies can have both destructive and positive impacts on underground military and civilian operations.
To explore these possibilities, DARPA issued a request for information to expand its understanding of modern technologies that could enable future systems to rapidly map unknown complex underground environments and move through them to locate objects of interest, such as survivors trapped inside, without putting them at risk. The worm robot could potentially also be used for inspection and repair.
“In the future, we want to provide capabilities for deeper on-site inspection and repair that will allow more checks and maintenance of core power generation equipment, such as gas and steam turbines, without taking them out of operation for long periods. The advances we have achieved in this project support key developments needed to make this possible”
The robotics team at GE Research has extensive experience across many technical disciplines, from advanced controls to motion, from materials science to machine learning.
"We envision a world in which service robots work alongside us and for us, shoulder to shoulder across great distances, performing dull, dirty and dangerous work. Intelligent industrial service robots are the next great industrial tool. A tool that will extend our capabilities and allow us to work safely and faster in places people could never reach, with cognitive and physical abilities we had not even imagined," GE said.
