Due to uncertainties during on site archaeological explorations and to improve traditional exploration technologies for ancient tomb sites in China,an intelligent robotic system based on automatics was designed and developed.The system is designed to record the internal environment of the ancient underground tombs.The recorded data are used to aid in preservation of antiques inside the ancient tombs as well as for providing the valuable references to the archaeological research.The entire system is modular and of minimal size,and can be adapted for two different archaeological situations during the exploration of the ancient tombs.The robotic system can enter covered ancient tombs through holes dug for regular archaeological exploration.In one case the vertical digging hole is less than 12 cm in diameter,and the other is 50 cm in diameter.Archaeologists can operate and control the robotic system by wired communication.Finally,field test results are presented for validation of this archaeological robotic system design.