Automated guidance and control of longwall mining machines

Journal Article · Thu Nov 01 04:00:00 EST 1979 · J. Energy; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2514/3.62442· OSTI ID:6628271

Palowitch, E R ^[1]; Broussard, Jr, P H

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1. Dept. of Energy, Pittsburgh, PA

The longwall system of mining coal offers the potential for increasing unit production, worker productivity, and resource recovery with enhanced health and safety for the underground coal miner. At present, two operators must accompany longwall cutting-loading machines and manually raise and lower the cutting drums to maintain the desired cutting profiles. By automating this system, the hands-on operators could be replaced by a machine overseer and both the quality and the quantity of coal produced could be increased significantly. This paper describes the progress of a pioneering effort to develop pitch, roll, and yaw control subsystems to fully automate the longwall mining of coal. Results to date are encouraging and indicate that an automated system can reduce errors in cutting coal under manual control by two-thirds and can significantly increase coal production, particularly in thin coalbeds.

• OSTI ID: 6628271
• Journal Information: J. Energy; (United States), Journal Name: J. Energy; (United States) Vol. 3:6; ISSN JENED
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
012000* -- Coal
Lignite
& Peat-- Mining
AUTOMATION
COAL MINING
CONTROL
EQUIPMENT
LONGWALL MINING
MINING
MINING EQUIPMENT
UNDERGROUND MINING