{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,4]],"date-time":"2026-05-04T11:34:01Z","timestamp":1777894441355,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":30,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,11,18]],"date-time":"2020-11-18T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1605657600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund","award":["104824"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["104824"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Robotics"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The inspection of legacy mine workings is a difficult, time consuming, costly task, as traditional methods require multiple boreholes to be drilled to allow sensors to be placed in the voids. Discrete sampling of the void from static locations also means that full coverage of the area cannot be achieved and occluded areas and side tunnels may not be fully mapped. The aim of the Prometheus project is to develop an autonomous robotic solution that is able to inspect the mine workings from a single borehole. This paper presents the challenges of operating autonomous aerial vehicles in such an environment, as well as physically entering the void with an autonomous robot. The paper address how some of these challenges can be overcome with bespoke design and intelligent controllers. It details the design of a reconfigurable UAV that is able to be deployed through a 150 mm borehole and unfold to a tip-to-tip diameter of 780 mm, allowing it to carry a payload suitable for a full autonomous mission.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/robotics9040095","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,11,18]],"date-time":"2020-11-18T07:41:00Z","timestamp":1605685260000},"page":"95","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":10,"title":["The Design of Prometheus: A Reconfigurable UAV for Subterranean Mine Inspection"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"9","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9209-6270","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Liam","family":"Brown","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5485-2992","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Robert","family":"Clarke","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Aerospace Engineering, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TL, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5290-9799","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ali","family":"Akbari","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Science, Royal Holloway University of London, London TW20 0EX, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Ujjar","family":"Bhandari","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Headlight AI Limited, London EC2A 1AF, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1021-6900","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sara","family":"Bernardini","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Science, Royal Holloway University of London, London TW20 0EX, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Puneet","family":"Chhabra","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Headlight AI Limited, London EC2A 1AF, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Ognjen","family":"Marjanovic","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7767-452X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Thomas","family":"Richardson","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Aerospace Engineering, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TL, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9783-0147","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Simon","family":"Watson","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,11,18]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"Rail, N. (2020, October 06). Challenge Statement\u2014Mining Ground Investigations. Technical Report. Available online: https:\/\/www.networkrail.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Mining-Mining-Ground-Investigations.pdf."},{"key":"ref_2","unstructured":"GeoSLAM (2020, May 19). ZEB Revo RT. Available online: https:\/\/geoslam.com\/solutions\/zeb-revo-rt\/."},{"key":"ref_3","unstructured":"Australian Droid + Robot (2020, October 06). Explora S Package\u2013\u2013Australian Droid + Robot. Available online: https:\/\/www.australiandroid.com.au\/collections\/underground-inspection-mapping\/products\/explora-s-package."},{"key":"ref_4","first-page":"1998","article-title":"6D SLAM with an application in autonomous mine mapping","volume":"2","author":"Nuchter","year":"2004","journal-title":"Int. Conf. Robot. Autom."},{"key":"ref_5","first-page":"2117","article-title":"Towards topological exploration of abandoned mines","volume":"2005","author":"Morris","year":"2005","journal-title":"Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. Robot. Autom."},{"key":"ref_6","unstructured":"OnyxStar (2020, October 06). LIDAR Scanning-Aerial Laser Scanning by Drone. Available online: https:\/\/www.onyxstar.net\/lidar-scanning-aerial-laser-scanning-by-drone\/."},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Silva, M.F., Lu\u00eds Lima, J., Reis, L.P., Sanfeliu, A., and Tardioli, D. (2020). Development of a Semi-autonomous Aerial Vehicle for Sewerage Inspection. Robot 2019: Fourth Iberian Robotics Conference, Springer International Publishing.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-030-35990-4_55"},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Nikolic, J., Burri, M., Rehder, J., Leutenegger, S., Huerzeler, C., and Siegwart, R. (2013). A UAV system for inspection of industrial facilities. IEEE Aeros.Conf. Proc.","DOI":"10.1109\/AERO.2013.6496959"},{"key":"ref_9","unstructured":"Flyability (2020, November 13). Elios 2-Indoor drone for confined space inspections. Available online: https:\/\/www.flyability.com\/elios-2."},{"key":"ref_10","unstructured":"Flyability (2020, November 13). Elios-Inspect & Explore Indoor and Confined Spaces. Available online: https:\/\/www.flyability.com\/elios\/."},{"key":"ref_11","unstructured":"Andrew Macdonald (2020, November 13). Droneball The Collision Tolerant Drone | Indiegogo. Available online: https:\/\/www.indiegogo.com\/projects\/droneball-the-collision-tolerant-drone#\/."},{"key":"ref_12","unstructured":"Australian Droid + Robot (2020, November 13). Inspecta Mine Inspection Drone Package\u2013Australian Droid + Robot. Available online: https:\/\/australiandroid.com\/products\/inspecta-mine-inspection-drone-package."},{"key":"ref_13","unstructured":"(2020, May 19). INKONOVA. Available online: https:\/\/www.inkonova.se\/."},{"key":"ref_14","unstructured":"Hovering Solutions (2020, May 19). Flying Underground: The Use of Smart Flying Robots in Underground Mining. Available online: http:\/\/www.hoveringsolutions.com\/es\/casos-de-estudio\/underground-mining-flying-robots."},{"key":"ref_15","unstructured":"(2020, May 18). Exyn. Available online: https:\/\/www.exyn.com\/mining\/."},{"key":"ref_16","unstructured":"Go Pro (2020, May 08). Karma with HERO6 Black. Available online: https:\/\/shop.gopro.com\/EMEA\/accessories-2\/karma-with-hero6-black\/QKWXX-601-EU.html."},{"key":"ref_17","unstructured":"DJI (2020, May 08). Mavic 2-the Flagship Consumer Drone from DJI. Available online: https:\/\/store.dji.com\/product\/mavic-2."},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"209","DOI":"10.1109\/LRA.2018.2885575","article-title":"The Foldable Drone: A Morphing Quadrotor That Can Squeeze and Fly","volume":"4","author":"Falanga","year":"2018","journal-title":"IEEE Robot. Autom. Lett."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"541","DOI":"10.1089\/soro.2017.0120","article-title":"Agile Robotic Fliers: A Morphing-Based Approach","volume":"5","author":"Riviere","year":"2018","journal-title":"Soft Robot."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Desbiez, A., Expert, F., Boyron, M., Diperi, J., Viollet, S., Ruffier, F., Desbiez, A., Expert, F., Boyron, M., and Diperi, J. (2017, January 3\u20135). X-Morf: A crash-separable quadrotor that morfs its X-geometry in flight. Proceedings of the 2017 Workshop on Research, Education and Development of Unmanned Aerial Systems (RED-UAS), Linkoping, Sweden.","DOI":"10.1109\/RED-UAS.2017.8101670"},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Bucki, N., and Mueller, M.W. (2019, January 20\u201324). Design and Control of a Passively Morphing Quadcopter. Proceedings of the 2019 International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Montreal, QC, Canada.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICRA.2019.8794373"},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Zhao, N., Luo, Y., Deng, H., and Shen, Y. (2017). The deformable quad-rotor: Design, kinematics and dynamics characterization, and flight performance validation. IEEE Int. Conf. Intell. Robot. Syst., 2391\u20132396.","DOI":"10.1109\/IROS.2017.8206052"},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Zhao, M., Kawasaki, K., Chen, X., Noda, S., Okada, K., and Inaba, M. (2017). Whole-body aerial manipulation by transformable multirotor with two-dimensional multilinks. Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. Robot. Autom., 5175\u20135182.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICRA.2017.7989606"},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1176","DOI":"10.1109\/LRA.2018.2793344","article-title":"Design, Modeling, and Control of an Aerial Robot DRAGON: A Dual-Rotor-Embedded Multilink Robot with the Ability of Multi-Degree-of-Freedom Aerial Transformation","volume":"3","author":"Zhao","year":"2018","journal-title":"IEEE Robot. Autom. Lett."},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"6845","DOI":"10.1109\/LRA.2020.3010460","article-title":"TiltDrone: A Fully-Actuated Tilting Quadrotor Platform","volume":"5","author":"Zheng","year":"2020","journal-title":"IEEE Robot. Autom. Lett."},{"key":"ref_26","unstructured":"Power Vision (2020, November 13). PowerEgg-PowerVision|European. Available online: https:\/\/www.powervision.me\/eu\/product\/poweregg."},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Lozano-P\u00e9rez, T. (1990). Spatial Planning: A Configuration Space Approach. Autonomous Robot Vehicles, Springer.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-1-4613-8997-2_20"},{"key":"ref_28","unstructured":"Quigley, M., Gerkey, B., Conley, K., Faust, J., Foote, T., Leibs, J., Berger, E., Wheeler, R., and Ng, A. (2009). ROS: An Open-Source Robot Operating System, Willow Garage. Technical Report."},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Akbari, A., Chhabra, P., Bhandari, U., and Bernardini, S. (2020, January 25\u201329). Intelligent Exploration and Autonomous Navigation in Confined Spaces. Proceedings of the 2020 IEEE\/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Las Vegas, NV, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/IROS45743.2020.9341525"},{"key":"ref_30","unstructured":"VICON (2020, May 18). Motion Capture Systems. Available online: https:\/\/www.vicon.com\/about-us\/."}],"container-title":["Robotics"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2218-6581\/9\/4\/95\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T10:33:39Z","timestamp":1760178819000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2218-6581\/9\/4\/95"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2020,11,18]]},"references-count":30,"journal-issue":{"issue":"4","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,12]]}},"alternative-id":["robotics9040095"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/robotics9040095","relation":{},"ISSN":["2218-6581"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2218-6581","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2020,11,18]]}}}