A Method of Drilling a Ground Using a Robotic Arm

International audienceUnderground tunnel face bolting and pipe umbrella reinforcement are one of the most challenging tasks inconstruction whether industrial or not, and infrastructures such as roads or pipelines. It is one of the first sectors of economicactivity in the world. Through a variety of soil and rock, a cyclic Conventional Tunneling Method (CTM) remains the best onefor projects with highly variable ground conditions or shapes. CTM is the only alternative for the renovation of existing tunnelsand creating emergency exit. During the drilling process, a wide variety of non-desired vibrations may arise, and a methodusing a robot arm is proposed. The main kinds of drilling through vibration here is the bit-bouncing phenomenon (resonantaxial vibration). Hence, assisting the task by a robot arm may play an important role on drilling performances and security. Wepropose to control the axial-vibration phenomenon along the drillstring at a practical resonant frequency, and embed aResonant Sonic Drilling Head (RSDH) as a robot end effector for drilling. Many questionable industry drilling criteria andstability are discussed in this paper