Current Courses

Past Courses

16-899 Subterranean Robotics Spring 2005

Mine Fire Rescue.
Unchecked mine fires have been burning for decades in the cast network of tunnels carved over centuries of coal extraction. The Centralia mine fire, burning since 1962, is the most infamous example of the insidious nature and raw power of these fires. Their destructive force have wrecked communities and made mine fires a serious mine-related problem.

This course will address the issues, technologies and complexities of robotic mine fire response. We will undertake the problem of autonomous search and rescue operations in smoke-filled and thermally challenging environments. Sensors, algorithms and mechanisms will be developed and refined through lectures, course work and a regular program of tests conducted in local research mines. The semester will conclude with deployment of mobile robots in a search and rescue mission in a local "hot" test facility.

Course Ad

16-899 Subterranean Robotics Spring 2004

Flooded subterranean voids such as old mines, sewers, and caves preclude safe human access and motivate the use of robots for exploration, operation, and rescue. The issues, technologies, and systems that pertain to wet underground spaces are unique to a class of mobile machines within the emerging discipline of Subterranean Robotics. Current state-of-the-art is insufficient for the functionality and reliability required for submersible subterranean robots.

The Spring 2004 offering of Subterranean Robotics (16-899C) will address the issues, technologies, and complexities of robot locomotion, localization, and mapping within flooded subterranean voids. Students will design and prototype an autonomous mine mapping robot and deploy and operate the machine within a flooded mine subject to course timeframes.

16-865 Mobile Robot Development Spring 2003

Course website

Subterranean Robotics will convey the issues, technologies and complexities of Subterranean Robotics through lectures, exercises and field experiments in a learning-through-doing environment. The course will convey the distinctions of subterranean robotics including topics of specialized sensors, mobility, mapping, maze logic, and self reliance.

Poster

16-865 Mobile Robot Development Fall 2002

Course website

Subterranean Robotics will convey the issues, technologies and complexities of Subterranean Robotics through lectures, exercises and field experiments in a learning-through-doing environment. The course will convey the distinctions of subterranean robotics including topics of specialized sensors, mobility, mapping, maze logic, and self reliance.