Recent developments in subterranean robotics

Robotic systems exhibit remarkable capability for exploring and mapping subterranean voids. Information about subterranean spaces has immense value for civil, security, and commercial applications where problems, such as encroachment, collapse, flooding and subsidence can occur. Contemporary method for underground mapping, such as human surveys and geophysical techniques, can provide estimates of void location, but cannot achieve the coverage, quality, or economy of robotic approaches. This article presents the challenges, mechanisms, sensing, and software of subterranean robots. Results obtained from operations in active, abandoned, and submerged subterranean spaces will also be shown. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.