Mine Mapping Engineering Project

1. Mine MappingEngineering Project See Teacher Guide for printing instructions

2. Name four or five jobs that robots are better suited to do than people.Identify some things that these tasks have in common. Opening Activity

3. Assembly line Space exploration Nuclear waste cleanup Lawn mowing Paint stripping Opening Activity Name four or five jobs that robots are better suited to do than people.

4. Dirty Dull Dangerous Delicate Opening Activity What do these examples have in common?The Four D’s of Robotics:

5. Mine Mapping • What is mine mapping? • Going into old underground mines and creating maps of the tunnels • Why would anyone want to map an abandoned mine? • See next page Mine Map Room-and-pillar tunnel structureappears gridlike in lower left

6. Mine Mapping Quecreek Mine Incident • Coal miners drilled into a flooded mine shaft from a different mine • The tunnel they drilled into was not documented by the original owner 100 years ago • Miners were barely rescued alive Quecreek Mine Entrance Nine men were trapped 240 feet below groundfor 77 hours by rising toxic floodwaters.

7. Mine Mapping Why use a robot? • Abandoned mines are not safe! • Four D’s of Robotics • Dirty • Dull • Dangerous • Delicate • Is this a good place to use a robot? Flooded Mine Iron residue mixes with water to create thick,acidic, orange mud. Many other hazards alsohamper mine mapping operations.

8. Project Goal Milestones Process Mine Mapping:Project Overview

9. Project Goal • Design a robot that can gather data from an enclosed area • Develop a procedure for interpreting the robot’s data to produce a usable map of the area • Demonstrate and document your findings Final Demonstration The robot inside the box takes measurements while the operator interprets them to produce a map

10. Milestones • Choose a design • Submit a proposal • Build a prototype • Test and revise the prototype • Demonstrate your robot

11. Research Phase Choose a design Engineering Process • Research the details of the problem in context • Research different aspects of possible solutions • Generate ideas for solution designs • Evaluate and choose a design as a team (Internal Design Review)

12. Engineering Process • Plan Phase • Submit a proposal • Solidify a shared vision of the solution • Identify the necessary tasks to complete development • Schedule time for each task • Assign responsibility for each task • Organize your plan into a coherent proposal • Submit proposal for approval (Project proposal)

13. Prototype Phase Build a prototype Engineering Process • Build and program the solution you proposed earlier • Modify the design (only) when necessary • Implement all the major functionality of the design • Invite experts and supervisors to review the prototype (External design review)

14. Test Phase Test and revise the prototype Demonstrate your robot Engineering Process • Modify your design as requested by the reviewers • Implement remaining functionality • Test robot • Revise design based on problems found during testing • Repeat Test-Revise cycle • Demonstrate working robot at agreed-upon time (Final demonstration)

15. Commercialize Further improvements Engineering Process • Examine the additional needs of the robot to be viable in the commercial marketplace • Identify areas for improvement in design of robot • Repeat development cycle to further improve the design

16. Summary • Unmapped mines pose a great danger to miners, even if they don’t work in those mines • Mapping abandoned mines is highly impractical for human surveyors • A robot surveyor could be the solution • Your robot proof-of-concept model must map a model mine shaft (box) • You will use Engineering Process to guide your development • Research • Plan • Prototype • Test