Subterranean Mine Inspection Using the Prometheus Re-configurable Drone

This paper describes the design, development, and real-world testing of an autonomous drone for subterranean exploration, known as “Prometheus.” Driven by requirements from industry that the drone be able to be deployed through areas of restricted access, Prometheus was designed to be directly deployed through a 150 mm aperture. This diameter was chosen because of its propensity in industry, such as access into caves and other confined environments. It can subsequently unfold and automatically undock itself from its deployment system, before achieving full flight capabilities. This paper presents results obtained during a deployment at Holman's test mine in Cornwall, UK. The mine is an old granite quarry that has over 2 km of tunnels and is a representative environment in which the Prometheus drone was shown to be an ideal system with which to explore and map unknown voids with restricted borehole access.