Autonomous Tunnel Burrowing Robot

Jul 2, 2026·
Ömer Kurkutlu
Ömer Kurkutlu
· 2 min read
projects

Overview

The Autonomous Tunnel Burrowing Robot is an intelligent robotic excavation platform designed to autonomously construct underground tunnels based on user-defined dimensions. The system combines a mobile robot, a gantry-mounted robotic arm, environmental perception, and autonomous planning to perform excavation tasks in challenging environments.

This project was developed during my research at the University of Notre Dame under the supervision of Dr. Yasemin Ozkan Aydin.

Motivation

Underground construction is often dangerous, labor-intensive, and difficult to automate. This project explores how autonomous robotics can improve safety, precision, and efficiency in tunnel excavation by integrating perception, manipulation, and autonomous decision-making.

Key Features

  • Autonomous tunnel excavation
  • Mobile robotic platform
  • Gantry-mounted robotic manipulator
  • User-defined tunnel generation
  • ROS and Gazebo simulation
  • Sim-to-real deployment
  • Soil interaction analysis
  • Autonomous task execution

Hardware

  • Custom mobile robot
  • Gantry robotic arm
  • Intel RealSense Depth Camera
  • Torque sensor
  • Custom excavation end-effectors

Software

  • ROS
  • Gazebo
  • Python
  • C++
  • OpenCV
  • Point Cloud Processing
  • Robot Manipulation

Research Contributions

This project investigates:

  • Autonomous excavation planning
  • Robot manipulation for construction tasks
  • Perception using depth cameras
  • Soil interaction analysis
  • Sim-to-real robotic deployment
  • Autonomous navigation during excavation

Experimental Evaluation

The system was evaluated using multiple excavation scenarios with different soil conditions and interchangeable digging tools. Both simulation and real-world experiments demonstrated reliable autonomous excavation and tunnel generation.

Future Work

Future research directions include:

  • Learning-based excavation strategies
  • Vision-language robot control
  • Multi-robot cooperative excavation
  • Foundation models for autonomous construction robotics

Project Status

Status: ✅ Completed Research Project

Robotics Mobile Robotics Robot Manipulation Excavation ROS Gazebo Sim2Real
Ömer Kurkutlu
Authors
Ömer Kurkutlu
PhD Candidate in Electrical and Computer Engineering
I am a PhD Candidate in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois Chicago. My research focuses on autonomous robotics, vision-based navigation, reinforcement learning, TinyML, embedded AI, and resource-constrained robotic systems.