HyperTunnel to Build 20-Meter-Long Pedestrian Underpass Using Swarm Robotics

Robotics has achieved exceptional popularity in different industries due to its capacity to offer convenience and safety, particularly in hazardous occupations. Recently, HyperTunnel technology in South Wales employed a swarm robotics system to build a 20-meter-long pedestrian underpass that will reportedly result in faster construction.

(Photo : Unsplash/Mikhail Shishatskiy)

Pedestrian Underpass Construction with Swarm Robotics

Under a test track owned by The Global Centre of Rail Excellence, hyperTunnel will construct a pedestrian-sized tunnel of 20 meters in length, which will be built to ensure that the track above remains open during the building procedure.

Utilizing artificial intelligence, digital surveying, and swarm robotics, the underpass will demonstrate hyperTunnel's swarm construction technique. As mentioned, this groundbreaking approach is designed to 3D print a building beneath the ground before excavation occurs. With advantages such as a diminished carbon footprint, lower risks, disruptions, and pollution, an underground construction project is expected to be faster and more cost-effective than traditional cut-and-cover methods.

Additionally, providing an economically viable solution to dangerous pedestrian crossings is the goal of this project, which also intends to improve safety, increase train capacity, and reduce inconvenience for those who use both roads and rail. It will reportedly be installed as a test project at the Dulais Valley location in South Wales, where the GCRE project is now being constructed. Accordingly, following the completion of a significant number of hundreds of hours spent in the laboratory in Basingstoke on the development of the company's robot fleet, the technology is now ready to be validated on an accurate site, under fast test conditions, and which may be visited by interested individuals.

Moreover, GCRE is an internationally renowned establishment that is presently in the process of being built in South Wales. Its primary functions include rail research, testing, and certification of rolling stock, infrastructure, and state-of-the-art new technologies. Thus, the co-founder of HyperTunnel, Steve Jordan, expressed his joy that the GCRE recognizes the same potential in the hyperTunnel method as their many partners in the construction business.

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Efficiency of Using Swarm Robotics in Making Tunnels

Huge machines that resemble tubes and are equipped with a scary assortment of cutting wheels at one end have been relied on by engineers for decades to construct underground tunnels. These wheels are blades that consume soil like it's nothing. As stated, tunnel-boring machines, or TBMs, are enormous machines typically explicitly manufactured for each project.

However, hyperTunnel, a startup of British origin, has other ideas. Using pipes that have been predrilled, the company envisions a future in which much smaller robots that are approximately three meters in length and shaped like half-cylinders will move around underneath. These pipes, which would have a diameter of about 250 millimeters or 10 inches, would move under the contours of the walls of the proposed tunnel.

When inside, the robots would use a robotic arm equipped with a milling head to get into the dirt around them and slice out small gaps. These cavities would then be filled with cement or another sturdy material. Furthermore, the framework of a new tunnel would be assembled in this manner, piece by piece, as the process continued.

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