Tunneling robots have many applications, as they would be used to total underneath something to fix the problem, rescue a survivor, aid in a hostage situation or attacked an enemy such as an international terrorist, insurgents or enemy combatants hiding in a house or other locations.

A tunneling device or bot might be asked to go through earthquake debris and therefore it might be hard to keep a signal to wirelessly control the robot or in a battlefield situation of urban warfare it might be difficult to keep this signal as the robot tunnels under roadways and concrete structures.

A tunneling robot, which was under full control like an ROV or a remote control UAV or a telematic Mars Rover would have to use a very strong signal. Recently this subject came up in an online think tank when another think tank member stated;