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  The Pursuit of an Autonomous Tunnel Boring Machine

  The inexorable rise of autonomy in modern machines has disrupted many industries from transport to manufacturing, leading to a new revolution called Industry 4.0. Riding on this wave of technology, this paper presents the development of a technical innovation in the tunnelling industry called the Autonomous Tunnel Boring Machine (A-TBM). Sensor fusion is coupled with autonomous control algorithms (ACAs) to steer and operate the A-TBMs with minimal human intervention. The ACAs were implemented in four progressive phases starting with auto-steering, auto-advance, auto-excavation control and auto-slurry circuit control. Control strategies were derived from first principles and their performance is presented in this paper. The system was successfully deployed on KVMRT Line 2. The 13.5km underground alignment of KVMRT2 SSP presents various challenges and risks due to the varied geological formations including Karstic Limestone, Kenny Hill and granite. The A-TBMs have completed 5+ km of tunnels, traversing through these mixed ground conditions including critical crossings under 14-lane motorways and other sensitive structures. The A-TBMs demonstrated the ability to seamlessly adapt to the changing ground conditions and improved the consistency, safety and accuracy of the tunnel drives.

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