Swarms of Mini Robots Could Dig the Tunnels of the Future

There is a lot of work available. The railway tunnel in the Longmen Mountains was finished after a decade of work. The High Speed 2 rail project in the UK will connect London to towns and cities in the north of the country and features more than 100 kilometers of tunnels. Peter Vesterbacka is a former employee of Angry Birds developer Rovio. There are a few examples.

Increasing demand for underground infrastructure in the future is predicted to be a result of climate change. She thinks that having a place where we have more constant temperatures might be a good thing.

There are tunnels for other things. The founder and CEO of EarthGrid emphasizes the need to put power lines underground. He notes that the majority of transmission cables are above ground in the United States and Canada.

He presented a map showing a grid stretching from the eastern seaboard to the Pacific Ocean and future offshore wind farms in the west. It is a plan that could link up the fragmented US grid and possibly even extend as far as Europe to tap the huge offshore wind potential there. We know that it is crazy and audacious.

Traditional excavation in some of these places is difficult or impossible due to the extremely tough rock. Helming is betting on a technology that uses a torch to blast rock to smithereens, which will solve the problem. This could allow for the creation of tunnels in hard rock 100 times faster than is currently possible. Helming says that the prototype robot should be ready for testing in March of next year. The firm wants to finish its first project by the end of the year.

The horseshoe-shaped tunnels will not be circular in shape but rather a traditional horseshoe. It's easier to install cable racks in larger transportation tunnels if the road is on the flat base of the tunnel.

Petra uses the power of heat to bore through tough rock with a thermal cutting device that uses a superheated fluid. Kim said the idea was to slice through the geologies with relative ease.

She said that the firm hopes to begin commercial work next year. She mentions that the company is working on a solution to tackle the other end of the spectrum, which is extremely soft or water-logged soil.