SuzhouJune 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Recently, China Coal Technology and Engineering Group (CCTEG) Changzhou Research Institute officially launched the world’s first L4-level underground unmanned vehicle—the T5 automatic transport device. This automatic transport device integrates four industry-first 192-line intrinsically safe LiDARs—the Innovusion Lingque W Intrinsically Safe Explosion-Proof Edition (GUJ60). Leveraging the dual core capabilities of L4-level autonomous driving and intrinsic safety explosion-proof design, it comprehensively reshapes the underground material delivery model, making underground transportation safer and more efficient.
Image source: CCTEG Changzhou Research Institute
Milestone Achievement:
T5 Fills Global Technology Gap
Leading Specialized Autonomous Driving
The T5 automatic transport device, designed under the leadership of CCTEG Changzhou Research Institute, is tailored specifically for coal mine underground scenarios. It is a milestone product in the “Underground Autonomous Driving” brand’s layout for mine intelligent transportation and a benchmark deployment of Innovusion’s LiDAR solutions in specialized high-risk scenarios. It not only effectively fills the global technology gap in unmanned underground mine transportation but also marks the beginning of China’s global leadership in specialized autonomous driving scenarios.
All core components of the T5 meet MA/Ex I explosion-proof standards, eliminating the risk of sparks at the source to ensure safe entry into mines. The front, rear, left, and right sides of the vehicle are each equipped with one Innovusion mining-grade intrinsically safe 192-line hybrid solid-state LiDAR, combined with ultrasonic radar, cameras, and other sensors, forming a 360° fully covered, multi-redundant safety perception network. This network can accurately capture obstacles, road condition changes, and anomalies in the complex underground environment, autonomously completing path planning, intelligent obstacle avoidance, precise docking, coordinated scheduling, and fault emergency response.
Relying on the underground autonomous driving operation and supervision platform, it efficiently supports multi-task, multi-location rapid material delivery, enabling real-time scheduling, status monitoring, and data traceability of transportation tasks. It truly achieves no manual driving and no safety escort following, with a fully unmanned operation process, effectively solving the industry pain points of low efficiency, high risk, and labor-intensive traditional underground transportation.
Robust Perception:
LiDAR Adapted to Extreme Underground Scenarios
Fortifying Safety Defenses
The intrinsically safe high-performance wide-angle LiDAR Lingque W Explosion-Proof Edition deployed in the T5 is a perception solution developed by Innovusion specifically for high-precision measurement needs in mines. It has obtained the Mining Intrinsically Safe “Explosion-Proof Certificate” and “Mining Product Safety Mark Certificate”.
- With a detection range of 70m@10%, it can accurately capture environmental information such as long-distance tunnel walls, materials, and obstacles in the complex and harsh mine environment, providing longer-range forward perception and prediction capabilities for underground driving, thereby increasing system safety margins;
- The Lingque W’s extremely small blind spot perception capability of ≤10cm, high angular resolution, and wide-angle and asymmetric FOV design in the vertical direction enable the vehicle to achieve precise avoidance of low-lying ground obstacles and surrounding materials in crowded and narrow tunnels, increasing system safety thresholds;
- Additionally, in deep well environments where GPS is unavailable, the Lingque W’s excellent perception performance helps the T5 achieve centimeter-level precise positioning, with reliability far exceeding human judgment.
Image source: CCTEG Changzhou Research Institute
Adapted to the harsh underground environment of strong vibrations, high temperatures, and high humidity, the Lingque W Intrinsically Safe Explosion-Proof Edition adopts a mature and reliable automotive-grade scanning method, combined with an integrated housing and core packaging design for superior heat dissipation, ensuring long-term stable operation. Furthermore, the single-circuit intrinsically safe power supply design makes sensor installation more flexible and user-friendly, quickly adapting to various scenarios such as underground autonomous driving, robot navigation, and surveying, reducing deployment costs and maintenance difficulty.
According to the “2024 Blue Book on Intelligent Mines and Autonomous Driving Industry,” by 2030, China’s smart coal mine market space will reach 1.4 trillion yuan, and the non-coal mine intelligent market size will exceed 900 billion yuan, totaling over 2.3 trillion yuan. The potential demand for underground intelligent unmanned transport devices in active and new coal mines nationwide exceeds 50,000 units.
To this end, Innovusion will continue to deepen collaborative efforts with industry partners such as CCTEG Changzhou Research Institute, optimize product adaptation solutions for special scenarios like underground and mining environments, and empower the upgrade of underground intelligent transportation with precise and stable perception technology, driving the global intelligent transformation of mines.