Jacksonville.com: Robot leads way into fiery eastern Kentucky coal mine 3/3/05

The robot maneuvered through the dark portals, which had been deprived of oxygen in an effort to smother the fire, aiming onboard lights and cameras in all directions, scanning for flames, monitoring for explosive methane gas, and looking for rocks cracked and loosened by the heat. The exercise marked the first time a robot was ever sent into a coal mine ahead of humans to make sure conditions were safe, said John Correll, assistant director of the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration. "The conditions could have been very, very hazardous," Correll said. "We didn't have to send humans in there, because we had the robot." Federal mine safety officials gathered at the Pikeville coal mine, operated by Alliance Resource Partners, on Thursday to tout the work of the robot and speculate about what the future of mining holds for such machines. Investigators still haven't determined the cause of the fire, which started on Dec. 25 and forced the mine to be closed for 33 days.