Swifty non-contact robotic driller easily burns through the toughest rocks
San Francisco, CA-based startup Petra has developed Swifty, a non-contact, thermal drilling robot that can literally burn through tough rock formations that are beyond the reach of conventional boring equipment.
The Swifty robot is capable of blasting through tunnels from 50 cm to 1.5 m in diameter. To test its unique capabilities, the robot drilled a 600 cm long, 60 cm diameter tunnel into one of the toughest rocks in the world, Sioux quartzite. Previously, it would have required the services of demolition crews.
The robot is equipped with a remote control system combined with machine vision. When the work is finished, Swifty gets out of the tunnel by itself.
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