High-Precision Positioning Method of Coal Shearer in the Underground Environment Based on Rail Kinematics Model

Xiaowei Xu,Jizhou Lai,Junqing Lu,Huafeng Hu,Shiyu Bai,Pin Lv

doi:10.1109/access.2021.3125501

Abstract

The high-precision positioning of the shearer is the key technology to realize the automation of longwall mining. Since mine is a Global Position System (GPS)-denied environment, highly autonomous Inertial Navigation System (INS)/odometer integrated navigation has been widely used. At present, the shearer positioning method based on INS/odometer has been challenging to meet the requirements of long-time and high-precision mining. Aiming at the high-precision navigation in the complex mining environment, this paper constructs a comprehensive rail kinematics model of the shearer that does not rely on external sensors. By analyzing the kinematic characteristics of the shearer and the scraper conveyor during the longwall mining process, a method of information fusion and navigation system fault diagnosis based on the assistance of the shearer rail kinematics model was proposed. According to the working principle of the shearer rails and hydraulic supports, the characteristics of the trajectory deviation caused by the sensor fault of the hydraulic support are analyzed. Combined with the engineering requirements of shearer mining, the model fault identification was carried out by the fading probability ratio detection algorithm. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm effectively improves the positioning of shearer accuracy in multiple cutting cycles. At the same time, it avoids the influence of the rail deviation caused by the rail kinematics model fault on the positioning of the shearer.

Highlights

Coal is the main fossil energy and plays an extremely important role in the world energy structure
As early as the 1980s, Sammacro et al [3] developed a navigation system based on gyroscopes, magnetic heading sensors and inclinometers to measure the attitude of underground mine equipment for autonomous mining operations
Reid et al [4] utilized the motion characteristics of the sharer, the accumulated errors of the Inertial navigation system (INS) are corrected by zero velocity update (ZUPT)

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Coal is the main fossil energy and plays an extremely important role in the world energy structure. To meet the positioning requirements of GPS-denied environment, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) in Australia has proposed a closed path based reverse correction method [13] On this basis, Wang Shibo et al [14] established the rail kinematics model to assist positioning according to the motion characteristics of the shearer on the scraper conveyor and improved the navigation accuracy of the shearer through Kalman filtering theory without relying on external sensors. PCE,k and PCN,k are respectively the east and north position of shearer given by the rail kinematics model; dC,k−1 is the advancing distance of shearer hydraulic support relative to the vertical direction of the working face; wCE,k and wCN,k is the position noise of chute. The filtering process of the sub-filter can be referred to [20]

Fault diagnosis of rail kinematics model based on federated filter

Fading probability ratio fault detection model based on federated filter

Simulation verification

Experimental validation