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Content archived on 2024-06-16

A remotely controlled autonomous walking and climbing robot for faster and safer landslide monitoring, slope stability analysis and consolidation.

Objective

Landslides are one of the major types of natural hazards killing or injuring a large number of individuals and creating very high costs every year. They are caused mainly by penetration of groundwater into slippery layers or by instability of soil. Geological survey, soil drainage and deep drilling are common practices to prevent them but today all these operations are always unsafe, highly expensive, time consuming and labour intense: specialized operators climb with ropes on the unstable slope to perform the drilling without any proper protection or, in order to reach the working area, large scaffolds are fixed to the wall, but this solution is dangerous and not cost-effective. Use of vehicles carrying articulated arms with the drilling unit is applicable only in few cases when wide approaching areas are available. The industrial objective is to provide a cost-effective system to remotely and automatically perform deep drilling and slope stability analysis thus reducing operating costs and working time, while avoiding the human presence in unsafe and harsh environment. The project builds on feasibility studies previously performed demonstrating that a climbing robotic structure carrying an automatic drilling unit is a viable solution to perform deep drilling on rocky slopes. The project scientific objectives are the development of:
-a robust climbing mechanical structure able to put itself on working condition without the needs of cranes and be completely controlled remotely;
-a drilling unit capable of automatically drilling holes more than 20 meters deep and on any slope conditions;
-a navigation sensorial system able to provide the operator with real-time information on slope morphology and obstacles;
-an innovative mechanism for rope tensioning able to move the system on vertical slopes;
-a geophysical knowledge based system integrating real-time drilling values and properties of ground samples, providing information on slope stability.

Call for proposal

FP6-2003-SME-1
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Funding Scheme

Data not available

Coordinator

I.CO.P S.P.A.
EU contribution
No data
Address
Via Silvio Pellico 2
BASILIANO (UDINE)
Italy

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Total cost
No data

Participants (8)