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European engineers are developing a special robot that uses additive technologies to lay underground communications.
The project, codenamed "BADGER", is carried out by a consortium of seven companies and research institutions from all over Europe and is coordinated by the University of Madrid Carlos III. The challenge for engineers is to design a robot capable of breaking through underground tunnels while printing channels for laying communications - gas, water or cables. With the help of such an apparatus, you do not have to dig up the whole garden or half of the city, while the robot will be able to detect and carefully bypass the already laid communications.
The word "badger" itself means "badger", and at the same time serves as an acronym - "roBot for Autonomous unDerGround trenchless opERations, mapping and navigation" or "robot for autonomous operations without excavation, geodetic reconnaissance and navigation." Despite the name, the principle of operation and the structure of the robot are inspired by earthworms, and not at all by animals with striped muzzles. The work began in February this year after the project received a grant from the European innovation program Horizon 2020. The amount allocated for the three-year period is 3.7 million euros.
In the current version, the project provides for a design of four modules - auger, percussion and ultrasonic drills in the head part, a fixing module, an energy module and a tail segment that acts as a 3D printer. What exactly the robot will print is not yet entirely clear: "the last module is equipped with a print head and a cylindrical manipulator for printing with resins or other materials."
Underground navigation will be carried out by adjusting the cables connecting the robot to the station equipped with subsurface sensing radar.
