Autonomous Driving Robot That Drives and Returns along a Planned Route in Underground Mines by Recognizing Road Signs

In this study, an autonomous driving robot that drives and returns along a planned route in an underground mine tunnel was developed using a machine-vision-based road sign recognition algorithm. The robot was designed to recognize road signs at the intersection of a tunnel using a geometric matching algorithm of machine vision, and the autonomous driving mode was switched according to the shape of the road sign to drive the robot according to the planned route. The autonomous driving mode recognized the shape of the tunnel using the distance data from the LiDAR sensor; it was designed to drive while maintaining a fixed distance from the centerline or one wall of the tunnel. A machine-vision-based road sign recognition system and an autonomous driving robot for underground mines were used in a field experiment. The results reveal that all road signs were accurately recognized, and the average matching score was 979.14 out of 1000, confirming stable driving along the planned route.