Path planning for coal mine robot to avoid obstacle in gas distribution area

As the explosion-proof safety level of coal mine robot has not yet reached the level of intrinsic safety “ia,” therefore, path planning methods for coal mine robot to avoid the dangerous area of gas are necessary. To avoid a secondary explosion when the coal mine robot passes through gas hazard zones, a path planning method is proposed, considering the gas concentration distributions. The path planning method is composed of two steps in total: the global path planning and the local path adjustment. First, the global working path for coal mine robot is planed based on the Dijkstra algorithm and the ant colony algorithm. Second, with consideration of the dynamic environment, when hazardous gas areas distribute over the planed working path again, local path adjustments are carried out with the help of a proposed local path adjustment method. Lastly, experiments are conducted in a roadway after accident, which verify the effectiveness of the proposed path planning method.