Research on Path Planning Method of Coal Mine Robot to Avoid Obstacle in Gas Distribution Area

As the explosion-proof safety level of a coal mine robot has not yet reached the level of intrinsic safety “ia” and it cannot work in a dangerous gas distribution area, therefore, path planning methods for coal mine robot to avoid the dangerous area of gas are necessary. In this paper, to avoid a secondary explosion when the coal mine robot passes through gas hazard zones, a path planning method is proposed with consideration of gas concentration distributions. First, with consideration of gas distribution area and obstacles, MAKLINK method is adopted to describe the working environment network diagram of the coal mine robot. Second, the initial working paths for the coal mine robot are obtained based on Dijkstra algorithm, and then the global optimal working path for the coal mine robot is obtained based on ant colony algorithm. Lastly, experiments are conducted in a roadway after an accident, and results by different path planning methods are compared, which verified the effectiveness of the proposed path planning method.